Crime resolution rates are at an all-time low.
Only 5% of burglaries end with a conviction – stolen items are often lost forever. To make matters worse, crime is on the rise. Break-ins are up over 30%, with reports suggesting that there are over 300,000 residential burglaries each year.
This may sound like scaremongering, but there’s a point to these statistics.
The police are underfunded and understaffed. MPs recently voiced concerns that the service was at risk of becoming irrelevant. Add to this that 80% of UK people don’t trust the police to recover their stolen belongings, Given the data outlined above, they are right to lose faith.
This means that personal property protection is now an individual’s responsibility. If you don’t want your house burgled – if you don’t want your items taken and never seen again – you need to take steps to secure them.
Nobody else is going to do it for you.But security is expensive. Alarms can cost a fortune – who can afford to kit their home out with brand new locks or digital access systems? Don’t be disheartened. There are plenty of ways to boost security quickly without massive financial investment.
Here are a few ideas to consider:
Fake Security Units
Many thefts are crimes of opportunity. Criminals see an easy target and they attempt a break-in. One solution, deterrence, is a major factor in keeping your home safe. If a thief believes they are at high risk of getting caught, they’ll probably avoid your property. Security cameras and alarms are two of the biggest deterrence factors around. One records evidence, the other draws significant attention – a thief’s worst nightmare.
These items are both expensive, but consider the meaning behind the word deterrence. To put burglars off, these items don’t have to work, the criminal just has to believe they do. You can easily and cheaply acquire fake CCTV cameras and alarm boxes to fit your property. Many come battery powered, with movements and blinking lights for added effect.
Make criminals think your house is protected like Fort Knox, and they’ll keep away.
Internal and External Security Lights
Lights are another big deterring factor when it comes to home security. Lights make you visible. Visibility makes you identifiable. Being identifiable leads to convictions. That’s not what criminals want. A simple security light on your home, activated by movement, is enough to keep chance burglars at bay.
But lights don’t just keep people away through fear of being spotted, they also keep them away through fear of confrontation. Most burglars want to avoid confrontation. Again, it presents the risk of being caught. Instead, they want to break into a house that is empty – an easy target.
A dark and empty house is the perfect target, so make sure your house doesn’t look like one. When you’re out or away, use timers to have lights come on during the evening – you can even set TVs to come on, or radios for sound, to make your home appear lived in.
Just like with cameras and alarms, if you make a burglar think your house is protected and inhabited, they’ll think twice about entering.
Remote Activated Door Camera
Recent developments of app technology have led to the creation of some pretty exciting security products. Sensor activated door cameras are part of a new wave of smart tech that offers affordable ways to protect your home.
The apps work simply. You install a unit as a doorbell. Inside is a camera that is activated when someone approaches your property. The app then notifies your smartphone and you can use the device to view the camera feed. The doorbell unit also has an intercom system, so you can talk to whoever is outside your home.
If you are on holiday, are away or just want to deter whoever is approaching your home, you can simply speak to them and inform them they are being watched. This is the perfect way to protect your house while you aren’t there and stop would-be criminals staking out your property when they think it’s empty.
While many of these sensor-activated cameras command a high price tag, shopping around will reveal good quality products available for under 50- 80.
Budget-Friendly Safes
Let’s imagine the worst case scenario – somebody breaks in and enters your home. What now? With all other avenues of defence exhausted, you need something that stops them from taking your possessions.
You cannot shore up everything, but you can take steps to keep your most important valuables safe from thieves. The most commonly stolen items are things like car keys, jewellery and smartphones – small items, easy to carry and of high value. However, as these are small items, they can be easily stored and secured in a safe.
Home safes offer a final and very important level of protection for your possessions. Locked behind a barrier impenetrable to most all criminals, they prevent access to your most cherished and expensive items and stop them from being taken. Advancements in security technology mean that home safes are available with plenty of high-security options for affordable prices.