Protection

You’ve decided to have a home security system professionally installed.  You have done some research to check out the best type of protection for you and your family.  Now you need an alarm representative to explain in detail the protection and services they offer.

Checking with a friend or neighbor who has an alarm system or the local police authority can be a good idea.  If they are satisfied with the protection and service they receive from their alarm company that can be a good referral.

You should be thinking about the areas of your home that concern you most.  This could be a basement window or a door off the garage that is very secluded.  Think about where a burglar might attempt a break in without being seen.  This will definitely be an area you will want the home security expert to look at and give their opinion on protecting.

Be sure to consider the type of protection you will want, (i.e., doors, windows, motion detectors, smoke detectors, panic alarms), a budget for the alarm installation (be budget flexible), and the benefits and services you will expect from the alarm company.

You may know you are only calling the alarm company your friend referred.  If you decide to call more than one company, don’t waste your time calling in 4-6 companies.  First, it may either confuse you by the time you are done with the last company meeting or make you an expert in home security.  Sometimes 1-2 or even 3 companies are sufficient to get a good, quality estimate on protection and service.

There are a number of quality local alarm companies in each community. (Local means they only have one office location).  There are also excellent national alarm companies, who are also considered local, yet they may have  offices located in cities throughout the United States.  These companies usually provide security for large commercial and small businesses and tend to have several sophisticated 24-hour alarm monitoring centers located in various states.

One benefit of having a national alarm company provide your security protection is should you be transferred to another city by your business  – no matter where you go you may be able to have your same alarm company provide your protection and service.

Allow about an hour or so for a complete home security review. Have each alarm company give you a written proposal that includes all of the protection coverage, the cost of the security system, and monitoring services to be provided.

Once you’ve made a decision on the company to provide your security protection, get the installation scheduled as soon as you can.  I always said the first step in the installation process was putting up the security window decals and yard signs!  Do that right away and let the protection begin!

Good luck in your home security selection!

Home Security Tips

Tip #1 Make your home security system like an onion, not an egg. Layers upon layers are not only the best deterrent, but the best defense against break ins.

Reason: It is easy for a criminal to bypass a single line of defense. Multiple layers not only slow him, but serve as a means to alert you or your neighbors that someone is trying to break in. Doing these “layered walk-aways” makes it more difficult for a criminal to meet his criteria of quick and unobserved entry. If, like the tip of an iceberg, enough of these deterrents are visible, most of the time the would-be intruder will simply choose not to even try. If he does try, then the layers he did not see will impede him.

A good example of a layered defense is rosebushes outside the window, double-locked, barred and safety coated side windows and something difficult to climb over inside under the window.

Tip #2 Pretend to be a burglar
Walk around your property and ask yourself: How would I break in? Examine your house from the street, where are the blind spots?  What are the most vulnerable areas and, therefore, likely to be attacked? Stand outside the windows and look in, make sure no valuables, like expensive electronics or artwork, are visible. If you can see your belongings doing this, so can criminals.

Reason: We don’t tend to think of our homes in these terms. So spend just a few minutes doing this. Find where “blind spots” are (areas where a criminal can work without being seen or would be screened from view of a neighbor looking to see what that loud noise they just heard). Also look for “weaknesses” (easy access points) are (for example, sliding glass doors, doggy doors or louvered windows). These are the areas that will be “attacked” by the criminal. That is also where you must focus your defenses.

Tip #3 Consider the area that the lock sits in
A lock is not enough, you must also address the area around it. You need to extend your thinking about security measures to 18 and twenty four inches around the lock itself. That is the area you must protect.

Reason: A burglar doesn’t care how much damage he causes getting in. The best locks in the world will do no good if he smashes the door in. A pinewood door frame will splinter and give way after a few savage kicks. The backdoor deadbolt can often be bypassed by just breaking a window and reaching through to unlock it. Windows can be broken and locks undone. Many locked gates can be opened by simply reaching around and over. A hasp-and-lock will swiftly yield to blows from a even a small sledgehammer.

Tip #4 As well as locking something, you must also protect the lock and its components
A common combination of cheap locks and small construction flaws, that we tend not to notice, often give criminals the “cracks” in security they need to break in.

Reason: Many home doorlocks can be quickly bypassed with a knife or screwdriver slid in the gap between door and frame. After that the criminal can easily work the tongue of most cheap locks out of the door frame. A thin kitchen knife slid between sash windows can “tap” a normal window lock open. Hasps and locks can be hammered or twisted off in a few blows, or simply cut off with bolt cutters. Many sliding windows and doors can simply be lifted out of place.

Door: Look at the gap between your door and your door frame from the inside – can you see the lock’s tongue? All it takes is a flip of the criminal’s wrist while holding a screwdriver while on the outside to break away the thin doorjamb molding and expose that same gap. From there, it is another simple wrist gesture to jimmy the tongue out of the faceplate. Total elapsed time for break-in, about 10 seconds — with minimal noise.

On ALL outside exit doors, buy locks that have locking tongues. Test this by holding the door open and locking the knob. Then attempt to depress the tongue into the door with your finger. Better locks will have a secondary tongue that doesn’t move. The best locks will have entire tongues that don’t move.

Window: Put “window stops” on the first floor and basement window frames. These often functionally amount to secondary and tertiary locks. The best kind are those that go through a moveable frame and lock it into place. Something as simple as drilling a hole through both frames when the window is closed and placing a nail in the hole will lock the windows in place.

Other: Use hasps with protective shrouds. These make it harder for the criminal to hammer away the lock. If for some reason you have an outward swinging door, not only get the best lock possible, but place a safety plate (a small formed sheet of metal) over the tongue so it cannot be seen or easily manipulated

These slow down the criminal and make him work hard to get in. This entails him making more noise for longer periods of time, thereby increasing his chances of being detected.