August 13, 2024 • 25 mins
Are you ready to unlock the secrets to safeguarding your small business? Join us as we sit down with Detective Steve Borst from the Kennebunk Police Department, who shares his insights on essential security measures that every small business owner should know. From the basics of securing your premises with locks, lighting, and cameras to the importance of community programs like Virtual Neighborhood Watch, Detective Borst provides expert advice on creating a safe environment for your employees and customers. We'll also discuss the critical need for registering your business with local authorities, ensuring effective communication and support during incidents.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Small Business Big World, our weekly
podcast prepared by the team atPaper Trails.
Owning and running a smallbusiness is hard.
Each week, we'll dive into thechallenges, headaches, trends,
fun and excitement of running asmall business.
After all, small businesses arethe heartbeat of America and
our team is here to keep thembeating.
Welcome to Small Business BigWorld, our weekly podcast where
(00:22):
we talk about everything smallbusiness.
Today, my guest is DetectiveSteve Borst.
Very official title Welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Steve's a police detective here at the Kennebunk
Police Department, veryfortunate to have a great local
police department here, verysupportive of the community,
which we'll talk a little bitabout a little bit later, but
certainly today we're going tokind of talk about safety and
security in your business, whichis usually at the bottom of
most people's list, right?
True, the top of the list isyou know, hiring and bringing in
sales and all that stuff.
(00:51):
And even for me, right, you'vehad to teach me a few things,
which is good, so I think it'llbe a really fun conversation.
But before we get going, don'tforget we are everywhere that
you download your podcast.
So Spotify, facebook, instagram, you name it, we're there.
Apple Podcasts you go find us.
We're out there at SmallBusiness Big World.
Certainly, if you have anyquestions for us or for Steve,
feel free to shoot us an emailpodcast at papertrailscom, and
(01:14):
we will be there to answer thosefor you and get going.
So, steve, let's talk aboutsecurity basics for small
business.
So I'm small business, you know, small town America, just like
us.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
What are the real basic things I should be
thinking about in terms ofsecurity and safety for me, my
employees, my customers?
Yep, think of it like thisstructurally your business, your
brick and mortar simple locks,lights, cameras real simple,
doesn't have to get crazyexpensive, crazy elaborate keep
that, keep that footage.
A lot of people have a dvr kindof setup uh, yourself included,
who you can manage, how longyou want to keep the footage,
what starts the footage, whatends the footage?
(01:49):
To this day and age, almostevery crime that would happen,
like in a downtown area orwherever, should be on video
somewhere.
It's up to us to try to go andfind it.
We have a program here in towncalled Virtual Neighborhood
Watch.
You're a member and it's like aclearinghouse for people to
just log on and say, hey, myhouse is here, my business is
(02:10):
there, I have this many cameras,I keep it for 30 days and if
you need something, let me know.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Even the ring cams right, we all have ring cams,
doorbell cams, things like that,easy stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Make your business one that they want to pass up on
.
So if somebody wants to comeinto town and do some burglaries
, uh, on the overnight shift,and they see three businesses
make yours the one that's lit up, that they say uh, I see he's
got cameras in use.
Now we'll pass this one, we'llgo to the next one it's funny.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
So we had an incident here at the office early this
year where we had what wethought were checks stolen, but,
you know, and we didn't havecameras at the office.
Right, I'm a trusting Mainer, Igosh, I barely even locked my
house, so I shouldn't tell youthat, I shouldn't put that on
the world, but it is locked andwe have cameras and all those
good things.
But we definitely, you know,learned that we needed to have
some cameras here because we hadchecks missing, and I think it
(03:02):
was just a big misunderstanding.
At the end of the day butbecause they got returned like
two days later.
I think it was the mailman thatgot confused.
But you know it's important,right.
And now we do look at those,not often, but if something's
going on.
I know you know one of myemployees.
He gets bored on Sunday morningand checks things out.
You know what's going on butyou know it's important to have
those, I think.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Right, it's an investment.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Protect your investment, yeah and even things
you know.
You talked about lighting,right.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
I mean, it's not just to make your property look good
, but it's also a safety thing,even for your clients or your
customers, your staff in and out, you know, keep it safe.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Well lit, well lit, yeah right, snow, things like
that.
You know trips and falls, you'dbe surprised too.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
On the midnight shift we do building checks every
night.
How many buildings People?
Just it's Friday, they want toget out of here, they want to go
to work, to get out of work andgo home and they forget to
simply lock their door.
You know, we'll have guys andgirls on the midnight shift
checking doors.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
They find an open door Right.
So too, because I've come in onSaturday morning when you know,
after the cruise has been hereand oh, the door's unlocked.
So I didn't get a call from youguys, but so certainly you know
that kind of brings throughanother piece right, registering
your business, right.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
So we just learned our business isn't even
registered with you guys, right?
We have a site file that everybusiness in town can go into
it's free.
Every business in town can gointo it's free.
And it's just the business, theaddress, the phone numbers, the
contact information for peopleduring the day, after hours, who
the alarm company is, thingslike that.
And it's just a quick pointersystem for us to say hey, here
at Paper Trails, we should knowit's Chris, it's at this phone
(04:38):
number, right, and if somethingdoes happen, right then we can
call.
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Right, then we can call yeah, absolutely Right, and
that's just another thing.
If you see something in themiddle of the night, pick up the
phone.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
You're going to call me Right Rather than you know,
figure, trying to figure it out.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
So that's the basics and, you know, certainly I think
we all need to go back tobasics in our business, which is
important.
So thank you for that.
So let's talk about planningfor the worst.
Right, we'd ever want to thinkabout those worst case scenarios
, but there are emergencysituations that happen in every
business, even an officebusiness.
Right, it's not always.
You know, everyone thinks ofsafety and manufacturing and
construction, but maybe not inyour retail or restaurant or
(05:10):
other workplace, any scenario Ithink about disgruntled customer
or former employee or spouse ofan employee.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
There's no business or location that's immune.
I mean, we've seen incidentshappen in schools, churches,
businesses, public you knowpublic events.
So I think like, how do you, ifthat was to happen in your
setting, what are the steps thatyou could take to help minimize
it?
