It hasn't reached epidemic proportions yet, but crime is a growing threat to recreational boating. Theft of boats and expensive hardware and electronics is increasing. Less serious crime, like petty theft and random vandalism, is even more prevalent. Marine crime prevention, like home or business crime prevention, is mostly a matter of anticipating potential risks and eliminating them.
Most crimes occur when a criminal finds a safe and easy opportunity to strike.
Remove the opportunity and you usually prevent the crime. Even in the high-risk settings, aggressive prevention makes successful attacks unlikely. Anticipating risk can be as simple as talking to your marina neighbors. In most cases, a chat with fellow boaters and marina officials will give a good idea of local security problems. Providing secure facilities should be a basic responsibility of marina management.