With the growing rate of crime becoming more rampant across the nation, the Luverne Downtown Merchants Association has decided it is time to help educate the citizens of Crenshaw County on safety.

As it does the first Saturday of every month, the Downtown Merchants Association will hold morning events, which feature booths from different downtown vendors. At noon, the groups will meet at the Pepsi Pavilion to hear Investigator Mason Adcock from the Luverne Police Department speak on the importance of safety and awareness. The title of the event is, “Be Aware, Be Prepared, Be Strong, Be Safe.”

“Basically what we’re going to cover is being aware of your surroundings, whether it be at home or out on the road. We get out on this main street everyday, and people leave cars unlocked and purses on the front seat. We just want to remind people in the community that even though this is kind of Mayberry, it’s not anymore,” said Adcock.

Adcock has been a part of many safety classes during his career, and he believes that educating people is the key to helping them combat crime. In his speech, he plans to discuss the importance of keeping doors locked, items of value stored safely and out of sight and will briefly talk about alternative methods to safety. Adcock also encourages women to park under street lights at night whenever possible, and warns all citizens that no one is immune to a break-in.

Adcock plans to remind citizens about precautionary methods to take when traveling to larger cities, such as avoiding the back of crowded parking lots when possible and not parking beside suspicious looking vehicles.

“If there’s twice the population, there’s twice the bad guys,” said Adcock.

Adcock also encourages people to lock up storage sheds and to keep doors locked even when you walk across the street to visit a neighbor.

According to Adcock, many burglaries have happened around town in the recent months, and many of these took place in broad daylight. Many of the homes affected were unlocked and unoccupied at the time of the break-in. Adcock is a firm believer that a thief is not going to work hard to get into something like a storage shed if there is even one small lock on the outside.

While Adcock knows the topic of his speech may be startling to some in the community, he wants to make sure that the citizens of Crenshaw County are prepared.

“We don’t want to go around living scared, but we want to remember that there are bad people out there and they will do bad things,” said Adcock. “It’s all about being aware of what’s around you and knowing how to prepare for it.”