Top tips for keeping your home safe
While the number of residential burglaries is falling in this country, there are nevertheless still hundreds of thousands of offences committed each year. But by following some simple measures you can help ensure you don’t become a part of the statistics.
Residential burglaries in England and Wales fell by 5% to 291,816 in the year ending June 2019, according to the Office for National Statistics. This continues a trend over the past decade for falling burglary rates.
This is good news and suggests that people are becoming savvier about home security, but there is always more that can be done to make your home more secure – and sometimes they can just be simple things.
For example, and it may sound obvious, ensuring that when you leave the house all doors and windows are locked. Sometimes something as simple as this is enough to deter a would-be burglar. Leaving a door or window unlocked means they can quickly get into and out of a house – they may only be in a few seconds but in that time, they can still take valuables. Even leaving a security chain on a front door when you are out in the back garden can be enough to stop an opportunist gaining entry.
Likewise, ensure all keys are hidden out of sight and away from the letterbox. Some people have been known to keep a spare key hidden under a rock outside the front door or keep one on a piece of string attached to the inside of the letterbox – but those are the first places a would-be burglar will look. Keys should also be kept away from the front door inside the house – certainly far enough that they can’t be reached by someone reaching in through a letterbox.
It is also advisable to ensure that any side or garden gates have a solid and secure lock that can’t be easily picked or cut with bolt cutters.
If you want more security protection than that, then other common solutions include installing outside light sensors, burglar alarms and home security CCTV systems. While these systems all carry a cost – depending on how comprehensive they are – they do help to bring peace of mind and are known to deter a percentage of burglars.
Doors are often areas targeted by burglars, so it is important to ensure you have good locks on them. Locksmiths such as Inta-lock Locksmiths in Leicester can fit new locks for extra security – and they can also help to satisfy home insurance companies. Anything from mortice locks to digital locks that are opened by a key fob rather than a key can be fitted by Inta-lock’s qualified professional locksmiths.
Inta-lock locksmiths in Leicester can supply and fit any type of domestic alarm or CCTV system, which can be tailored to your home’s requirements, from a wireless camera system or high spec CTV camera to fully monitored home alarm systems.
Inta-lock Locksmiths can also install Ring doorbells. For those who haven’t seen the adverts on television, Ring doorbells are high-tech doorbells with cameras installed that let you view via an app what is happening from anywhere in the world providing that you have an internet connection. This can be used to do a quick check of your property when you are away to make sure everything is ok.
Software inside the doorbell can also see when someone has breached the perimeter that you have set and will then send an alert straight to your smartphone alerting you to the breach, and you can then see a live feed from the camera to show exactly what is going on.
If you live in Leicester and want more information on upgrading your home door locks and enhancing security measures, please give Inta-lock Locksmiths a call on 0116 442 2084 and one of our friendly team will arrange an appointment for one of the team to come out and visit you.