Home Security Resources - 07

Security & Safety Tips from Houston Police Dept.
These security and safety tips are compliments of the police department of Houston, Texas. As you would expect from a police department, these tips are straight to the point and street smart. The page defines crime prevention as ...the anticipation, recognition, and appraisal of a crime risk and the initiation of some action to remove or reduce it. Start by locking your doors, using dead bolts. Exterior doors need a peephole and the frames must be solid and securely attached to the frame of the house. All windows should have a quality locking system, and sliding doors should have a rod that prevents them from sliding along the track if the lock is forced. Double hung windows should have a hole drilled through the bottom of the top sash and into the top of the bottom sash so that a nail or other metal pin can be dropped into the hole to keep the window from being opened. The hole should be just slightly larger than the pin and the pin must be long enough to stick out over the top of the hole for easy removal. Install a UL Approved alarm. Keep bushes cut back from the house and make sure there is enough exterior lighting at night. Keep shades drawn at night to prevent a would-be thief from determining how many people are in the house. Join your local neighborhood watch. There are several additional tips and advice for keeping your home and your business safe.

10 Things You Must Know for Home Security
This slide-show article on the DIY Network website details 10 tips of what you should and should not do to keep your home safe. Here's a summation: 1) Never rely on a knob lock; top locks and more secure and you also want a deadbolt; 2) make sure you have a heavy-duty; there's no point in having a heavy-duty lock on a light-duty door; 3) the best deadbolt is a deadlock with a throw bolt, which is a lock that shoots into the frame of the door; 4) a bark is as good as a bit; if you don't have a dog, you could get an alarm that barks like a dog; 5) motion sensors scare criminals, so install motion-detecting exterior floodlights; 6) watch your property wirelessly with an Internet-based camera system; 7) get and store your valuables in a safe (ground, wall and/or fire-resistant); 8) get a deadbolt on the interior as a secondary lock; put alarms on window and door locks; and 10) don't let your shrubs obstruct windows where burglars can hide.

Understanding Home Burglars and How to Avoid Them
This article on CrimeDoctor.com by security consultant Chris E. McGoey provides some important statistics about home burglary. He gave some tips on how to choose a high quality door knob lock and sliding glass doors, and how to make them more secured. For windows, McGoey has recommendations on how to provide secondary blocking devices. The post also includes tips about home safes; suitable lightings alarm systems, and how to place proper identification on appliances. There also an explanation about the importance of being a good neighbor, and how it can help a lot in avoiding home burglars.

How to Install a Peephole
A peephole in the door is a window on the world that makes us feel safe; after all, it's certainly not advisable to open your door when you don't know who's on the other side. And it's a bit uncomfortable opening a window shade and having the party see you and then not opening the door, if you don't want to engage them. A peephole is a perfect solution, and a very inexpensive one. Here's an article that shows and tells you how to install a peephole. In the planning phase, you may have well go for style and match your handleset because it's not going to cost much to do so. The first step is to measure the thickness of your door so that you buy a peephole that is long enough. Importantly, you want to make sure you get a peephole that really lets you see what's outside your door, because they come in different ranges of view. An interesting tip is that you can go against the flow and not put your peephole directly in the center of the door. If the lighting or view on your porch is better at a certain angle, feel free to place the peephole wherever you'll get the clearest view. You also want to make sure you place the peephole high enough, but not too high for your kids. See the article for detailed instructions, in words and pictures, for the execution phase.