Top 10 Ways to Secure Your Home and Keep Your Family Safe
When it comes to home security, keeping yourself and your family safe should always be your number one priority. Unfortunately, burglaries and home invasions are on the rise in the southeast region, meaning the task of keeping your home and family safe is more difficult than ever. If you’re concerned about protecting the things you love most, consider the following list of the top 10 ways to secure your home and keep your family safe:
1.) Form a Neighborhood Watch Group
Whether you live in a tight-knit suburb or a rural community, forming a neighborhood watch group is a great way to keep your home and family safe. Most neighborhood watch groups act as volunteer organizations that pledge to keep an eye out for suspicious people and vehicles, and they also pledge to report suspicious activity. In most cases, neighborhood watch groups are a great way to deter and prevent crime. In suburban communities, try to visit your neighbors to discuss neighborhood watch opportunities. In rural communities, it may take more time to contact your neighbors, but it can still be done.
2.) Install an Alarm System
Installing a home alarm system is another great way to deter and prevent crime in your area. Today’s home alarms are more advanced than ever, and companies such as Security Concepts are able to offer homeowners customizable options, regardless of home size or need. Today’s home alarm systems also take advantage of wireless technology, making them more efficient than ever. This means that homeowners can be notified of intrusions from anywhere in the world using their smartphones, and some systems even offer wireless video communication.
3.) Set Up Security Cameras
In conjunction with a home alarm system, installing security cameras is another great way to prevent crime. If a potential criminal approaches your home and notices your camera system, they will be more likely to leave immediately. In addition, if a crime does occur, a security camera system, provided by a company such as Security Concepts, may be the only lead that helps in catching the individuals responsible.
4.) Use Window and Door Sensors
Whether you choose to install a full home alarm system or not, window and door sensors can help to alert you in the event of a home intrusion. In most cases, these types of sensors will be able to give an audible alert to homeowners if a break-in has occurred, meaning these homeowners will be given advance warning of impending trouble. Window and door sensors can be installed independently, or they can be joined with advanced security components provided by companies such as Security Concepts.
5.) Keep Window Shades Closed
Believe it or not, many potential criminals initially get the idea to invade or burglarize a home based on what they can see through open windows. If you have a large-screen television, other expensive electronics, high-priced furniture or any high-dollar items that sit in front of your open windows, you are practically inviting criminals into your home. One of the best options to protect these items, as well as your home and family, is to invest in blinds and curtains and then keep them closed, even during the day. This will remove the temptation for criminals to seek out your home and family, and it will also keep your home more energy efficient.
6.) Don’t Follow a Routine
One of the most common ways that criminals decide on who to victimize is through following a homeowner’s routine. If you leave for work each day and return at a certain time, you essentially offer a potential criminal a pattern to follow. Many times, criminals who are intent on breaking into a home or victimizing an individual or family will watch the residence for a length of time in order to determine when a homeowner and his or her family leave and when they return. By altering your schedule, you will offer very little to a potential criminal in the way of knowledge, meaning you, your home and your family are less likely to be victimized.
7.) Use Strategic Lighting
Whether indoors or outdoors, lighting can be a great way to deter potential criminals. The fact is, criminals are generally operating in the darkness of night, and so shedding some light on them is a one of the best ways to deter them. In terms of outdoor lighting, you should always have prominent lighting focusing on entryways, including windows and doors, as soon as it becomes dark. Indoor lighting should be left on to a minimum during night time hours or when you are away for extended periods of time in order to make potential criminals believe that someone is home. Companies like Security Concepts can also offer you options to tie your existing lighting into an advanced security system for maximum efficiency and security performance.
8.) Fortify Your Home
In some cases, homes are manufactured with substandard doors, windows and other entryways. This means that criminals will have an easier time breaking in, whether through kicking in a door or through breaking through a window. If you’re faced with such a situation, you may want to consider investing in metal doors, deadbolts, fortified windows and more. These tools can not only help prevent break-ins, but they can also help to raise property values for your home and your area.
9.) Own Dogs
While it may seem cliché, owning dogs is a great way to deter and prevent break-ins and home invasions. If a potential criminal approaches your home, whether during the day or during the night, a barking dog or dogs is a very effective way to ward the criminal off. Most criminals will not only fear the possibility of being bitten by your dog or dogs, but the potential criminal will also want to avoid the attention that the sound of a barking dog brings. It’s important to realize that even small dogs can deliver loud noises, so owning a dog or dogs does not always depend upon breed or size in order to be effective.
10.) Be Informed
Finally, one of the best things that you can do to protect yourself, your family and your home is to be informed. If there has been a rash of break-ins in your area recently, it should be a sign that you need to take extra precautions in protecting yourself, your family and your home. Additionally, anyone who visits your home, including friends of friends and friends of family members, should be scrutinized. This is not to say that you need to interrogate any unidentified individual who enters your home, but it is to say that you need to be wary of unidentified individuals who display suspicious tendencies. Essentially, anyone that you don’t know who enters your home should be a possible suspect for a criminal break-in or invasion, even if they are presented by a trusted friend or family member.
If you’re interested in learning more ways to protect yourself, your family and your home, Security Concepts can help. Security Concepts is a professional home security company that can evaluate your current security needs, offer you present-day solutions and help you protect your assets and loved ones for the future. To contact the experts at Security Concepts, you can visit www.homesecurityconcepts.com, or you can call 2050-424-9219 in Dade county, FL, or you can call 954-713-9411 in Broward county, FL. Don’t risk becoming a victim – contact Security Concepts today to see what its experts can do for you, your family and your home.
