There are on average 816 burglaries in the UK every day and of these, only somewhere in the region of 14 are followed by arrests. Approximately 2 in 100 families were victims of domestic burglary last year in the UK. Around 58% of burglaries are carried out during the hours of darkness and 38% during daylight hours, with a door being the point of entry in 76% of cases. Worryingly, almost 15% of burglars gain entry through unlocked doors.

Many burglars don’t carry tools that could be used to break into your home. The main reason for this is that the possession of burglary tools is in itself a criminal offence in the UK. It is not uncommon for a burglar to break into a garden shed to access your tools to use to break into your house, so as well as making your house secure, take some time to ensure that your garden shed is kept locked and secure at all times. A blind or curtain across the shed window will also prevent anyone from seeing tools, golf clubs or bicycles stored in your shed, all of which would be very tempting to a burglar.

Modern technology means that we can purchase cost effective security devices more easily and often allows us to interrogate these through our smartphones. However, we need to be careful of using the same technology to tell prospective house breakers that we are away from home. Statistics tell us that over 40% of burglars know their victims, so may well know where they live. It is worth letting close friends or neighbours know if you are going away and try not to arrange deliveries during that time. Don’t advertise an empty house by posting photographs of yourselves and your families on social media enjoying yourselves on foreign beaches or rustic tavernas while you are on holiday, why not wait till you get back, then post them.

Home security and alarm systems can be as basic as installing one or two motion sensors to cover the main living area and the main entry door of a property, these can be linked to an audible alarm. At the other end of the technology scale, home security can be managed by having a more sophisticated, smart system, with a variety of sensor types, including remote controlled cameras, covering all aspects of your property. All of these can be linked to a smartphone, tablet or laptop, allowing the system to be monitored 24 hours, 7 days a week, even if no one is at home. Many of these systems can also be linked to a remote control room monitoring and response service provided by the security system provider.

Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras provide a good security deterrent on residential properties and again vary in complexity and capability. Cameras can be mounted as single units or as part of a multi-camera network covering all aspects of the property. They can be deployed externally to cover the perimeter of the property, in which case they can incorporate night vision and heat or motion sensors, which can also be linked to flood lights. These cameras can have a zoom facility which allows close recording of faces or number plates. Fitted internally they can detect movement inside the property and have the same features as exterior cameras. CCTV devices can be linked to a recording facility which can be monitored or played back remotely, from smartphones, tablets or laptops. Many cameras are now compatible with devices such as Amazon Alexa, Echo Dot and Google Home.

Video doorbells operate in a similar fashion to a traditional doorbell, to draw attention that someone is at the door. Downloading the manufacturer’s app to your mobile device will allow the inbuilt camera to show you who is at the door and allow you to speak to the visitor using your smartphone. You can either answer the doorbell from anywhere inside the house, from the office or wherever the homeowner happens to be at that time and the person at the door cannot tell if the homeowner is at home or not. As well as the added security benefit, it also allows delivery drivers to be told where to leave parcels.

The cost of a home security system varies, depending on its complexity and it is probably wise to balance the cost of your planned security system against the perceived security risk in your area. Installing a security system in a residential property may in some instances reduce the cost of home insurance, however it is also worth noting that if a property is broken into with the alarm system not activated, it may impact on any resulting insurance claim. 

It is almost impossible to protect your home to the extent that an experienced burglar would not be able to gain access, but that should not stop us from installing security systems. Most burglaries are opportunist and the more difficult we can make it for a burglar to break into our home, the less likely they are to try, when there are so many easier targets with no security devices in evidence.

Smart technology can also be programmed to open or close curtains at specific times, switching lights or lamps on and off can be done either by timers or daylight sensors on demand, maybe even switch your television or radio on and off occasionally.

Considering that approximately 816 burglaries are carried out each day in the UK, 15% of them, in the region of 122, occur because the homeowner has not used the simplest security device which is fitted to every home. They did not lock their door.

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