Corporate kidnappings, indeed all kidnap situations, are critical, stressful, often life-or-death events for the victim, the victim's family and/or business, and for law enforcement. There is a need for awareness of personal security on the part of any potential victim.

There are several preventative measures that any individual, family, or corporation may undertake to minimize the chance of becoming the victim of a kidnapping. The following suggestions are general as must be any list of precautions dealing with such a complex and unsettled crime as kidnapping. However, their observance may do much to reduce the opportunity of kidnapping.

Suggestions For Business Officials

1. Instruct your family and business associates not to provide information concerning you or your family to strangers.
2. Avoid giving unnecessary personal details in response to inquires from information collectors that would be used in such publications as business directories, social registers, or community directories.
3. Review your organization's security plans to determine their effectiveness. Make certain all employees are aware of these plans.
4. Establish simple, effective signal systems which, when activated, will alert your business associates or family members that you are in danger.
5. Be alert to strangers who are on business property for no apparent reason.
6. Vary your daily routines to avoid habitual patterns which kidnappers look for. Fluctuate your travel, as to times and routes, to and from the office.
7. Refuse to meet with strangers at secluded or unknown locations.
8. Always advise a business associate or family member of your destination when leaving the office or home and what time you intend to return.
9. Lock all doors and roll up windows of your automobile while traveling to and from work.

Suggestions For Parents

1. Make certain that outside doors, windows, and screens are securely locked before retiring at night.
2. Keep the door to the children's room open so that any unusual noises may be heard.
3. Be certain that the child's room is not readily accessible from the outside.
4. Never leave young children at home alone or unattended, and be certain that they are left in the care of a responsible, trustworthy person.
5. Instruct children to keep the doors and windows locked and never to let in strangers.
6. Teach children as early as possible how to call the police if strangers or prowlers hang around the house or attempt to get in.
7. Keep residence well lighted if it is necessary to leave children at home.
8. Avoid obvious indications that you are not at home. Opened garage doors and newspapers left outside the house are obvious indications that you are away from home and that your children may be inside unprotected.
9. Instruct servants not to let strangers in the house.
10. Do not advertise family finances or routines. Kidnappers frequently have their victims under surveillance for several days prior to the abduction, so that they may acquaint themselves with the family's habits.

Suggestions For Children

1. Travel in groups or pairs.
2. Walk along heavily traveled streets and avoid isolated areas where possible.
3. Refuse rides from strangers and refuse to accompany strangers anywhere on foot.
4. Use city-approved play areas where recreational activities are supervised by responsible adults and where police protection is readily available.
5. Immediately report anyone who molests or annoys you to the nearest person or authority.
6. Never leave home without telling parents where you will be and who will accompany you.

Suggestions If There Is An Actual Kidnapping

Whenever a kidnapping occurs, it is essential that the victim's family immediately initiate action to effect the safe delivery of the victim This can best be accomplished when the family of the victim carries out the following suggestions:

1. Telephone the Police. The complainant should be prepared to furnish in an orderly fashion all facts relating to the disappearance of the victim.
2. Maintain absolute secrecy and do not permit any of the facts regarding the kidnapping or demands for ransom to be known to anyone outside the immediate family except the investigating officers.
3. Do not handle letters or communications demanding the payment of ransom. Turn these over to the trained investigators as soon as possible.
4. Neither touch nor disturb anything at the scene of the crime. Minute particles of evidence which are not visible to the naked eye may be destroyed.
5. Be calm and strive to maintain a normal routine around the home and office if possible.
6. Place full confidence in the law enforcement officers who are investigating the kidnapping. In addition to obtaining photographs and a complete description of the victim, it is essential that law enforcement officers have all facts relating to the personal habits, characteristics and peculiarities of the victim.

When kidnappings occur, the first concern of the Police and other law enforcement agencies is always the safe return of the victim.