Tips on how to outsmart criminals

LEARNING to psychologically read and negotiate with criminals in a robbery situation, or what to do when threatened with rape and hijacking, are among various safety strategies a former riot-squad policeman hopes to teach people with his new book.

Titled Your Security in South Africa, the 200-page book was researched and written by apartheid-era riot-squad policeman in KwaZulu-Natal Craig Roseveare.

It highlights tactical knowledge, enlightening even the most security savvy, and is a comprehensive practical home and farm safety guide, offering potentially life-saving tips on self-defence and the pros and cons of various tools and weapons from whistles and sirens to Glocks, grabber-style knives and steel batons, Roseveare said.

It helps farmers, homeowners and citizens to learn to understand the criminal mind, set up in their home and farm a security plan and protect themselves and their families from becoming helpless victims of serious and violent crime, he said.

Roseveare, who is now a Kwazulu-Natal forestry manager living in the heart of farmlands in Ixopo, said he wrote the book after a farm attack on a friend.

His friend had been ambushed on arriving home from a school run, with the perpetrators already inside his house and opening fire on him as he stepped out of his vehicle.

Surviving the attack – with five shots missing him and the last one striking him in the jaw – his friend arrested a suspect and handed him to the police, said Roseveare.

“The prolific farm attacks and murders around the province, in Bulwer, Underberg and the rest of the KZN Midlands and the country, are what prompted me to consider writing a book.

“This is after I realised that just giving people advice here and there wasn’t enough to make a real difference to help people to protect themselves adequately,” he added.

The book by the former cop is a comprehensive home and farm safety guide