You know we talked about thethree basics already lighting,
(05:43):
locks, cameras.
Another thing there's a couplebusinesses in town that utilize
a panic button.
It's a function off theirparticular security system that
they employ If there's an issuewith a customer they hit almost
like a silent alarm at a bank,sends a signal to dispatch and
we're on the way.
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Yeah, so what other planning though?
So should businesses be doingemergency planning?
I?
Speaker 2 (06:07):
mean, we even do it at the police department for,
like, I think we call it like afire alarm drill.
If something happened in thepolice department we all had to
get out, where would you go?
You want to keep track of howmany people you have on at a
particular time.
If you had to get everybody outof paper trails right now, you
should have a place to go andwho's going to keep track of
who's there and who's not thereand who's still back up inside.
(06:28):
Simple security things like anevacuation plan, like a phone
tree.
If something happened here andyou were having a, let's just
say, in a half an hour you'regoing to have a client come in.
Well, something's happeninghere.
You don't want the client towalk into it, so so-and-so needs
to call them.
Look at calendars things likethat yeah right, Things like
that.
Just try to think big picture.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Right, you want to minimize the things we don't
want to ever worry about, right,right, yeah, I mean we're lucky
, you know, but it can happen.
Well, we think about it interms of our business continuity
of oh, the internet goes outright, my whole world's shut
down.
If the internet goes out, right, that's right, even if you
think from a safety perspectiveyou know, god forbid, you know
there's a fire or an activeshooter or a disgruntled
(07:10):
employee or any of those things.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Right.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
You know, thinking, thinking ahead.
How do you handle that Right?
Speaker 2 (07:15):
You know there's places that will do like site
assessments.
You know how many doors do youhave, how many windows do you
have, egress parking employees,like we do it once a year at the
police department, we have anemployee list and it's your name
, your phone number, your nextof kin, who to call in an
emergency, your children's name,if you have kids, that you know
(07:38):
.
Let's say you had an employeeand something horrific happened
and they had to.
You know you had to notify them.
Hey, we've got to get the kidsout of school.
Little things like that.
It's a lot of information.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
That planning is really good and you that it's a
lot of information.
Yeah, that planning is reallygood, and one of the things that
I don't think people thinkabout in terms of planning is
how do you deal with the humanelement of that?
Right, we see the TikToks everyday of the people screaming at
service employees and thingslike that, or disgruntled
employees having to deal withthose kinds of things.
Someone comes in your businessand said, oh, if you do that,
I'm going to call the cops,right, how do you guys handle
(08:08):
that?
How do you diffuse that?
How can you prepare for that?
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Yeah, I mean, it's anything, it's any
service-oriented part of life.
You're going to have happycustomers and not so happy
customers.
We will always go.
If you call, we will always go.
We're not going to say who'sright and who's wrong.
We're going to look at how thelaw works in this particular
situation and if somebody needsto go someone's not going to get
a trespass warning or whateverbut we'll always go and try to
(08:33):
mediate those things.
And if crimes were committed,then we'll get some input from
the business owner and say isthis something that you want to
sign off on and go to court foras a witness or a victim?
And we'll take it from there.
But we always try to mediatestuff before that.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
And I would say nine, Nine times out of 10, those are
truly just you knowmisunderstandings Exactly.
People are, you know, amped upand they, you know they just
their emotions get the best ofthem, right, correct?
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
You know it makes for great TikToks, right.
For a lot of people, right, itdoesn't make for great business,
no, no no-transcript let it getto the point right Be a good
(09:26):
human being and don't let it getto the point where it's an
that's not usually good PR.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
I'll give you a quick example.
Business in town happened to betalking to them simple
harassment by phone issue.
An unhappy customer calls intotheir business and I happened to
hear a pretty horrificvoicemail that was left and a
live call that was left.
They recorded that and I got totell you the customer service
rep did a fantastic job and justsaid I'm sorry this call is
(09:50):
going to end.
You know, call back at anothertime when your emotions are in
check and we'll be happy to helpyou then.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
And that training, you know customer services has
evolved a lot.
You know, in the last decadeprobably, and particularly
probably in the last four orfive years, I think, since COVID
, things have been a little bitdifferent.
I know my business has changedtremendously and I think that
you know you've got to thinkabout that in terms of
supporting your staff to preparefor those situations too,
Because they're the front linesright.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Those are the people that they're going to deal with.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Absolutely, absolutely.
So let's think about what aresome of the most common day kind
of business scams or issues.
You know day to day if you'vegot something coming, what you
know day to day.
If you got something coming in,you know it's Monday, what's
going to hit me on Tuesday everyweek or once a week.
What are some of those thingsthat you see, that you guys see
a lot and we can help peoplethink about and prepare for
Great question.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
I would say you know, monday morning I would expect
maybe a phone call or an emailsaying hey, on Thursday or
Friday, around payday, we gotthat there was an employee that
supposedly asked their directdeposit get rerouted to a
different bank and somebody inour HR office didn't think much
of it and they rerouted that andcome to find out it's
(10:59):
fictitious or scammer.
So we call those business emailcompromises.
Think of it like this Thinkabout your own email address and
all you have to do is changeone character.
The scammers will look at that,they'll exploit that, they'll
send emails from that address.
A lot of times they'll pirateyour logo, your company logo or
(11:21):
your brand and say you know thisis employee X.
I'm no longer doing businesswith Kennebunk Savings.
I switched to Bangor Savings.
Here's my account number.
Please route my next paycheckon payday to go there.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
It's usually not a local bank.
Usually it's a pay cardsomewhere, right.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
It's going to go to a bank account and then get
transferred to Green Dot orsomething like that.
A little bit harder to trackBusiness email compromise
probably number one.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
So we've seen in our business.
We see that a we're an apparelbusiness.
We've unfortunately seen thathappen to a lot of clients.
We take a lot of precautionsin-house and we educate our
clients on that all the time.
Please go to paperchillscom andlook on the Safety and Security
Center, because we talk aboutthis a lot.
We've seen, actually, where alot of clients and employees
(12:04):
have had their real emailcompromised because there's
email password compromisesacross the internet.
