Your home is your castle...or is it? Is your home really safe once you leave for work or school? Your home is considered a sanctuary where you should feel safe. Your home is the only environment where you have control over who can get close to you or your family. Protecting your home and family from criminal intrusion should be high on your list of priorities.

Home security should be important to everyone whether you live in a house or an apartment.

Knowing your home is protected provides peace of mind both when you are away and when you are home. Security is important even if you have outstanding public safety agencies (police, fire, highway patrol, etc.) in your area. There are far more homes than there are police officers, not to mention a plethora of skilled thieves, so it's important for you to do everything possible to make your house secure rather than just relying on others.

When people think of protecting their homes, they often think of fancy expensive security systems with lots of bells and whistles. Today's ultra competitive marketplace & ever changing technology has made it more affordable than ever to get quality home security. Don't wait until you or your family become another statistic. Home Security Cameras

Home security isn't just about your own home, either. A lot of determining whether or not you're a significant risk involves taking stock of your neighborhood including public safety facilities like police and fire stations. Though incidents can happen to anyone, some neighborhoods are certainly more at risk than others. Installing a burglar alarm can certainly help make you less of a target, as well as protecting your home from fire you may also receive discounts on your homeowners insurance.

Home security is also about you and your habits. If you have a large family where someone is almost always home, you may be less at risk than someone who lives alone and is frequently away on business trips. The value of your home and your possessions is also a factor, although thieves can also be tempted by less valuable items if they believe they will be easy to fence.

When you think of protecting your family and your belongings, you'll also want to think of personal safety and the protection of things that are important to you but might not necessarily be located in your home, such as your car. Added security for your home with these motion activated floodlights.

To keep your family safe, you should also include an accident prevention and fire safety plan. These types of dangers can put you and your family at risk as well as threatening to destroy your personal belongings. Forethought and preventative measures go a long way in this area.

Home Burglary

By far, the most common threat to our home is burglary. According to the FBI, a burglary occurs somewhere in the United States every 15.4 seconds. By definition, the crime of burglary is a non-confrontational property crime that occurs when we are not at home. However, becoming a burglary victim can leave a family feeling vulnerable and violated. To avoid becoming a burglary victim, it is important to first gain an understanding of who commits them and why.

The majority of home and apartment burglaries occur during the daytime when most people are away at work or school. The summer months of July and August have the most burglaries with February having the fewest crimes. Burglaries are committed most often by young males under 25 years of age looking for items that are small, expensive, and can easily be converted to cash. Favorite items are cash, jewelry, guns, watches, laptop computers, VCR's, video players, CDs and other small electronic devices are high on the list. Quick cash is needed for living expenses and drugs. Statistics tell us that 70% of the burglars use some amount force to enter a dwelling, but their preference is to gain easy access through an open door or window. Ordinary household tools like screwdrivers, channel-lock pliers, small pry bars, and small hammers are most often used by burglars. Burglars continue to flourish because police can only clear about 13% of all reported burglaries and rarely catch the thief in the act.

Although home burglaries may seem random in occurrence, they actually involve a selection process. The burglar's selection process is simple. Choose an unoccupied home with the easiest access, the greatest amount of cover, and with the best escape routes. What follows is a list of suggestions to minimize your risk by making your home unattractive to potential burglars.

HOME INVASION A DANGEROUS TREND

The act of committing a home invasion is escalating much like carjacking. The reason for the increase seems to follow a similar pattern. Much like automobiles, the traditional commercial targets for robbers like convenience stores and fast-food restaurants have hardened themselves against criminal attack and have reduced available cash. Technology has allowed commercial establishments to install affordable video surveillance systems, silent alarms, and other anti-crime deterrent devices.  A residence, by comparison, is now a more attractive choice.

Home invaders know that they won't have to overcome alarm systems when the home is occupied or be worried about video cameras and silent alarms. Unlike robbing a retail store, home invaders expect privacy once inside your home and won’t have to deal with the police suddenly driving up or customers walking in. Once the offenders take control of a residence they can force the occupants to open safes, locate hidden valuables, supply keys to the family car, and PIN numbers to their ATM cards. Home invaders will try to increase their escape time by disabling the phones and sometimes will leave their victims bound or incapacitated. It is not unheard of for robbers to load up the victim’s car with valuables and drive away without anyone in the neighborhood taking notice.

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