C-dub wrote:Agree with the others that distance is your friend. Even an arms length is too close if you can avoid it.
I have only had to call the police once for an incident similar to yours. The choice of words you, or in this case your wife, uses can greatly speed up their response time. Simply telling them that there is a man harassing people asking for money in a Walmart parking lot is not going to be at or near the top of their priority list. However, throw in words like, "I have my concealed handgun license and would really rather not have to use it today" will speed things up a bit. I think an officer arrived within 2-3 minutes in my case and after another 4-5 minutes let me go with a "Have a nice day" and proceeded to tell the other man he could be arrested for stalking and what a bad idea it was to do what he had done.
this is the key....
one time we witnessed a car accident in CO just across the highway from the river...the dispatcher asked if I could see any leaking fluids? ummm, yeh, you know I think I might...the cops were out there in 5 mins
didn't seem to matter when I said it was a blind turn and they were blocking traffic, noooo, but once I said there might have been leaking fluids across from the river "OK, they will be right there!" 
As for RR being the safest city in the US, tell her I've lived there...I know better, and that was a while ago, it's much more populated now, even G'town, what I sort of consider "home" wouldn't qualify for that designation anymore
