On this week’s edition of Money, I’m Home, Lynne is joined by Officer Jenni Eby with the City of Wyoming Police Department to discuss important Halloween safety measures that we can all take to make sure this fun holiday is a safe one.

0:00:07.0 Lynne Jarman-Johnson (LJJ): Money, I’m home. Welcome in. I’m Lynne Jarman-Johnson with Consumers Credit Union. From finance to fitness, and sometimes a little fun. You know what? And some safety too, we’ve got it all for you. And today’s topic is really important because you know what’s going on. The kids are getting ready to put on those costumes and head out the door for some Halloween trick-or-treating. And today we are so excited because we have Officer Jenni Eby. She is a Crime Analyst Officer for the City of Wyoming. Jenni, thank you so much. Officer Eby, I really appreciate your time today!

0:00:39.2 Jenni Eby (JE): Thanks for having me. I’m glad I can be here.

0:00:41.7 LJJ: I’ll tell you what, this is the time of year that is a lot of fun, but there really is safety that we need to talk about when we are heading out the door, the kids are trick-or-treating. In the past it used to be that was all neighborhoods, and then for a while there was Halloween where it was just big groups because people got a little leery. Seems like we’re going back a little bit to the neighborhood style. What are you seeing Officer Eby?

0:01:05.1 JE: We see a lot of kids hanging out in neighborhoods, but also the big groups like you were saying, it’s kind of both. I think it really depends on where you live. Do you have a lot of houses that are near you where it’s easy to get a lot of candy when you’re just walking through a couple of blocks or are you really looking for those neighborhoods that you know have really good candy, like maybe the full-sized candy bars?

0:01:23.5 LJJ: Oh boy, I remember those. Don’t you? [laughter]

0:01:27.1 JE: Oh yeah, we knew what houses had them. We knew exactly which houses.

0:01:30.6 LJJ: Yeah, and the kids do too right now. Tell us a little bit about costume safety. It’s now time to get out and about. But it’s going to be darker. There’s daylight savings time to even consider. Nowadays they have these neon lights things that you can wear. We never had that growing up, but it seems like that’s great, smart ideas.

0:01:53.4 JE: Oh yeah, they’re relatively inexpensive to buy online. Little neon light up bracelets. You can get some glow stick bracelets. That’ll help too, help you be a little more visible overnight or after dark. Also make sure that your costume is short enough that you’re not going to trip on it while you’re running around, going house-to-house, and that you can see and you can hear well. So, if you have a mask on, make sure that you can see outside that mask and that you can see the full like 180 degrees so that way you can see cars coming, you can see what’s coming up on the side of you as well.

0:02:24.9 LJJ: Officer Eby, I never thought about the hearing component, but that has to be really important, especially when it’s dark.

0:02:29.9 JE: Yeah, making sure that you can hear cars coming up behind you, that you can hear that you’re still with your group. And some of those masks are a lot of fun. And they’re big and they’re bulky and they’re really scary, but you have to make sure that you can still know what’s going on around you so that way you can stay safe, too.

0:02:46.4 LJJ: Now when the kids are heading out the door, what do you think are the most important things? Just reminders, as everybody is getting their costumes on and everybody’s excited, there’s lots of running going on, right? What should parents remind kids to do as they’re heading out?

0:03:02.8 JE: Definitely stop and look both ways because it’s hectic for drivers while they’re driving around. There’s kids everywhere and I think people end up getting distracted whether they want to or not, just looking at all the costumes and the kids driving around. So, make sure that you’re stopping at intersections and looking both ways. And that they’re staying with you or the group, that nobody’s getting lost in the dark in unfamiliar neighborhoods. Don’t run out in between cars because drivers are looking for people to be crossing at those intersections. Even though they’re kind of on alert you know because everybody’s running around, it’s still dangerous to dart out in between cars.

0:03:17.1 LJJ: You make a really good point, when you’re in a larger neighborhood and you’re parking or you’re driving in that neighborhood, you might not know the neighborhood well, so you don’t know blind spots. How important is it as a driver to even be more cautious?

0:03:32.0 JE: It’s really important. I mean, everyone knows October 31st, pretty much between the hours of 5 to 8 or 9 o’clock at night you’re going to have kids running around in neighborhoods. So, if you are driving through neighborhoods, make sure that you’re slowing down that extra five, ten miles an hour, that you are paying attention to everything around you. You’re looking in between cars and you’re giving those intersections just a little bit more respect to making sure that you’re slowing down and keeping an eye out.

