No matter what the population you are dealing with, it is always good to 'keep (mostly) honest people honest" and create deterrents to theft. Do we have cameras in key places? Do we need more? It is obvious that there is surveillance? And the publicity about prosecuting theft might help.
Sadly, although we donât like to think this way, this was statistically probable. According to the FBIâs statistics of property crimes (ignoring arson and motor vehicle theft), there is one arrest made for a property crime for every 170 persons, with the vast majority of those being larceny-theft. With 1000 members, one such incident is way below the statistical expectation.
Despite our reluctance to post signs that we feel highlight our vulnerability, it is prudent to continue and possibly increase our surveillance levels.
We also need to ensure we permanently and visibly mark valuable equipment so it can be recovered if stolen and making it more difficult to âpawnâ for cash.
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In many ways what Chris says is true of those who commit white collar crime, too. Embezzlement, kickbacks, graft, brother-in-law deals and other theft occurs routinely in organizations where trust is a fundamental value. Iâve seen it occur in the military, in church and in a number of non-profits. All of these organizations place a very high value on trust.
The best solution is vigilance, audits and accountability policies. Sadly, I hired someone onetime who thought it was ok to purchase IT equipment from a friend who gave him a kickback for the purchase. Eventually, he just ordered equipment that was never even delivered and expected my accounting department to pay for it. A simple quarterly audit caught him. I fired him them sued him for all of the money he stole. Never got any money from him, but it destroyed his credit rating. It happens.
Chris thank you for the statistical perspective. I think DMS has great leadership and great membership. There is a lot of dedication to excellence and that is what attracted me to DMS. Unfortunately, it can be very unnerving to think that our tools can just walk off.
Iâm glad we caught this perpetrator. We need to use it as an example to figure out ways to thwart its re-occurrence. Iâm sure a group of makers like ourselves can come up with some ingenious solutions.
From my perspective background checks arenât very effective and shouldnât be one of the solutions. The USAF does some of the most extensive background checks in the business, but Iâve seen people pass them with flying colors only to steal a great deal of supplies from the warehouse. Yes they got caught, but theft does happen even when youâve done an extensive background check.
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Interestingly, the government is one of the best employers for those with background issues who have satisfactorily completed requirements for paying their debt to society⊠The premise is something like this: since we know people are imperfect, that does not mean that imperfect people cannot make wonderful progress for themselves and for their employer, often even becoming key producers within their industry (well known examples of key contributors with background issues include Downey Jr., Paul Senior of OCC).
While DMS is probably not the right organization for excluding individuals willing and interested in following a few rules and making some cool stuff, it is undeniably the right organization to record all happenings in and around the facilities while protecting the wonderful assets members get to enjoy. I am a believer that this could be smart to augment with audio recording equipment as well, not to spy on members, but to settle issues and be sure to flag the correct person when an issue does arise.
Iâd like to think the population at DMS is of a higher (and more honest) caliber than the general population, and that thatâs the explanation for the remarkably low larceny rate at the space.
Weâre not a social experiment in rehabilitation. Nobody with a background that includes thievery belongs in a place where they are unsupervised with valuable equipment.
Iâm not advocating background checks but at the very least we need to make sure we have recourse against each and every member if something happens. Real names would be a good start.
We do need to mark everything we can. Do we have any of the small, 'buzzbuzz engravers? We need at least one of these in every tool area and they can be used to mark tools. I am not sure if marking a $5 tool is overly important, but marking those that are $30-$40 are and that includes those that are lent to the space (I have a torch head lent to jewelryâI donât have a place at home to use it and I hadnât used it for 2 yearsâbut I donât want it wandering off)
I have used one of these for art, so I can easily engrave our name or a basic idea of the logo on some things
We do, and it has been used on some of the more valuable general workshop tools. Weâve also experimented with using the lasers to etch tools that are amenable to it.
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Is there any way I can help with this? we need to mark things like some of the jewelry hammers.
In fact I need to mark my own tools so I donât get them mixed up with the space toolsâJewelry folks have lots of pliers and since we tend to buy one pair at a time, none match. My best friend and I have problems separating ours at times
I marked a bunch of DMS lathe tools with the Thunder⊠Full power, around 5mm/s IIRC. It has the power to ablate some surface treatments.
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Preventing confusion is easy - you donât need to go to the same extent as preventing theft. Buy yourself a bottle of Testors paint in some exotic color. Use a toothpick and put a large dot of paint on every tool you own (someplace where you wonât be handling the paint much). Let it dry overnight and voila! Itâs easy to identify your tools.
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I went through my leatherworking tools and marked everything (even the rulers) a few weeks back.
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I donât know if itâs posted, bu it should be posted, theft against the makerspace constitutes an automatic elevated criminal offense, TX penal code sec 31.03.
âŠ(f) An offense described for purposes of punishment by Subsections (e)(1)-(6) is increased to the next higher category of offense if it is shown on the trial of the offense that:âŠ(3) the owner of the property appropriated was at the time of the offense: (A) an elderly individual; or (B) a nonprofit organization;
(h) In this section:âŠ(3) âNonprofit organizationâ means an organization that is exempt from federal income taxation under Section 501(a), Internal Revenue Code of 1986, by being described as an exempt organization by Section 501©(3) of that code.
And following up with the prosecutor to see itâs carried through of course.
/edit, I see this was sorta covered.
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Iam glad to hear it hope thescuzball got what heddeserves Ihave donatedthings to Mekerspace nothing special but I made sur it was well labeled and engraved.
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