Looking over some burglary statistics it came to my attention rather quickly that locking and fortifying the doors in your home may be the single most important thing to do to decrease the chance of a home break-in. In more than 50% of break-ins in the US the perpetrator enters through the front or rear door, with little to no resistance. If you throw garage doors into that equation you are at over 60% of all break-ins coming right through the doors of the home. An alarming number, over 35%, of these entries are not break-ins at all, but rather the burglars are walking through unlocked doors. This begins to make sense when you realize that about 88% of burglaries are unplanned and a spur-of-the-moment decision. It seems easy to understand how any difficulty at all may very well discourage the would-be criminal from going through with his or her ill-conceived plan.
It doesn’t have to be an expensive endeavor to dramatically increase the security in your home. First, lock your doors, and use a deadbolt all the time day and night. the vast majority of unauthorized entries happen in the middle of the day. Secondly, get all residents of the house to understand the importance of locking doors. third, consider additional locks and accessories for poorly secured doors, like door braces, Charley bars, specialized locks for sliding glass doors and a quality deadbolt, and simple battery-operated DYI accessories, chimes or sirens that activate when doors are opened. No criminal likes to announce their entry or struggle with a fortified door.
After that, we can begin to talk about smart door locks that make it easy to lock your doors as part of a home safety routine that integrate with Wi-Fi enabled home management systems like Alexa and Google Home and Apple Home-Kit. But that discussion is left for another day, stay posted!
Plan for safety,
Andy, Senior Editor
Security V1: Sources: policyadvice.net, TheZebra.com, Forbes, BankRate.com, FBI.gov
Comments