0:04:00.6 LJJ: I read an article with the National Safety Institute that stated that accidents with kids are double on Halloween night. And it’s easy to understand, right? So, the safety component is huge. Tell us a little bit about like as you’re driving, should you turn your headlights on even before it’s dark?

0:04:18.5 JE: That’s a good idea to do just to make your car more visible. But having your headlights on as soon as the sun starts going down is going to help if kids have reflective patches on their costumes at all, it’s going to help hit those reflective patches or help illuminate those kiddos that are running around on the street for you. So just flip your headlights on as soon as you can. A lot of cars, as soon as it starts getting dark enough, they’re just going to flip on anyway. And you don’t even really have to worry about that. But really, the biggest thing is just slowing down and paying attention. The more time that you can give yourself to perceive and react that there’s a kid running in front of your car, the more time that you’re going to have to stop before you have an accident.

0:04:56.9 LJJ: Let’s now dig into the candy because the kids are going to be digging into the candy. Another article I read which was really disconcerting as well as it’s all over social media is the worries about drugs inside the candy. I’ve heard the word fentanyl. Officer Eby, are you hearing about that? And what do you tell us as parents or grandparents to do once the kids get home?

0:05:21.0 JE: I’ve seen the same things posted on social media. And I think every year there’s something new that kind of pops up with stuff. The rainbow fentanyl pills are what’s going around this year. I think last year a lot of it was about marijuana edibles and be careful they’re going to end up in your kid’s candy. I think the biggest thing is just… The easiest way to get through it is get home, dump all the candy out, take a look at it. If there’s anything that the wrapper seems like it’s halfway off or there’s something that’s come unwrapped or it looks like it’s maybe a homemade candy like, the little lady down the street may have the best of intentions making homemade candy, but it’s probably not the best idea to decide to eat that one. Just look at stuff that doesn’t look like it’s wrapped correctly. If it’s an unfamiliar brand or a candy that you’re not familiar with, we have the technology. Go ahead and look it up on Google or you know what? It’s one piece of candy. Go ahead and chuck it. Your kids aren’t going to miss that one piece of candy and you’ll have the peace of mind of just throwing it in the bin and not having to worry about what was that that they ate.

0:06:21.4 JE: So just give it all a good once over and take out anything that looks a little suspect. If it’s something that you really think is any kind of drugs or contraband, you can always call the police department to come out and take a look at it, too.

0:06:32.5 LJJ: Tell me something a little bit about your job, if you don’t mind. Your day-to-day, what’s going on with the Wyoming Police Department? We really appreciate you. Our 54th Street office is safe and sound.

0:06:45.7 JE: Oh, my day-to-day. It changes every day. So, I am in the Community Services Unit, so up until this last year I was one of the officers that was assigned just a neighborhood in the city that was my area, I was responsible for those folks and any problems that popped up there. And then the last year, I’ve started doing more crime analysis, which the best way I can explain that is if you took a bucket of kids building blocks and consider that all the data that I’m dealing with, I take that I sort it out into colors, I take those colors and start building houses with the data and start figuring out how all those pieces fit together. And then I build a house or a scene or a space station or something, and then that’s how I’m explaining what’s going on in the city is I’m building these things out of the data and showing people what’s going on in the city and helping solve crimes with patterns and different stuff that way.

0:07:37.6 LJJ: Well, it’s amazing to me how much data is now used across the board. For Consumers, we use data continuously to help people with their financial education. And now you’re doing the same thing even more. So, it’s kind of like, you know… I’ll be honest, I watch those crime shows, Officer Eby, I’m in awe. [chuckle]

0:07:56.6 JE: I appreciate it. It’s a lot of fun on my end. I dig into social media for Detective Unit as well. Like I said, my day-to-day is different all day. I have three meetings today, including this one with you, which is great. And then tomorrow, who knows what I’m doing?

0:08:11.8 LJJ: Well, we will sure appreciate everything that you’re doing, not only for the city of Wyoming, but for the State of Michigan, as well as for all of our members. Thank you so much, Officer Eby. Thanks for your time today!

0:08:24.7 JE: Thanks for having me. I appreciated the chance to come on and talk with you.

0:08:29.0 LJJ: It is Money, I’m home. From finance to fitness and Halloween safety. We’ve got it all. Thank you, Jake Esselink, for your production skills. Sure do appreciate it. Officer Eby, you have a very safe Halloween weekend as well.

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