Safety Concerns

We talked a lot in the newsroom this morning about the issue of safety. Police Chief Bill Blair admits robberies are on the rise. Purse snatchings, Ipod grabs, camera abductions – they’re all up, way up, all over the city. Personal safety is a very real concern.

I’m the kind of person who takes a casual look around a concert hall and makes a little mental note of where the exits are, before I take my seat. I swear that if I was on board the Titanic, I would have been asking questions about whether there were enough lifeboats, before we ever left port. It’s just the way I am and it’s almost unconcious. I didn’t even realise I was doing it until I was once asked if I did. So I tend to take note of my surroundings when I’m on the street, day or night. My spidey senses about approaching danger are very tingly if something is amiss.

When 680 News was at Adelaide and Richmond, we used to have to circle around to find parking and walk to the station from there. No one took our safety very seriously, frankly, or they didn’t seem to. Sometimes I parked 3 or 4 blocks away and walked all that way at 3:15 am, alone. I never felt at ease. On one occasion when a female colleague and I happened to meet up and walk in together, a man appeared out of nowhere and grabbed her inappropriately. She shrugged it off but I was definitely rattled. I don’t want to be robbed, of course, but the idea of getting physically hurt is what concerns me most.

I am grateful every day that I have secure underground parking now with live guards and plenty of panic buttons. Safety isn’t something I regularly think about when I go to work because – although you never do know for sure – it’s not as much of an issue anymore. And when I see some guy hustling across Bloor at 3:30 am as he comes off night shift, or a cabbie picking up God knows who as his next fare, I count myself lucky.