Our thanks go out to Pittsfield Police Detective Kim Bertelli for sharing great safety tips for REALTORS and their clients. It was both super fun and informative. At the end, we’ve included the handouts with great tips and content for an office meeting for those that missed it.  Realtor member and former police officer Andy Perenick included information on raising awareness of our surroundings, how to make business decisions (like a policy about customer identification forms and not taking clients in your own car) that create safer environments and some simple tips to help Realtors in the field protect themselves from not only those who might wish harm, but also for unsafe homes, road hazards and more .

We also talked about the cell phone apps that every REALTOR should pick from.  [handouts with great tips / use it for an office meeting]

Kim then engaged the audience to practice “getting out’ techniques for removing yourself from dangerous situations, whether it be assertiveness when feeling the 6th scene of something not right, to physically removing someone from your space or if someone is holding you.  Check out the great photos from the event, and learn above advanced self defense training offered by the Pittsfield Police.

Both have offered to host the program again, so if you’re interested in a fall event please let us know.  In the meantime, the Pittsfield Police Department and the Berkshire Health Systems Department of Education are once again offering a free RAD Systems self-defense program for women.  RAD stands for Rape Aggression Defense and is a proven, national model of basic self defense. It is a 4 session (once per week) free course offered at BHS Hillcrest Campus from 6 pm to 9 pm for 4 Thursdays in March 2015 or in the fall of 2015. There is no cost to attend this program, but advanced registration is required.   For more information, contact the BHS Education Department at 413-447-2132.