People use the same password123 password for everything
right, so guess what the hackers?
You know that may have beenyour eBay account that got
hacked, but your Gmail accountuses the same password.
And then gosh, let's try it.
See what happens right.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
I read a funny article recently about.
It was a statistic.
I can't remember what thenumber was 60% of the emails out
there has their pet's namesomewhere in it Not too hard to
find what my pet's name is.
Absolutely.
I mean not social engineering.
Yeah, it happens right.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
And these guys are smart and it doesn't usually
take too long to dig down therabbit hole and find that.
So their actual email has beencompromised and they're sending
an email from the legit Gmailaccount or business account
because that organization, thatindividual, isn't using
multi-factor authentication.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Yep Right, and the login should tell them hey,
somebody logged in.
Yeah, as you here.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Yeah, every email, everything now, unfortunately,
probably should havemulti-factor authentication with
a text code or an authenticatorapp or face ID or something
Right?
Yep, we preach that hard, right?
And my staff screams at meevery day.
It's a pain in the ass.
We know it is that text codeevery day, every time you log
into something, or theauthenticator.
But really nowadays you have tohave it because things are so
(13:15):
crazy out there.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
What's the alternative?
That you don't have it, and youmake it that much easier for
the scammer Right and you losethe money, and I mean it's not
honest to God.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
it's not J paper trails in maine, right, and our
little old clients all over theplace, right?
It's not yep that, andunfortunately that's who they're
going after, because we are thetrusting mainers right, right,
I've said that already.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Very safe up here, right, and I think they know
that.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Yeah, and I think, you know, gosh, the guys in new
york, they're, they don't care,you know, or they have better
controls in place, better, it'sharder to get stuff out of them,
uh, than it is out of the smallbusinesses.
Right, that's very true.
So any other common types ofscams or things that you see
that businesses need to bepaying attention to?
Speaker 2 (13:55):
The phishing.
Phishing is very popular, wherethey'll just blast out emails
and they're seeking information,insider information, so that
could help them run a differentscam.
The big one is the payroll.
We see that a lot.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
And the hard thing about those is there's really
not a whole lot you guys can doabout that?
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Yeah, not really.
And the other thing is thatmoney just doesn't go from one
place to another.
So every hop, think of it.
Every hop is a new subpoena.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Right.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
And you've got to wait.
That's not fast.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Right, and they know this.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Right, right and so by the time and nowadays, with
cryptocurrency, you know,$10,000 comes out of small
business A and by the end of theday, it's changed into Bitcoin,
it's changed into Ethereum andit's gone.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
You know other ways to trace and track those
transactions?
Yes, but as soon as they leavethe country, that becomes a
problem.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Yeah, it's crazy.
I mean, it's really crazy thatwe have to think about that in
this day and age, but it's moreand more prevalent.
We're seeing it.
Certainly you guys are seeingit and I'm sure you feel like
you're spinning your wheels alot or saying, hey, I'm sorry, I
can't do anything about that.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
And a lot of times too, it's not even.
It's like we talked aboutearlier is that the victim
Wasn't just a victim by chance.
The victim did certain thingsat the direction of the scammer
to make this a success for them.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Absolutely, and you know we talked a lot about this
phishing and vishing and vishingis the other voice, phishing-
right.
Right, that's another one.
So we train our staff everyquarter, right?
So we have a software calledKnow Before we educate.
Every quarter, our team takes15, 20 minutes worth of training
on some sort of cybersecurity,information security, phishing,
vishing, whatever.
I have beat them upside thehead 47 ways to Sunday so that
(15:33):
they pay attention to thesethings.
Not only do the training, wetest them right.
So at some point throughout thequarter they're going to get a
phishing email.
And they look good, the companydoes a good job, right, and
they either.
You know, if they click on thelink and they're like you failed
, you failed, we get them.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Our IT department in town just sends them.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
And now we've started using the vishing training and
that's been really good too,because you know we, everyone
thinks about you know the emails, right, that's a faceless kind
of thing, but once you pick upthe phone and there's someone at
the other end, now it's, it'sbecome personal.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
And they know certain things.
Yeah, they know little bitsabout your company, who your
people are.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
They sound real good, that stuff's not too hard to
get right Right.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
If you went on company A's website and it said
meet our staff, and you have allthe staff profiles.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Right, you say, hey, I was just talking to so-and-so,
right, you know, correct, it'snot hard for that kind of stuff
to protect yourself, yourbusiness, your customers.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
The other thing too I think about.
I try to narrow it down forpeople.
If you're not expecting a checkin the mail.
Question it.
If you get an email fromsomebody and the email doesn't
look right or the address thatit's coming from doesn't look
right, you should question that.
If someone says, hey, I'mfollowing up from a phone call
(16:46):
we had last week and you didn'thave a phone call last week, you
should question that Even.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
I mean, we've had you know, my family owns a
restaurant We've had people calland say hey, we want to do a
catering event for this manypeople.
You know, it's usually like areally good event.
You know, I want all this fancystuff and you're going to do
this deposit, or I want to sendyou a deposit, right.
Well, how often does thatactually happen, right?
The customer is like so excitedto pay you a $5,000 deposit,
(17:12):
you know.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
And how many wires do they really get?
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Right, how many?
Speaker 2 (17:16):
wires, do small businesses get right?
And, by the way, if they evertell you to go to your local
Walgreens, cvs, hannaford andbuy gift cards the red light
should be going off right.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
And should be going off, right yeah, and if they
call and they want the code offthe back, definitely stop it
right there, yeah.
So I mean these guys arecertainly good, but you've got
to protect yourself.
And I you know, in yourbusiness, in your life and I
know you know, in my previousworld I was a banker and I know,
you know, I've heard thestories of you know, grandma
comes in and says, oh, mygrandson is in Taiwan and on
vacation and they got kidnappedand I'm wearing them $10,000 to
get unkidnapped, or they losttheir plane tickets or whatever.
And of course grandma wants tohelp little Johnny get home.
(17:56):
And even those types of things.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Oh, happens all the time.
