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Control Access & Visibility Make Property Private Be Able To See Everything Prevent From Getting Inside Use More Lighting Appear Occupied Stay Armed and Ready Security System |
Simple architecture helps stop burglaries and break-ins. You don’t need an expensive alarm system to keep you safe. Learn from techniques developed throughout history about fortification and designs that keep enemies away and allow you to defend yourself.
Control Access & Visibility
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A house on a well-traveled street should be open and easily seen. Criminals will hesitate if there are lots of witnesses. Fences and bushes only conceal burglars and help them out.
But if your building is somewhere that does not have people walking around all the time, access and visibility should be blocked. Don’t let them see what you have in your yard, if your lawn is unkempt, if the snow is undisturbed. |  |
Chain link fences are easily hopped over and they are ugly. Put up a little money for a nice cast iron fence with a jagged top, or solid brick. Put a gate across the driveway. The point is to prevent an intruder from getting in or out, or at least to slow them down.
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Clearly Show Private Property
Don’t be that guy that is always yelling at people for cutting across their yard. Establish the privacy of your property. Have clear pathways that people should use, provide lighting at those pathways, and use plantings and barriers to keep people away from private areas. This is important because it is easier for a burglar to gain access to a site that is occasionally accessed by the public. There should be no confusion about where people should be and who should be there. |  |
Be Able To See Everything
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Ancient cities typically had tall towers from which they could observe the outlying landscape. You can apply this concept to your house by designing the yards so that everything is visible from the front and back doors. A quick glance out the window or peep hole tells you what is going on.
This should be the case indoors as well. The layout of the building should be simple and easy to navigate, for a variety of reasons as well as security. |  |
Often the main bedroom is considered the refuge where a person will go to be safest. Try to make it as easy as possible to see what is going on from the main bedroom. Install security cameras if needed. Make the bedroom door impenetrable.
Prevent From Getting Inside
Use features to prevent intruders from getting inside. Double-paned windows and safety glass are important for energy savings and disasters as well as security. Ensure all doors are equipped with good locks, not just safety bolts, and that windows are impossible to force open. Make your building a fortress.
Automated lighting and window shades give the impression that someone is home. Consider parking a car outside the garage.
But be careful about automatic garage door openers. Thieves often break into cars to open the garage door and thus gain entry to the house.
Use More Light
Lighting up the property at night is an important step for deterring crime. It only takes a couple bright lights to take away a burglar’s cloak of darkness, and the money you will spend is not really all that much.
Consider using an interior lighting system that can switch all the lights in the building on at once. That way you won’t be the typical victim you see in the movies stumbling in the dark.
Look Like Somebody Is There
Break-ins are less likely if it appears like someone is home. Along with automatic lights and shades, have a huge mailbox to accommodate weeks of mail if you are away on vacation. Keep plantings in your yard that don’t grow out of control if not kept up on a regular basis.
Remember that scene in Home Alone when Kevin used cardboard cut-outs of people and loud music to make the robbers think a party was going on? That is not so far-fetched. Why not have a kind of scarecrow home-owner in your yard while you are away? It is easy and effective. You can set a timer to turn on music and lights at random times.
Stay Armed and Ready
Don’t underestimate two big Rottweilers. Having pet dogs that attack intruders is one of the best things you can do. Even a small yappy dog can alert you to danger and scare them away.
A good weapon is also necessary. If the law allows it, keep a weapon close by. Keep in mind that you might need to access and use it quickly, but don’t make it possible for kids or visitors to get it.
A phone that you can use to call police is of course necessary. Consider also having a loud siren or other ways of deterring intruders.
Security System
Security systems are pretty simple. A magnet attached to a door or window breaks an electrical circuit when the door or window opens. The device sends a signal to switch on a siren or call police. Motion detectors can also do this.
You can do all this yourself. Install motion detectors and magnetic devices attached to a siren or even that will automatically call police.
Security cameras can be easy to install as well. A camera wirelessly sends a signal to a recording device that can be viewed from any internet connection. But be careful that this internet connection is password protected!
© Benjamin Blankenbehler 2014
