Safety Tips for everyone 2/3

How to Handle Kidnapping for Ransom

 

• Give the kidnapper your land line number having caller ID and name to contact.
• Be calm, family must inform police on emergency immediately, for instructions on how to deal with the situation.
• Decide upon a negotiator within the family.
• Father and son should; preferably, not travel to work together. 
• Do not carry cheque book unless necessary. Write fake/ coded balance on counterfoil. Do not disclose the actual financial status.
• Discuss within family how to respond to emergencies i.e. kidnapping etc.
• How to escape a kidnapping situation with family still inside the vehicle:
• If someone has taken you hostage by sitting in the back seat with the gun, be calm. If they tell you to move to the next seat, just step out of the car and then refuse to accompany them. If you have your children in the car, tell them softly but firmly to step out. Tell the kidnapper to take your purse, car, cell phone, and whatever is inside and try to assure that you will not report this incident for an hour but refuse to accompany them.
• If they tell you to drive off while they are sitting in the back, go ahead and drive. View the road and keep your car amongst other vehicles. Try to come to the traffic signal with red light and bang the car in front. This will create a commotion. Show your jittery and get down pacifying the driver of the car you struck with. The kidnappers will get down and escape at the first opportunity.

Office Security

• Have a designated person for locking and unlocking your premises at the start and end of the business day. It is best not to operate on the basis of 'first employee in and last employee out lock up policy'. Avoid leaving entrance doors unlocked and unattended.
• Where electronic access control is in place, issue access cards on the basis of 'least access to perform a specific job'. 24/7 access should only be assigned to employees who really require it as part of the nature of their job. Properly manage missing, lost or stolen cards immediately. Request employees to produce their assigned cards at least on quarterly basis.
• Request employees to wear their access cards for marking strangers. To discourage 'piggybacking', ensure closed-circuit TV (CCTV) cameras are installed at entrances.
• To help prevent theft of proprietary information, a 'clean desk' policy should be instituted. To ensure compliance, inspections should be conducted every two to four weeks for first three months and at least quarterly thereafter. Use of self inspection check list can encourage employees to keep their desks clean, an secure sensitive data as well, when they leave their work area unattended.
• Laptops and PCs, especially those considered to be 'state-of-the-art' are prime targets for thieves. Preventing computer theft begins with mail room, reception, shipping/ receiving etc, should be secured with cable locks or preferably with plate locks. This will give an impression to thieves that all computers in the office are protected. Installing secure docking stations, on roller shelves that can be rolled into the lockable furniture when the employee is leaving.his/ her work area. If employees spend most of their time in the office, issuing them a desktop instead of highly portable easily concealed laptop can mitigate the risk of laptop theft. Outside the office, employees should be encouraged to carry laptops in a sports bag or briefcase, instead of manufacturers bag.
• Secure stairwells either by locking them or installing suitable electronic devices and card readers. where crossover floors can't be locked, consider renovating the floors so that they are located outside of the protected area.

Secure Property

• Preferably cash, household articles etc should be insured.
• Keep valuables in bank.
• Give special instructions to bank that if the signature is deliberately being extended, on a cheque, take the person in custody and call police.
• When having a new chequebook issued, count its leaves in serial order and exact quantity as stated. A missing cheque can be used for fraud by the bank/ own office staff.