We had four last fall here, ai,when the scammers called, the
voice that they generated on theother end of that phone call
sounded so real that the womangave a courier the money.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Yeah, so that's a whole new thing, right?
I mean, I'm not anywhere nearversed enough on that, but what
are you guys seeing?
How are you guys seeing the AIstuff change, how crimes happen?
Right, I think it's probablystill a little new.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Yeah, it's still new.
I think it may become more andmore frequent, with more success
on the bad guy's end.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Right.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
So just because you hear a familiar voice on the
other end of the phone, youshould maybe question is it
really?
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Or call your grandson's phone, right, Like
hey, you know the real number,right If it comes from a weird
number, right.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Or the other thing.
They spoof everything.
Someone says, hey, it lookedjust like my grandson's phone
number and I answered it and itsounded just like him on the
other end and he said there wasgoing to be a guy coming to my
house or my business and Ineeded to give him cash or gold
bars.
I mean, it's never ending.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
The scams, the scammers yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Protect yourself and protect your business.
Absolutely.
Yeah, that.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
AI stuff is kind of crazy and scary.
Certainly we're all stilllearning about that and trying
to figure that out, so I'll beinterested to see how that
changes your role Right Moredifficult.
So you know, one of the thingsthat we're very fortunate about
in our community is certainlyyou guys, our department here.
You guys are really good atcommunity policing, right yeah,
we try.
And education, just like this,right.
(19:34):
What can businesses do to takeadvantage of that kind of
relationship, assuming thattheir police departments?
Speaker 2 (19:40):
are just as good, right.
Hopefully they all are right,in my view.
You just said the key wordRelationships.
How did you know to reach outto me to do this podcast today?
Because we have a relationship.
I know who you are as abusiness owner and as a resident
in town and you know who I am.
Just use those relationshipswe're here.
When I think of communitypolicing, it's not like one
(20:03):
thing that you do, it's a wayyou do it, it's the way you
conduct business and I look atus like a business and we're
providing service customerservice to witnesses, victims,
residents, visitors, businessowners and that relationship you
know.
Hey, I want to know how do Imake my business a little bit
(20:24):
better?
You know I'm thinking of doingbusiness with the ABC Lock
Company.
Have you ever had any problemswith them?
Call us and use us as aresource.
We're always happy to you know,help you in any way we can.
We've done talks for smallbusiness different small
businesses in town the Chamberof Commerce, the Center, the
elderly center down in LowerVillage, high schools, colleges
(20:47):
so yeah, if you ever need any ofthat, that's the worst we can
do is say, geez, we can't fit itin right now right For the most
part.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
But you guys are always out and about at
community events.
You're part of the community.
You come walk down Main Streetin the summer and say hello to
people and introduce yourselvesand I know the chief hosts
coffee I think once a quarter orsomething like that and hosts
coffee I think once a quarter orsomething like that.
You know, and it's really, andwhen there is an issue, I mean I
never hesitate to reach out.
But I know you guys, but youknow there's always, you know, a
(21:13):
very friendly.
There's never a negativeconnotation.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
And people say a lot of times oh, I don't want to
bother you.
You know, I say you're notbothering us.
I would rather take 10 phonecalls from a business owner or
resident somebody and say thismay be nothing but and then not
have them call and have it besomething.
Why didn't you call us when ithappened?
Right, I mean, call us, that'swhat we have.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
I think that's important and certainly, again,
it's building that relationship.
I know you guys offer the VIPSprogram, the Volunteers in
Police Services.
That's what it is, which is aclass you do once a year or so,
something like that.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Yeah, we do a Citizens Police Academy.
We get the bulk of our VIPsfrom that.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
So through your Citizens Police Academy, you're
teaching community members aboutwhat you do, how you do it and
what they can do to help thepolice department.
Right, Right, that's all reallyimportant, and certainly I know
we're all busy in our lives andit's like eyes and ears right,
it's eyes and ears in thecommunity.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
In town we have a West Kennebunk neighborhood
watch, Just a loose group ofpeople who live in the same
geographic area, that kind oflook out for each other and if
something doesn't seem right,not only do they put it on this
Facebook page to talk about it,they know to call us or email me
and we'll get on it.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
And how has that changed your life?
All these Facebook pages.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
I've got to say it can be good, it can be bad.
I think the better relationshipis, you know, put the
information out there, thetruthful, accurate information.
Give that to the folks outthere in social media and try to
waylay any of the false stuffthat comes up.
People, the imagination runswild sometimes.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Indeed it does.
I read those posts and I'm like, oh my goodness, these people
need a hobby.
Yeah, no comment, you're notallowed to comment.
I can comment, you can't commentso good, so let's just go back.
You know, I think for me one ofthe things that we talk about a
lot on the podcast is these arethings that we probably all
should be doing as businessowners but we aren't, because we
(23:03):
get busy running our businessesand dealing with our employees
and customers and making salesand, and you know, dealing with
all that stuff.
But going back to basics, youknow locks, lighting, cameras,
you know just the basic stuff,right.
And think about a plan Godforbid something bad happens,
right, those are pretty basicthings and then always be
looking out for the scams andand and don't be afraid of the
(23:25):
police department, right?
I mean no, I think you know,unfortunately, over the last
decade or so, I think it's beenreally hard to be a police
officer and I certainlyappreciate everything you guys
do.
We know that and I think it'sdefinitely, but 99.99999% of
police officers in this countryare fantastic people and they
just really care about thecommunity.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
And I think, if you asked from coast to coast, north
to south, the bulk of us why wegot in this job is to help
people, help residents, helpbusiness owners, help kids,
adults, elderly.
It's not we want to get outhere and do anything bad.
We want to just help people, ofcourse, and the media doesn't
help and things like that.
But we've got to keep chuggingforward.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Well, good.
We've hit some really goodtopics today, so I really
appreciate that.
If folks want to get in touchwith you, what's the best way to
get in touch with you if theyhave questions?
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Easiest way is my email.
It's sborst B-O-R-S-T atkennybunkmain.
All spelt out us.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Perfect, and of course the Kenyon Police
Department is on Instagram andFacebook and they're really good
with a lot of that outreach andpreparation.
No-transcript, you can alwaysreach out to us.
