Posted: June 11, 2009
The Port St. Lucie Police Department has a new weapon to use against criminals, and officers are asking residents to use it to protect themselves.
The weapon is an industrial-sized paper shredder, and the public is invited to the Civic Center on Tuesday, June 16 for the department’s first annual Shred-a-thon, where anyone can destroy sensitive documents – free of charge.
The department’s Victims’ Assistance Unit is arranging the event with the volunteer help of ShredAssured, a Wellington firm that specializes in the secure destruction of confidential data. The idea is to help residents get rid of documents with credit card and bank account numbers, dates of birth, social security numbers, addresses and other personal details that criminals use to commit identity theft.
The shredder is mounted in a truck and can destroy thousands of pages an hour. Residents will be able to drop in their documents themselves, and then watch a video monitor that shows the shredding process inside the truck. This way, no other person handles the documents, and participants can feel secure their papers are destroyed forever.
Because the machine is an industrial model, paper clips and staples do not have to be removed first, minimizing the amount of effort involved.
The event will take place from 10 a.m. to noon on Tuesday in front of the Civic Center, which is at the southeast corner of Walton Road and U.S. Highway 1. Donations will be accepted by officers from the Victims’ Assistance Unit to help crime victims.
For more information, call the police department at (772) 344-4331 or ShredAssured at (800) 838-3840.
Prepared by:
Ed Cunningham
Communications Director
City of Port St. Lucie
(772) 871-5219