subject: Home Security Tips to Stay Safe and Keep Your Home Protected [print this page] Home Security Tips to Stay Safe and Keep Your Home Protected
Make it difficult
Making your home more secure is an investment in your property and safety. Through the use of basic crime prevention techniques, you can increase the likelihood that a burglar will bypass your home. By installing secure locks, hinges, doors and lighting, along with landscaping to deter crime, you may well avert loss!
Easy access is a burglar's allythey do not want to be seen, heard or delayed. Burglars want to minimize their risk while maximizing their profit. They know common weak points in home security and take advantage of them.
Here are some simple precautions and procedures you can use to protect yourself and your property.
Look at your house through a burglar's eyes
Eliminate hiding places
Trim trees and shrubs that obstruct a clear view to entrances and windows. Why give a burglar concealment and more time to work unobserved?
Lighting
The entrances to your home and garage service door should be well lighted and the lights placed out of reach from ground level. High-pressure sodium and compact fluorescent lamps are the most efficient. Inexpensive timers or photocells will turn lights on at dusk and turn them off at dawn.
Your house address should be readily visible from the street with numbers being at least three inches high (numbers are easier to read than script). A low-wattage, compact fluorescent fixture with a built-in photocell will illuminate the numbers and add just 50 cents a month to your electric bill. If your home is set back on the lot or is set at an angle from the road, consider posting your address at the entrance to your driveway. Passersby observing suspicious activity will then know where to direct the police. Responding officers and emergency crews will find your home more easily.
Lights with motion sensors can startle burglars. Be careful when aiming them so as not to blind traffic, pedestrians or bother neighbors with glaring lights.
Make it look lived in
Always make your home appear occupied whether you are at home, out for the evening or on extended vacation. Make sure windows are secured and locked including those in the garage. Leave the shades and drapes in a normal position and a radio or television set playing. Turn the phone ringer down so the phone and answering machine cannot be heard.
To ensure that lights are on during times of darkness whether you are at home or away, inexpensive automatic timers or electric photocells should be installed.
Never leave notes indicating when you will return home.
Never leave spare keys under doormats, in mailboxes or over the door frame.
Plan ahead when leaving for vacation or extended absence
Newspapers, flyers and a buildup of mail are sure signs to a burglar that the home is unoccupied. Arrange with a neighbor to pick up the newspapers, flyers and mail. Apartment dwellers should also follow this recommendation.
Have someone mow your lawn or shovel your walk.
Leave a key with a trusted neighbor or relative. Have them vary the position of the shades and/or drapes.
Don't publicize your planned absence.
Alarms
Many types of alarms are availablesome inexpensive and others very expensive. Alarm types include burglary, personal, panic, motion and more. We recommend that you first examine the benefits and drawbacks of a system, as well as the cost effectiveness of installing any alarm system. In the event you decide to install any alarm system, do not forget that dialing 911 is your first line of defense.
Door systems
Points of entry
There is more to a door than meets the eye. A door is an integrated system of locks and hinges as well as a barrier between you and a potential burglar. All elements of a door must work together to be considered secure.
For best security, solid-core wood or metal doors at least 1w-inch thick should be installed. There should not be more than 8-inch clearance between the door and its frame. Any more than 8 inch allows easy access for tools to spread the frame.
Viewer
The door should be equipped with a 180-degree wide-angle viewer. This enables you to see who is at your door without opening it. If you desire a door with a window in it, the glass should be located at least 40 inches from the lock to prevent an intruder from breaking the glass and reaching in to unlock the door.
Hinges
Most door hinge pins are located inside, safe from attack. Hinge pins located outside could easily be removed and the
Locks
door removed from its frame. To remedy this, replace existing hinges with nonremovable pin hinges or modify existing hinges by removing the middle screw on each hinge plate, top and bottom, and inserting a headless screw or a metal pin into one side. When the door closes, the exposed pin will fit into the opposite hole and will bolt the door to its frame.
Most homes were built with economy in mind, not security. Most have inexpensive key-in-knob type locks that offer no security at all. They're easy to open with a credit card or screwdriver and won't resist a good kick.