(24:36):
We'll get them off to Steve orto any of our guests.
Just podcast at papertrailscom.
But we will be back next weekfor another very exciting
episode.
No-transcript does not implyendorsement of or opposition to
(25:15):
any specific individualorganization, product or service
.
This is Small Business Big World, our weekly
podcast prepared by the team atPaper Trails.
Owning and running a smallbusiness is hard.
Each week, we'll dive into thechallenges, headaches, trends,
fun and excitement of running asmall business.
After all, small businesses arethe heartbeat of America and
our team is here to keep thembeating.
Welcome to Small Business BigWorld, our weekly podcast where
(00:22):
we talk about everything smallbusiness.
Today, my guest is DetectiveSteve Borst.
Very official title Welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Steve's a police detective here at the Kennebunk
Police Department, veryfortunate to have a great local
police department here, verysupportive of the community,
which we'll talk a little bitabout a little bit later, but
certainly today we're going tokind of talk about safety and
security in your business, whichis usually at the bottom of
most people's list, right?
True, the top of the list isyou know, hiring and bringing in
sales and all that stuff.
(00:51):
And even for me, right, you'vehad to teach me a few things,
which is good, so I think it'llbe a really fun conversation.
But before we get going, don'tforget we are everywhere that
you download your podcast.
So Spotify, facebook, instagram, you name it, we're there.
Apple Podcasts you go find us.
We're out there at SmallBusiness Big World.
Certainly, if you have anyquestions for us or for Steve,
feel free to shoot us an emailpodcast at papertrailscom, and
(01:14):
we will be there to answer thosefor you and get going.
So, steve, let's talk aboutsecurity basics for small
business.
So I'm small business, you know, small town America, just like
us.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
What are the real basic things I should be
thinking about in terms ofsecurity and safety for me, my
employees, my customers?
Yep, think of it like thisstructurally your business, your
brick and mortar simple locks,lights, cameras real simple,
doesn't have to get crazyexpensive, crazy elaborate keep
that, keep that footage.
A lot of people have a dvr kindof setup uh, yourself included,
who you can manage, how longyou want to keep the footage,
what starts the footage, whatends the footage?
(01:49):
To this day and age, almostevery crime that would happen,
like in a downtown area orwherever, should be on video
somewhere.
It's up to us to try to go andfind it.
We have a program here in towncalled Virtual Neighborhood
Watch.
You're a member and it's like aclearinghouse for people to
just log on and say, hey, myhouse is here, my business is
(02:10):
there, I have this many cameras,I keep it for 30 days and if
you need something, let me know.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Even the ring cams right, we all have ring cams,
doorbell cams, things like that,easy stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Make your business one that they want to pass up on
.
So if somebody wants to comeinto town and do some burglaries
, uh, on the overnight shift,and they see three businesses
make yours the one that's lit up, that they say uh, I see he's
got cameras in use.
Now we'll pass this one, we'llgo to the next one it's funny.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
So we had an incident here at the office early this
year where we had what wethought were checks stolen, but,
you know, and we didn't havecameras at the office.
Right, I'm a trusting Mainer, Igosh, I barely even locked my
house, so I shouldn't tell youthat, I shouldn't put that on
the world, but it is locked andwe have cameras and all those
good things.
But we definitely, you know,learned that we needed to have
some cameras here because we hadchecks missing, and I think it
(03:02):
was just a big misunderstanding.
At the end of the day butbecause they got returned like
two days later.
I think it was the mailman thatgot confused.
But you know it's important,right.
And now we do look at those,not often, but if something's
going on.
I know you know one of myemployees.
He gets bored on Sunday morningand checks things out.
You know what's going on butyou know it's important to have
those, I think.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Right, it's an investment.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Protect your investment, yeah and even things
you know.
You talked about lighting,right.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
I mean, it's not just to make your property look good
, but it's also a safety thing,even for your clients or your
customers, your staff in and out, you know, keep it safe.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Well lit, well lit, yeah right, snow, things like
that.
You know trips and falls, you'dbe surprised too.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
On the midnight shift we do building checks every
night.
How many buildings People?
Just it's Friday, they want toget out of here, they want to go
to work, to get out of work andgo home and they forget to
simply lock their door.
You know, we'll have guys andgirls on the midnight shift
checking doors.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
They find an open door Right.
So too, because I've come in onSaturday morning when you know,
after the cruise has been hereand oh, the door's unlocked.
So I didn't get a call from youguys, but so certainly you know
that kind of brings throughanother piece right, registering
your business, right.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
So we just learned our business isn't even
registered with you guys, right?
We have a site file that everybusiness in town can go into
it's free.
Every business in town can gointo it's free.
And it's just the business, theaddress, the phone numbers, the
contact information for peopleduring the day, after hours, who
the alarm company is, thingslike that.
And it's just a quick pointersystem for us to say hey, here
at Paper Trails, we should knowit's Chris, it's at this phone
(04:38):
number, right, and if somethingdoes happen, right then we can
call.
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Right, then we can call yeah, absolutely Right, and
that's just another thing.
If you see something in themiddle of the night, pick up the
phone.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
You're going to call me Right Rather than you know,
figure, trying to figure it out.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
So that's the basics and, you know, certainly I think
we all need to go back tobasics in our business, which is
important.
So thank you for that.
So let's talk about planningfor the worst.
Right, we'd ever want to thinkabout those worst case scenarios
, but there are emergencysituations that happen in every
business, even an officebusiness.
Right, it's not always.
You know, everyone thinks ofsafety and manufacturing and
construction, but maybe not inyour retail or restaurant or
(05:10):
other workplace, any scenario Ithink about disgruntled customer
or former employee or spouse ofan employee.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
There's no business or location that's immune.
I mean, we've seen incidentshappen in schools, churches,
businesses, public you knowpublic events.
So I think like, how do you, ifthat was to happen in your
setting, what are the steps thatyou could take to help minimize
it?
You know we talked about thethree basics already lighting,
(05:43):
locks, cameras.
Another thing there's a couplebusinesses in town that utilize
a panic button.
