Is Your House Safe to Live In?

“my home is my castle” means that my residence is protected from outsiders like a fortress is protected from invaders. We’re looking into options that will make it harder for burglars to break into our home and steal from us or cause harm to our family. Thanks to today’s cutting-edge technology, our homes and families may be protected from outside threats like never before.

The first thing you should do is do a home security audit. A home security review can be performed by a highly trained police officer, which some departments offer. Check with the police department to determine if they provide this assistance. Otherwise, you’ll have to conduct the assessment independently, which is not difficult to perform.

See if any plants or trees in front of your property could cover an intruder at night by looking at them from the street. It would be easy for a thief to enter your home through a bedroom window if a bush or hedge hid it. Criminals frequently prowl neighborhoods looking for easy targets. If overgrown bushes, trees, or hedges are near your windows or doors, cut them down or trim them back.

The home’s perimeter illumination is the next item on the agenda. If your home is well-lit from every angle, a nighttime burglar will think twice before trying to break in. Security floodlights that turn on automatically at night or in response to motion are two options. In addition, I enjoy installing landscape lighting in the front and back yards of my house for the added security it provides. All four sides of your property should be illuminated.

I believe home security cameras are a fantastic deterrent against criminal activity. DIY installation of a security camera system is straightforward and economical. A camera would be installed in my house’s foyer, garage, back entrance, and side. You may use your TV or computer as a security monitor and watch who is at your home via the camera installed on your front entrance. Some companies will host your security camera footage online if you want to protect your house while you’re away at work or on vacation.

Next, inspect the outside doors and replace any damaged or too old. For seven years, I was a member of a tactical squad, and we frequently had to smash down doors to execute search warrants. You should install a deadbolt, and two would be much better. Let’s say a thief approaches your door, intent on smashing it down, but he notices it’s pretty solid and secured with at least two deadbolts. In short order, he’ll move on to a different house that’s more accessible.

I don’t want to belittle your intelligence by suggesting that you should always lock your doors, but please do so. The number of homes broken into during the day and at night because a door was left unlocked would shock you. Many rapes occur when the rapist walks in on an unlocked door. In a notorious instance of rape and murder in California, the perpetrator would follow his female victims home from a nearby gym and then force them into their homes through unlocked doors. This serial killer admitted that he walked straight into the houses of the women he raped and murdered after following them from the gym. Keep in mind that you fortify your castle by shutting the entrances to it at night.

Since we’re discussing entrances, let’s talk about strangers who unexpectedly knock on your door at home. Do you immediately open the door when you hear a knock or the doorbell ring, or do you peek out the window first? Never open a door without first checking the outside through a peephole or window. Many robberies and rapes perpetrated inside a home are carried out by intruders who merely knock on the door and wait for the victim to answer. Check who’s at the door through the peephole, and if you don’t know them, don’t let them in. If the door has a tiny window, you can crack it and talk to whoever is knocking without even opening it. If I am at home and hear a knock on the door, I will look through the peephole to see who it is and keep watching them until they leave if I don’t recognize them. There have been fewer solicitors at my home after I posted a “No Soliciting” sign.

Both your house and mine are equipped with a security alarm system. Thanks to my home security alarm, I can rest easy at night and when I’m gone from home. Because of my active kitties, I disable the motion sensors and lock all the windows and doors. If a crook thinks he’s calm and cuts the phone line, my newer system will still work thanks to its built-in cellular phone arrangement. If I lose electricity, my system also has a battery backup. As a Floridian, I experience frequent power outages due to the state’s frequent hurricanes and other severe storms. Criminals often wait for power outages to strike, so having a battery backup is crucial.

For obvious reasons, windows are crucial. The easiest way for a thief to enter a house is through a window, whether unlocked or broken. If you have an alarm system, you should equip your windows with alarms so that a loud noise will be made if the glass is broken. Never leave a window open while you sleep; never forget to lock it. Many of the perpetrators of rape were able to enter the victim’s home using an unlocked window, as has been discovered through research on this topic. Some of the most notorious cases of kidnapping and murdering children involved suspects who gained inside through unlocked bedroom windows, as you are no doubt aware. Keep your windows closed and locked at night for safety.

Dogs are lovely household guardians, but only if you treat them as part of the family. I have visited several homes over the past 19+ years where I have discovered pets tethered to fences or trees without food or water. I assist Animal Services in seizing stray and abandoned pets. Since I am too busy to give a dog the attention it deserves, I do not own one. Because of their barking powers, a wide variety of little dogs would be on my list if I were to explore adding a dog to my family. If I were to leave my house unattended, I’d want a little dog there to alert me to any intruders by barking. When I make even the tiniest disturbance in my backyard, my neighbor’s four small dogs, hardly more significant than a rabbit, start barking and seemingly going crazy. A German Shepard would be my top pick for a large dog because they are intelligent and devoted to their owners.

Your home’s security should be regularly assessed for loopholes that intruders could exploit. Home invasion robberies are rising as thieves find great success with these break-ins. Protecting loved ones is priceless, so don’t skimp on home security upgrades.

The author is a 19-year veteran police officer and the proprietor of [http://www.personalsafetyheadquarters.com], a website dedicated to personal and family security.

linda