Personal Home Security
DISCLAIMER: This information and ideas presented on personal home security are based on my best knowledge and experiences. I do not represent myself as an expert nor am I giving expert advice. I am simply providing information that may or may not be useful to others.
Any actions that readers might take in response to this information should be made based upon their own best judgement and is not my responsibility.
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 I am a Neighborhood Watch Coordinator. Our neighborhood recently had a meeting with a deputy from our local sheriff's department to discuss personal home security - ways that we could make our homes safer from burglaries, theft, and home invasions (a crime that is increasing in frequency). Some of what is on this webpage is from his presentation, some has been gleaned from my many years of reading, studying, and experimentation. |
Criminals:
Before I recommend specific actions you should take to reduce your risks and protect yourself, there are some things you should know about criminals:
- Most criminals are looking to commit a crime with as little risk to themselves as possible. If you and/or your home appear to create risk for them, they will seek another victim.
- Time is the enemy of criminals. The longer it takes a criminal to commit a crime, the higher the risk of getting caught or killed. Do everything you can to make committing a crime against you either difficult and/or time consuming. If the time to execute a crime takes too long, a criminal will abandon his/her efforts.
- Criminals study neighborhoods, people's habits, and individual vehicles and homes. Don't make you, your possessions, or your home look very interesting. In fact, you, your possessions, and your home should look very ordinary to avoid being noticed by society's criminal element.
- Criminals go where the money is (or where they perceive it to be). If you live in an affluent neighborhood, you are automatically a target.
- Studies have shown that criminals tend to avoid areas with Neighborhood Watch programs. Talk to your local police department about creating a Neighborhood Watch program. Once established, it takes relatively little time and effort, and there are Federal funds available for signs announcing to people entering your neighborhood that it is a Neighborhood Watch area.
- Studies of professional criminals show that most of them have very low self-esteem. Their lives are not very valuable to themselves. How valuable do you think they consider your life to be?
Simple Burglaries and Theft:
As the deputy sheriff pointed out in his presentation, most burglaries and theft are crimes of opportunity. A car is left unlocked with valuables in plain sight; a garage is left open; a home door or window is left unlocked. Burglars and thieves take advantage of these opportunities to snatch something easily accessible and in plain sight.
The ways to prevent these crimes should be obvious:
- Keep your valuables out of sight, whether they be in your car, your van, or your home.
- Don't leave doors open or unlocked, in either your vehicles or your home.
- Don't leave windows open or unlocked, in either your vehicles or your home.
- Never leave anything of value (for instance, a lawnmower) unattended, not even for a moment.
- Don't leave a garage door open more than 4 inches to allow heat to escape during the summer. Mechanical play in the door can allow a person to squeeze under the door. Never leave a garage door open at night, not even the tiniest amount.
- Keep hedges and bushes around the house manicured to the point that a person cannot hide behind them.
- Place key locking gasoline caps on all vehicles left outside at night.
Much of personal home security is common sense. Think like a thief does. Imagine that you are outside your home and are looking for something that would be quick and easy to steal. What would that be? How would you do it? Solve the obvious ways in which you can avoid having your possessions stolen.
Home Invasions:
Remember that a home is only as secure as its weakest entry point. Walk around your house, think like an intruder, and ask yourself, if you had no key, how would you get into your home?
Home invasions include night-time burglary. The FBI states that a nighttime burglar is the most dangerous criminal in America. That person is frequently hoping for a physical confrontation. You want to avoid a physical confrontation at all costs. Victims of home invasions are frequently severely injured, maimed for life, and sometimes killed. How can you prevent you and your family from being harmed?
First, take all necessary steps to prevent entry into your home. You can do this in a variety of ways:
- NEVER have an outside key. Intruders routinely look for them. It's an almost silent ticket into your home.
- Use 3 inch wood screws to secure all door jams and all door hinges. Often, an intruder will attempt to batter a door inward to gain entry to a home. Anything you can do to cause the door to hold fast will prevent entry.
- Use proper dead bolts. They must intrude a minimum of 1.0 inch into the door jam.
- Place wooden dowels in the bottom runners on your windows that will prevent the windows from being opened, even using force. This will force an intruder to break glass to enter your home making considerable noise.
- Turn off your garage door opener when you are away from the house and at night. Physically turn off power to the lifting motor. You can use a computer power strip to do this.
- Have an alarm system installed in your house and use it. Have sensors installed on every window and door.
Note that certain home configurations lend themselves to easy entry: For instance, if you have a door deadbolt that is just a lever, not a keyed deadbolt, and if there is a window nearby or as a component of the door, an intruder can simply break the window and turn the deadbolt lever to gain entry.Stained glass windows can easily be pushed inward to the point of failure and entry.
The Intruder Is Inside Your Home:
If you come home to find that your home appears to have been entered in your absence, do not enter your home. Get away from it and call 911.
If you are in your home and you hear what sounds like a forced entry (broken glass, a crash), or your home alarm system goes off, you are faced with a difficult situation in which seconds matter.
Your 3 options:
- Immediately get out of your home and call 911.
- Prepare to defend yourself.
- Prepare to submit to the intruder's demands.