It's a function off theirparticular security system that
they employ If there's an issuewith a customer they hit almost
like a silent alarm at a bank,sends a signal to dispatch and
we're on the way.
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Yeah, so what other planning though?
So should businesses be doingemergency planning?
I?
Speaker 2 (06:07):
mean, we even do it at the police department for,
like, I think we call it like afire alarm drill.
If something happened in thepolice department we all had to
get out, where would you go?
You want to keep track of howmany people you have on at a
particular time.
If you had to get everybody outof paper trails right now, you
should have a place to go andwho's going to keep track of
who's there and who's not thereand who's still back up inside.
(06:28):
Simple security things like anevacuation plan, like a phone
tree.
If something happened here andyou were having a, let's just
say, in a half an hour you'regoing to have a client come in.
Well, something's happeninghere.
You don't want the client towalk into it, so so-and-so needs
to call them.
Look at calendars things likethat yeah right, Things like
that.
Just try to think big picture.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Right, you want to minimize the things we don't
want to ever worry about, right,right, yeah, I mean we're lucky
, you know, but it can happen.
Well, we think about it interms of our business continuity
of oh, the internet goes outright, my whole world's shut
down.
If the internet goes out, right, that's right, even if you
think from a safety perspectiveyou know, god forbid, you know
there's a fire or an activeshooter or a disgruntled
(07:10):
employee or any of those things.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Right.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
You know, thinking, thinking ahead.
How do you handle that Right?
Speaker 2 (07:15):
You know there's places that will do like site
assessments.
You know how many doors do youhave, how many windows do you
have, egress parking employees,like we do it once a year at the
police department, we have anemployee list and it's your name
, your phone number, your nextof kin, who to call in an
emergency, your children's name,if you have kids, that you know
(07:38):
.
Let's say you had an employeeand something horrific happened
and they had to.
You know you had to notify them.
Hey, we've got to get the kidsout of school.
Little things like that.
It's a lot of information.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
That planning is really good and you that it's a
lot of information.
Yeah, that planning is reallygood, and one of the things that
I don't think people thinkabout in terms of planning is
how do you deal with the humanelement of that?
Right, we see the TikToks everyday of the people screaming at
service employees and thingslike that, or disgruntled
employees having to deal withthose kinds of things.
Someone comes in your businessand said, oh, if you do that,
I'm going to call the cops,right, how do you guys handle
(08:08):
that?
How do you diffuse that?
How can you prepare for that?
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Yeah, I mean, it's anything, it's any
service-oriented part of life.
You're going to have happycustomers and not so happy
customers.
We will always go.
If you call, we will always go.
We're not going to say who'sright and who's wrong.
We're going to look at how thelaw works in this particular
situation and if somebody needsto go someone's not going to get
a trespass warning or whateverbut we'll always go and try to
(08:33):
mediate those things.
And if crimes were committed,then we'll get some input from
the business owner and say isthis something that you want to
sign off on and go to court foras a witness or a victim?
And we'll take it from there.
But we always try to mediatestuff before that.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
And I would say nine, Nine times out of 10, those are
truly just you knowmisunderstandings Exactly.
People are, you know, amped upand they, you know they just
their emotions get the best ofthem, right, correct?
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
You know it makes for great TikToks, right.
For a lot of people, right, itdoesn't make for great business,
no, no no-transcript let it getto the point right Be a good
(09:26):
human being and don't let it getto the point where it's an
that's not usually good PR.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
I'll give you a quick example.
Business in town happened to betalking to them simple
harassment by phone issue.
An unhappy customer calls intotheir business and I happened to
hear a pretty horrificvoicemail that was left and a
live call that was left.
They recorded that and I got totell you the customer service
rep did a fantastic job and justsaid I'm sorry this call is
(09:50):
going to end.
You know, call back at anothertime when your emotions are in
check and we'll be happy to helpyou then.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
And that training, you know customer services has
evolved a lot.
You know, in the last decadeprobably, and particularly
probably in the last four orfive years, I think, since COVID
, things have been a little bitdifferent.
I know my business has changedtremendously and I think that
you know you've got to thinkabout that in terms of
supporting your staff to preparefor those situations too,
Because they're the front linesright.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Those are the people that they're going to deal with.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Absolutely, absolutely.
So let's think about what aresome of the most common day kind
of business scams or issues.
You know day to day if you'vegot something coming, what you
know day to day.
If you got something coming in,you know it's Monday, what's
going to hit me on Tuesday everyweek or once a week.
What are some of those thingsthat you see, that you guys see
a lot and we can help peoplethink about and prepare for
Great question.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
I would say you know, monday morning I would expect
maybe a phone call or an emailsaying hey, on Thursday or
Friday, around payday, we gotthat there was an employee that
supposedly asked their directdeposit get rerouted to a
different bank and somebody inour HR office didn't think much
of it and they rerouted that andcome to find out it's
(10:59):
fictitious or scammer.
So we call those business emailcompromises.
Think of it like this Thinkabout your own email address and
all you have to do is changeone character.
The scammers will look at that,they'll exploit that, they'll
send emails from that address.
A lot of times they'll pirateyour logo, your company logo or
(11:21):
your brand and say you know thisis employee X.
I'm no longer doing businesswith Kennebunk Savings.
I switched to Bangor Savings.
Here's my account number.
Please route my next paycheckon payday to go there.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
It's usually not a local bank.
Usually it's a pay cardsomewhere, right.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
It's going to go to a bank account and then get
transferred to Green Dot orsomething like that.
A little bit harder to trackBusiness email compromise
probably number one.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
So we've seen in our business.
We see that a we're an apparelbusiness.
We've unfortunately seen thathappen to a lot of clients.
We take a lot of precautionsin-house and we educate our
clients on that all the time.
Please go to paperchillscom andlook on the Safety and Security
Center, because we talk aboutthis a lot.
We've seen, actually, where alot of clients and employees
(12:04):
have had their real emailcompromised because there's
email password compromisesacross the internet.
People use the same password123 password for everything
right, so guess what the hackers?
You know that may have beenyour eBay account that got
hacked, but your Gmail accountuses the same password.
And then gosh, let's try it.
See what happens right.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
I read a funny article recently about.
It was a statistic.
