Conference to teach home security, Internet safety

The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office will offer its annual Neighborhood Watch Crime Prevention Conference March 10 for people who want to learn ways to keep themselves and their neighborhoods safe.

Registration for the day-long event costs $15 and includes a continental breakfast, lunch and conference materials.

Participants may sign up for a variety of classes that will be taught from 8:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. at the CenterPlace community center in Spokane Valley, 2426 N. Discovery Place.

One of the classes will be a boating safety course that is now required by Washington law for people 25 and younger who operate boats with 15 horsepower or larger engines. The age threshold for the course increases every year, and will rise to 30 next year.

More information on the law is available at www.parks.wa.gov/boating/ boatered.asp.

Other conference classes will cover how to avoid being a victim in person or on the Internet, how to make your home secure, and how the National Crime Stoppers and Crime Check programs work. There also will be classes on gangs, sex offenders, public speaking and how to deal with frustrating people.

For registration forms, click on the “Neighborhood Watch” link on the sheriff’s Web page at www.spokanesheriff.org.

For more information, call Neighborhood Watch Director Diana Somerville at 477-3055.