Personal Safety and Crime Prevention at Home Check List

Preventing crime is everyone’s business. If we want to be safe in our homes we need to play an active role in preventing crime from occurring in our homes.

You can use this list of strategies to determine how safe your home is and what you could be doing better in order to keep your home and your loves ones safe.

• Ensure your front door and front windows are clearly visible from the street. They should not be obscured by bushes etc, that can be used to conceal a person whilst they commit a crime
• Make sure your landscaping does not provide area’s where an offender could hide and surprise you as you are entering or leaving your premises
• Ensure your house has adequate lighting right around the house, but particularly at the front of your home where you enter and exit your home. Sensor lighting should be installed at the front of your home
• Consider installing a CCTV camera system that you can monitor remotely. Cameras are a very effective deterrent.
• Consider installing CCTV camera and alarm warning signs
• Consider installing an intercom or peep hole if you cannot see out your front door
• If you have a lot of glass on your front door, consider installing one way reflective film so that you can see out but people cannot see in
• Ensure your house has an alarm that is monitored. Alarms are essential!
• Ensure your alarm has a duress button and that everyone in the house know how to use it
• Consider zoning your alarm and activating zones of your home of a night. Many people activate the entire lower floor and garage of their homes whilst they sleep upstairs
• Ensure you have smoke alarms and that they are working
• Ensure all side gates have a lock on them
• Ensure your letter box has a lock on it
• Ensure your power box is locked
• Internal garage doors should be lockable from the inside of the house. Garages are a very common entry point into a home of a night time.
• Consider fixing security screens from a reputable company such as CrimSafe to all ground level external doors and windows
• The most likely thing to be stolen from your home is cash and jewellery. Consider installing a safe and keeping your valuables in a safe
• Do not leave your wallet and car keys in the kitchen or home office whilst you are sleeping. It is very common for thieves to break into homes, take the owners wallets and car keys and then leave with their car. Keep car keys and wallets hidden in your bedroom whilst you sleep
• Always use locks on your windows and ensure your doors have dead locks
• Ensure your house number is clearly visible from the road. I can tell you from experience that this can save emergency services valuable minutes and shorten emergency response times
• Ensure your shed is locked
• Ensure sliding patio doors have keyed patio bolts
• Ensure you dispose of personal documents appropriately. We recommend using a shredder. Identity theft is becoming a significant problem
• Is your mobile phone registered to the address you live at? This is important as when you ring 000, your personal details and address come up on a blue screen that the operator can see before you confirm your details. You may not be able to speak but the 000 operator can see who has made the emergency call and what the registered address of the phone is

These tips will assist to keep you safe in your home. Personal safety and crime prevention is everyones’ responsibility.

I encourage you to do everything you possibly can to keep your family safe.

Mark Szalajko

Sensei/Chief Instructor

Bujutsu Martial Arts and Fitness Centre