I can't remember what thenumber was 60% of the emails out
there has their pet's namesomewhere in it Not too hard to
find what my pet's name is.
Absolutely.
I mean not social engineering.
Yeah, it happens right.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
And these guys are smart and it doesn't usually
take too long to dig down therabbit hole and find that.
So their actual email has beencompromised and they're sending
an email from the legit Gmailaccount or business account
because that organization, thatindividual, isn't using
multi-factor authentication.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Yep Right, and the login should tell them hey,
somebody logged in.
Yeah, as you here.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Yeah, every email, everything now, unfortunately,
probably should havemulti-factor authentication with
a text code or an authenticatorapp or face ID or something
Right?
Yep, we preach that hard, right?
And my staff screams at meevery day.
It's a pain in the ass.
We know it is that text codeevery day, every time you log
into something, or theauthenticator.
But really nowadays you have tohave it because things are so
(13:15):
crazy out there.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
What's the alternative?
That you don't have it, and youmake it that much easier for
the scammer Right and you losethe money, and I mean it's not
honest to God.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
it's not J paper trails in maine, right, and our
little old clients all over theplace, right?
It's not yep that, andunfortunately that's who they're
going after, because we are thetrusting mainers right, right,
I've said that already.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Very safe up here, right, and I think they know
that.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Yeah, and I think, you know, gosh, the guys in new
york, they're, they don't care,you know, or they have better
controls in place, better, it'sharder to get stuff out of them,
uh, than it is out of the smallbusinesses.
Right, that's very true.
So any other common types ofscams or things that you see
that businesses need to bepaying attention to?
Speaker 2 (13:55):
The phishing.
Phishing is very popular, wherethey'll just blast out emails
and they're seeking information,insider information, so that
could help them run a differentscam.
The big one is the payroll.
We see that a lot.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
And the hard thing about those is there's really
not a whole lot you guys can doabout that?
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Yeah, not really.
And the other thing is thatmoney just doesn't go from one
place to another.
So every hop, think of it.
Every hop is a new subpoena.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Right.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
And you've got to wait.
That's not fast.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Right, and they know this.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Right, right and so by the time and nowadays, with
cryptocurrency, you know,$10,000 comes out of small
business A and by the end of theday, it's changed into Bitcoin,
it's changed into Ethereum andit's gone.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
You know other ways to trace and track those
transactions?
Yes, but as soon as they leavethe country, that becomes a
problem.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Yeah, it's crazy.
I mean, it's really crazy thatwe have to think about that in
this day and age, but it's moreand more prevalent.
We're seeing it.
Certainly you guys are seeingit and I'm sure you feel like
you're spinning your wheels alot or saying, hey, I'm sorry, I
can't do anything about that.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
And a lot of times too, it's not even.
It's like we talked aboutearlier is that the victim
Wasn't just a victim by chance.
The victim did certain thingsat the direction of the scammer
to make this a success for them.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Absolutely, and you know we talked a lot about this
phishing and vishing and vishingis the other voice, phishing-
right.
Right, that's another one.
So we train our staff everyquarter, right?
So we have a software calledKnow Before we educate.
Every quarter, our team takes15, 20 minutes worth of training
on some sort of cybersecurity,information security, phishing,
vishing, whatever.
I have beat them upside thehead 47 ways to Sunday so that
(15:33):
they pay attention to thesethings.
Not only do the training, wetest them right.
So at some point throughout thequarter they're going to get a
phishing email.
And they look good, the companydoes a good job, right, and
they either.
You know, if they click on thelink and they're like you failed
, you failed, we get them.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Our IT department in town just sends them.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
And now we've started using the vishing training and
that's been really good too,because you know we, everyone
thinks about you know the emails, right, that's a faceless kind
of thing, but once you pick upthe phone and there's someone at
the other end, now it's, it'sbecome personal.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
And they know certain things.
Yeah, they know little bitsabout your company, who your
people are.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
They sound real good, that stuff's not too hard to
get right Right.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
If you went on company A's website and it said
meet our staff, and you have allthe staff profiles.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Right, you say, hey, I was just talking to so-and-so,
right, you know, correct, it'snot hard for that kind of stuff
to protect yourself, yourbusiness, your customers.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
The other thing too I think about.
I try to narrow it down forpeople.
If you're not expecting a checkin the mail.
Question it.
If you get an email fromsomebody and the email doesn't
look right or the address thatit's coming from doesn't look
right, you should question that.
If someone says, hey, I'mfollowing up from a phone call
(16:46):
we had last week and you didn'thave a phone call last week, you
should question that Even.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
I mean, we've had you know, my family owns a
restaurant We've had people calland say hey, we want to do a
catering event for this manypeople.
You know, it's usually like areally good event.
You know, I want all this fancystuff and you're going to do
this deposit, or I want to sendyou a deposit, right.
Well, how often does thatactually happen, right?
The customer is like so excitedto pay you a $5,000 deposit,
(17:12):
you know.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
And how many wires do they really get?
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Right, how many?
Speaker 2 (17:16):
wires, do small businesses get right?
And, by the way, if they evertell you to go to your local
Walgreens, cvs, hannaford andbuy gift cards the red light
should be going off right.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
And should be going off, right yeah, and if they
call and they want the code offthe back, definitely stop it
right there, yeah.
So I mean these guys arecertainly good, but you've got
to protect yourself.
And I you know, in yourbusiness, in your life and I
know you know, in my previousworld I was a banker and I know,
you know, I've heard thestories of you know, grandma
comes in and says, oh, mygrandson is in Taiwan and on
vacation and they got kidnappedand I'm wearing them $10,000 to
get unkidnapped, or they losttheir plane tickets or whatever.
And of course grandma wants tohelp little Johnny get home.
(17:56):
And even those types of things.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Oh, happens all the time.
We had four last fall here, ai,when the scammers called, the
voice that they generated on theother end of that phone call
sounded so real that the womangave a courier the money.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Yeah, so that's a whole new thing, right?
I mean, I'm not anywhere nearversed enough on that, but what
are you guys seeing?
How are you guys seeing the AIstuff change, how crimes happen?
