19
Oct
2017
By Calvin at 11:00 GMT, 6 years ago
Ben and I are happy to announce that 7,000 people have now completed our free and confidential home security survey. Thank you to all of you who’ve had a go and we hope that the experience of completing it and the security report that is generated were what you were looking for – 70% tell us that the survey was either very useful or extremely useful!
Remarkably our Home Security Survey is still a unique application on the world wide web and although a figure of 7,000 is quite an achievement it would be great to see it used more often. Maybe, with ‘low level crime’ not getting as much attention from the cash-strapped police over the next few years (see News 17th October), we will see a greater use of the survey. I say this because there must be a greater emphasis on crime prevention and opportunity avoidance and one way to start thinking about these issues is to make sure your home has been properly secured.
I gave you a few findings from the survey on 10th October and thought I’d follow those up with some more, especially as we are approaching earlier darker nights when burglary and domestic theft always goes up. And do take note of them, because the data is statistically significant; it really is telling us important stuff.
Here those important things:
- 43% of respondents don’t have a door viewer or clear glass in their main entrance doors, which means they cannot see the caller on the other side of the door until they open it
- 66% don’t have a door chain or some other door restrictor, which means they have no control over the door when opening it to an unexpected caller – especially not good at night
- 15% of respondent’s homes are not clearly displaying their house number, which can make it difficult for the emergency services to find them
- 22% don’t have a light outside their main entrance door, which for some makes it more difficult to put the key in the lock and to answer the door at night
- 26% don’t have a light outside their rear entrance door
- 24% don’t have a light outside their side entrance door and
- 34% don’t have a light outside their garage door
- 17% don’t leave lights on when they leave the house unoccupied at night, which is just what the burglar is looking for
- 38% of respondents don’t have a Fire Plan – an agreement with the family that the keys to locked doors and windows are always in the same place and routes of escape have been planned
- 39% of respondents who have a garden shed told us that their sheds are ‘not that well secured’. That’s very honest, but won’t help the crime figures. Remember that shed burglary is pretty low down on the police priorities at the moment, so you simply HAVE to make them VERY secure!
I reckon if all of us made improvements to the places around our homes highlighted above we could bring burglary down in spite of falling police numbers. It’s just getting around to doing it and, of course, finding the money. My view has always been not to buy expensive stuff for my house unless I’ve got sufficient security in place to look after it. This approach has served me well – touch wood and whistle!
Your help is needed
At the beginning of this article I said that we would love to see the Home Security Survey being used more often, so here’s a few ideas that might help us realise this objective:
- We’re followed by many hundreds of police officers on Twitter and I know that some of you promote our Survey – thank you. If you are reading this please promote it again when you visit victims of burglary or are giving talks to members of your communities. The survey is free and strictly confidential. We do not ask for names or addresses and should they decide to download their free security report to their own computer their email is only used for that one purpose and never again, so they have no fear of being bombarded by spam. I might add that our website is also secure and displays the padlock. One other thing to consider, when planning an anti-burglary initiative, is to encourage people to complete the survey. It’s proven to be a very useful reference for several police services (Lancashire, Thames Valley and Essex to name just three) and it doesn’t cost you a bean!
- Some locksmiths who follow me and link to our website have put a link to our Home Security Survey from their own websites. That’s great and we would encourage more of you to do the same
- Well over one hundred Neighbourhood Watch websites link to ours, but I would encourage you all to add a second link directly to the Survey page. None of your police services offer anything like the help and information about crime prevention as you will find on our website and do please remember that I am a retired policeman whose specialism was and still is crime prevention
- Finally, if you are a person who has taken the survey and used the information to your benefit please let me know how you got on and encourage your friends, family and colleagues to do the survey, because I know that you know it makes sense!
It’s worth noting that people who take our survey and then go on to make the recommended improvements will have reduced their chances of burglary by a fair bit. For some, who had little security in the first place, this reduction will be considerable.
Here’s to the next 1,000 completed surveys.
Calvin and Ben
