With Spring Break just hours away, the College Station and University police departments offer these safety tips for the upcoming week.
Trust your instincts: If a situation or your surroundings give you a sense of unease, you’re probably correct.
Lt. Chuck Fleeger, with the College Station Police Department, said to trust yourself to keep you out of bad situations.
“If it looks shady, and smells shady, and feels shady, it’s probably shady,” Fleeger said. “Whether it’s someone trying to scam you, or lure you into a vulnerable position, or separate your group or trying to gain access to your money or room or something like that. If you do get into those situations try to remove yourself as quick as you can.”
Never go anywhere alone: Don’t ever let a friend go off with strangers by themselves.
Fleeger said staying in a group is the best way to help ensure security.
“Let’s say you’re in another state in an area that you’re not as familiar with as, say, your hometown,” Fleeger said. “It’s easier if you’re separated to fall prey because you don’t know the areas of town to stay away from, you don’t know the people near as good as you would in an area you are familiar with. And so it’s easier to succumb to accidents, to criminal activity — there is any number of things. The risks can be minimized by staying in a group.”
Drink responsibly: Make sure you have sober friends you can trust to take care of you and don’t drink and drive.
Fleeger said preventing alcohol related accidents is easy enough for anyone to do.
“Alcohol related accidents and fatalities are so preventable,” Fleeger said. “There are so many options now between carpool and cabs and just the whole designated driver concept — there is no reason anyone should have to get behind the wheel having had anything.”
Fleeger said you can still be safe while having fun.
“It can get so easy to get out of hand,” Fleeger said. “And again if you stick with your friends they can watch out for you and not let anyone ever indulge. The best part is to go out and have fun, but to do it responsibly and do it in moderation.”
Keep loved ones in the know: Make sure your parents, guardians, friends and relatives know where you will be vacationing, when you will depart and when you expect to return.
Fleeger said this is not about pestering you, it’s about knowing when something went wrong.
“If nobody knows what day over the nine days of spring break to expect you coming or going, nobody knows when something may be wrong,” Fleeger said. “And it’s not so that people will be checking up on you or checking over your shoulder, it’s just so that people can know when something might have been amiss.”
Lock up valuables: If the place you are staying doesn’t have a safe, stow valuables in the trunk of your car or a secured place in your room.
Fleeger said if you make your things difficult to steal, chances are someone will not steal them.
“A thief in itself is generally going to want to do things that are the easiest,” Fleeger said. “And if they have to do things that attract attention to themselves or it takes longer, or that they have to physically break into something, or take longer to get into a room or get into the locked container of a trunk they are going to avoid that and try to move on to the next one.”