Right, I think it's probablystill a little new.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Yeah, it's still new.
I think it may become more andmore frequent, with more success
on the bad guy's end.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Right.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
So just because you hear a familiar voice on the
other end of the phone, youshould maybe question is it
really?
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Or call your grandson's phone, right, Like
hey, you know the real number,right If it comes from a weird
number, right.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Or the other thing.
They spoof everything.
Someone says, hey, it lookedjust like my grandson's phone
number and I answered it and itsounded just like him on the
other end and he said there wasgoing to be a guy coming to my
house or my business and Ineeded to give him cash or gold
bars.
I mean, it's never ending.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
The scams, the scammers yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Protect yourself and protect your business.
Absolutely.
Yeah, that.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
AI stuff is kind of crazy and scary.
Certainly we're all stilllearning about that and trying
to figure that out, so I'll beinterested to see how that
changes your role Right Moredifficult.
So you know, one of the thingsthat we're very fortunate about
in our community is certainlyyou guys, our department here.
You guys are really good atcommunity policing, right yeah,
we try.
And education, just like this,right.
(19:34):
What can businesses do to takeadvantage of that kind of
relationship, assuming thattheir police departments?
Speaker 2 (19:40):
are just as good, right.
Hopefully they all are right,in my view.
You just said the key wordRelationships.
How did you know to reach outto me to do this podcast today?
Because we have a relationship.
I know who you are as abusiness owner and as a resident
in town and you know who I am.
Just use those relationshipswe're here.
When I think of communitypolicing, it's not like one
(20:03):
thing that you do, it's a wayyou do it, it's the way you
conduct business and I look atus like a business and we're
providing service customerservice to witnesses, victims,
residents, visitors, businessowners and that relationship you
know.
Hey, I want to know how do Imake my business a little bit
(20:24):
better?
You know I'm thinking of doingbusiness with the ABC Lock
Company.
Have you ever had any problemswith them?
Call us and use us as aresource.
We're always happy to you know,help you in any way we can.
We've done talks for smallbusiness different small
businesses in town the Chamberof Commerce, the Center, the
elderly center down in LowerVillage, high schools, colleges
(20:47):
so yeah, if you ever need any ofthat, that's the worst we can
do is say, geez, we can't fit itin right now right For the most
part.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
But you guys are always out and about at
community events.
You're part of the community.
You come walk down Main Streetin the summer and say hello to
people and introduce yourselvesand I know the chief hosts
coffee I think once a quarter orsomething like that and hosts
coffee I think once a quarter orsomething like that.
You know, and it's really, andwhen there is an issue, I mean I
never hesitate to reach out.
But I know you guys, but youknow there's always, you know, a
(21:13):
very friendly.
There's never a negativeconnotation.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
And people say a lot of times oh, I don't want to
bother you.
You know, I say you're notbothering us.
I would rather take 10 phonecalls from a business owner or
resident somebody and say thismay be nothing but and then not
have them call and have it besomething.
Why didn't you call us when ithappened?
Right, I mean, call us, that'swhat we have.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
I think that's important and certainly, again,
it's building that relationship.
I know you guys offer the VIPSprogram, the Volunteers in
Police Services.
That's what it is, which is aclass you do once a year or so,
something like that.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Yeah, we do a Citizens Police Academy.
We get the bulk of our VIPsfrom that.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
So through your Citizens Police Academy, you're
teaching community members aboutwhat you do, how you do it and
what they can do to help thepolice department.
Right, Right, that's all reallyimportant, and certainly I know
we're all busy in our lives andit's like eyes and ears right,
it's eyes and ears in thecommunity.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
In town we have a West Kennebunk neighborhood
watch, Just a loose group ofpeople who live in the same
geographic area, that kind oflook out for each other and if
something doesn't seem right,not only do they put it on this
Facebook page to talk about it,they know to call us or email me
and we'll get on it.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
And how has that changed your life?
All these Facebook pages.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
I've got to say it can be good, it can be bad.
I think the better relationshipis, you know, put the
information out there, thetruthful, accurate information.
Give that to the folks outthere in social media and try to
waylay any of the false stuffthat comes up.
People, the imagination runswild sometimes.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Indeed it does.
I read those posts and I'm like, oh my goodness, these people
need a hobby.
Yeah, no comment, you're notallowed to comment.
I can comment, you can't commentso good, so let's just go back.
You know, I think for me one ofthe things that we talk about a
lot on the podcast is these arethings that we probably all
should be doing as businessowners but we aren't, because we
(23:03):
get busy running our businessesand dealing with our employees
and customers and making salesand, and you know, dealing with
all that stuff.
But going back to basics, youknow locks, lighting, cameras,
you know just the basic stuff,right.
And think about a plan Godforbid something bad happens,
right, those are pretty basicthings and then always be
looking out for the scams andand and don't be afraid of the
(23:25):
police department, right?
I mean no, I think you know,unfortunately, over the last
decade or so, I think it's beenreally hard to be a police
officer and I certainlyappreciate everything you guys
do.
We know that and I think it'sdefinitely, but 99.99999% of
police officers in this countryare fantastic people and they
just really care about thecommunity.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
And I think, if you asked from coast to coast, north
to south, the bulk of us why wegot in this job is to help
people, help residents, helpbusiness owners, help kids,
adults, elderly.
It's not we want to get outhere and do anything bad.
We want to just help people, ofcourse, and the media doesn't
help and things like that.
But we've got to keep chuggingforward.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Well, good.
We've hit some really goodtopics today, so I really
appreciate that.
If folks want to get in touchwith you, what's the best way to
get in touch with you if theyhave questions?
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Easiest way is my email.
It's sborst B-O-R-S-T atkennybunkmain.
All spelt out us.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Perfect, and of course the Kenyon Police
Department is on Instagram andFacebook and they're really good
with a lot of that outreach andpreparation.
No-transcript, you can alwaysreach out to us.
(24:36):
We'll get them off to Steve orto any of our guests.
Just podcast at papertrailscom.
But we will be back next weekfor another very exciting
episode.
No-transcript does not implyendorsement of or opposition to
(25:15):
any specific individualorganization, product or service
.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.