The locking mechanism consists of the lock, the bolt or throw, and the strike plate. For best security, a singlecylinder, thumb-latch dead-bolt lock is recommended.
Make sure the lock has the following features:
A bolt or throw that extends at least one inch from the edge of the door.
Connecting screws that hold the lock together are inside the door.
The lock cylinder has a steel guard.
The strike plate is anchored to the door frame with three-inch long screws.
In addition, a reinforcing sleeve can be added to the door to increase the quality of the locking device.
Sliding patio doors and windows
The sliding patio door or window is probably the easiest point of entry to a home. Here are a few simple, inexpensive methods to aid in the security of these doors and windows that you can install yourself:
Reduce the vertical clearance between the door and the track.
Antislide bolt.
Charlie bar.
Keyed locking devices. Do not use on a required exit.
Locks
Windows
Special key locks for double-hung windows can be purchased at reasonable prices. These locks require keys and pose a hazard in case of emergency exit. Everyone in the household must know where the key is located, but it should not be kept near the window.
Eyebolt
We recommend pinning the windows. Drill an angled hole through the top frame of the lower window partially into the frame of the upper window. Eye-bolts or nails can then be inserted into the holes, yet easily removed for emergency exit.
For the purpose of providing ventilation, a second set of holes can be drilled into the upper window frames at a height that will not allow entry. We recommend no more than four inches. Keep the eyebolts in place when windows are opened.
Street-level windows
These are especially vulnerable. Grating or grilles may be installed, but make sure they are equipped with a quick release feature for emergency exits.
Louvered or jalousie windows
The individual glass panes in these windows are easily removed from the outside. There are several options available to deal with this type of window:
Remove and install another type of window that provides more security.
Install ornamental bars or security screening.
Basement windows
This is another favorite point of attack for the burglar. Install flat steel bars six inches apart and anchor the bars to the interior window frame with carriage bolts or the longest screws possible. Glass block makes a secure basement window. Keep in mind the need for emergency exits and fire codes.
Windows with exterior air conditioners
Ornamental steel bars can be installed to fit around the air conditioning unit. This protects the unit and prevents entry. If possible, remove the air conditioner from the window for the winter.
Garages
Today, an average garage contains several hundred dollars worth of machinery, snow throwers, power lawn mowers and electrical garden tools besides a vehicle or two. Better security precautions must be installed to safeguard the contents.
Service door
The service door should be exposed by light that is controlled from inside the home. The same security precautions recommended for home doors apply here: solid-core wood or metal door with a single-cylinder thumb-latch dead bolt.
Overhead garage doors
All garage doors should be kept locked except when actually going in or out. Most garage doors are constructed of thin plywood or masonite panels.
Both can be easily broken into by bodily force, reaching in and unlocking. The door can be secured to the track by either of two methods:
Drill a hole into the track just above a hinge and insert either a heavy-duty removable steel pin or use a good padlock. This will prevent up-and-down movement.
Drill a hole into the end of the slide bar and insert a good padlock to prevent side or unlocking movements of the slide bar.
Double-out swing doors
This door is difficult to secure. It is usually hinged on the outside and exposes hinge pins to easy removal. We recommend that heavy-duty surface bolts be installed on the inactive leaf of the door. Install hinges with non-removable hinge pins. Install a good case-hardened steel hasp and padlock on the outside.
Garage windows
All garage windows that are not used for ventilation should be secured permanently. The same recommendations for securing residence windows on page 6 apply to garage windows.
Make it unrewarding
Do not keep large sums of money in your home.
Do not store valuables in your home, and do not display them in easily observable areas of the home.
Mark your valuables with your Wisconsin driver's license number and keep an inventory of items with serial numbers. Videotape or photograph items of value, and store them in a safe deposit box or other location away from the home.
Do not advertise your assets.
Call the police if you see suspicious activity.
Be a watchful neighbor
Join a Neighborhood Watch group. If one is not established in your neighborhood, start one.