Self-Protection:
Self-protection outside and inside of the home are both controversial subjects. Part of this webpage focuses on armed self-protection which may not be appropriate for everyone. It is a very personal decision with enormous ethical and legal responsibilities. This article will briefly focus on certain aspects of these subjects. I am educated on these subjects but I am only offering advice that you may wish to consider. Ultimately, a person planning to choose to defend themselves MUST consult with proper law enforcement authorities to learn the legal issues, of which there are many.
A few very important points:
- Studies on dangerous criminals have repeatedly shown that they are very reluctant to select a potential victim if they suspect the potential victim is armed.
- Many States have right-to-carry laws. If you wish to consider carrying a weapon to protect yourself, you must contact your local law enforcement authorities to ask for advice.
- States have various laws about your right to protect yourself in your home. You MUST learn these to act legally to protect yourself.
- No where in the United States is it lawful to use deadly force to protect personal property. I cannot overstate the importance of this fact.
- Additionally, overuse, careless, and/or inappropriate use of lethal force can send you to prison for a long time.
- Firearms are some of the most dangerous devices ever created. No one should own or plan to use one without proper training in both safety and proficiency.
Self-Protection in Your Home:
If you are confronted with a dangerous individual intent on committing harm to you and/or your family, I think armed resistance is probably your best option. As the deputy sheriff who visited our Neighborhood Watch program stated, "I assure you, if you're armed and trained, you are not going to be a victim." Firearms are probably your best defense, especially if you are small and your assailant is large, strong, and highly motivated.
Firearms have drawbacks and liabilities that you must consider. Here are a few:
- If you make a mistake with a firearm, you could kill yourself, a loved one, or a neighbor.
- Many firearms offer too much force for safe use inside a home. (This assertion will be explained in the next paragraph, below.)
- The presence of a firearm could present a danger to anyone untrained in its correct use, especially children.
- Most firearms present the real danger of over-penetration which will endanger people other than an assailant.
Years ago I had to make decisions about these issues. Here are the most important points I discovered in my research:
- High powered rifles can shoot all the way through several homes under the right circumstances. For inside-the-home protection, they are a poor choice.
- Most handgun calibers have a similar problem, over-penetration. Under the right circumstances, they can shoot all the way through a home, penetrating multiple walls.
- Handguns have the added danger of having a short barrel and being relatively small and light. Children have a much easier time operating most handguns than they do other firearms. A handgun's barrel can be swung across the span of an entire room in less than a second.
- Shotguns loaded with buckshot or slugs can penetrate an entire house. Plus, their recoil is ferocious and even painful to the shooter.
I standardized on the following firearm for my own home defense for the following reasons:
- A Mossberg 500 pump shotgun with a shoulder stock and an 18.5 inch police barrel (no choke). It is extremely reliable (used by the U.S. Coast Guard) and relatively inexpensive.
- Load: #9 birdshot in 2 3/4 inch shells. This ammunition provides for low recoil and very low penetration of walls. However, at close range, it is one of the deadliest weapons a person can use. A hit to the torso or head will instantly stop an assailant.
- Pump shotguns are too big for little children to easily pick up or operate.
As safety precautions in the our home:
- Our children were taught the dangers of firearms.
- When the children got older we taught them how to use the shotgun.
- The gun is never left loaded. Ammunition is attached to the shoulder stock by means of a nylon ammo belt and can be used to load the weapon in just a few seconds.
- NEVER leave a round of ammunition in the chamber of a shotgun. This leaves the internal firing mechanism cocked, a VERY dangerous situation.
- NEVER trust a shotgun safety. They are notorious for failures.
- ALWAYS, at all times, and under all circumstances, treat all firearms as if they are loaded.
- NEVER take anyone's word that a firearm is unloaded.
- NEVER, if you are unfamiliar with firearms, allow anyone to hand you a firearm.
- NEVER point the muzzle of a gun at anything you are not willing to kill or destroy.
- If you decide that you would rather have a handgun in your home instead of a rifle, all of the aforementioned cautions also apply.
Additionally, you should know that based on police reports, some handgun calibers are not very effective for self-defense compared to other calibers:
- Calibers smaller than the 9MM or .38 Special calibers are not likely to have an immediate effect on an assailant unless you have a perfectly placed shot.
- 9MM caliber may not initially stop your assailant.
- .38 Special caliber may not initially stop your assailant.
- .357 Magnum caliber - a manstopper with ferocious recoil.
- .40 S&W caliber - a manstopper with ferocious recoil.
- .44 Magnum caliber - a manstopper with ferocious recoil.
- .45 ACP caliber - a manstopper with less recoil, the author's personal preference.
- Automatic pistols require some practice and training to use under stress. Some require more expertise than others to master.
- Double action revolvers are like a watergun; aim and squeeze the trigger.
Self-Protection In Your Car:
Most people are relatively safe at home, but are considerably more at risk in their vehicles where they are literally exposed to thousands of people in an ordinary commute. Some of these people are not well. Some are criminals. And some are having a very bad day. You may wish to contact your local law enforcement officials to inquire what you can legally do to protect yourself and your family while in a vehicle.
Assess your home security for the sake your family. Join your Neighborhood Watch program. And be careful out there. The world is less safe with every passing day.
