Keeping yourself safe in your home also means keeping your home
safe.  Of course anyone determined to enter your house may find a
way but it is a fact that burglars would rather deal with a house
without an alarm than fool around with one that is armed.
Safety at Home
Women's Personal Safety Network
Because of the continuously evolving nature of crime as well as new techniques or
technology in crime prevention, be sure to check this page periodically for new or
updated tips.
ATTRACTING ATTENTION

  1. Make your valuable possessions less conspicuous and harder to sell yet easier to identify
    by police (by engraving an identifying number on them.
  2. Flatten all boxes from new equipment and fold inside out.
  3. If you hide valuables, keep a map of their locations in a safe deposit box or with your
    attorney (do not use the kitchen or toilet tanks - burglars know all about these places).
  4. If you have an answering machine, DO NOT reveal your name, whereabouts, or other
    personal information.  Simply say that you cannot come to the phone right now.

OUTSIDE YOUR HOME

  1. Car keys should be on a separate chain from house keys, for a valet parking or car repairs.
  2. Do not hide keys around the porch.
  3. Do not put your name on your mailbox.
  4. Trim foliage near windows (especially cellar windows) and doors often so it cannot
    camouflage a burglar's activities.  On the other hand, prickly bushes keep people away from
    windows.
  5. Protect a secluded yard or entry with spotlights and an alarm.
  6. Prune tree branches and remove trellises if they provide access to second floor windows.
  7. Keep tools and ladders indoors or well locked.

DOORS AND LOCKS

  1. Before you move into a new house or apartment, have the cylinders of each door changed.
  2. Keep your garage door closed.  If you garage or garage door has windows, cover them with
    curtains or shades.
  3. Install solid wooden and steel doors with firm frames.
  4. All doors, including those leading to the basement, cellar, garage, and storage rooms
    should be secured with a dead bolt lock rather than a latch lock.  A dead bolt should be
    approximately 1 inch thick and have a throw of at least 1 inch (longer is even better).
  5. Lock apartment windows or doors that lead to balconies, fire escapes, and rooftops.  If you
    live on the first or second floor, lock all windows even when you are home.
  6. On windows that are accessible from the outside, install window dead bolt locks and
    secure the window when closed as well as providing an addition receptacle about 5 inches
    up to secure the window when opened to let air in - this provides the security to have a
    window open in one room while you are in another, know that no one open that window
    further.
  7. Be sure to secure any sliding glass doors you have.  Burglars don't just get through the
    slider side of the door but have also been successful getting through the stationary side of
    the door.

WHEN AWAY FROM YOUR HOME

  1. Before leaving town on a long trip, ask a friend, neighbor or relative to park a car in the
    driveway.  Be sure to mow the grass, shovel snow, and put out garbage on pickup days.  
    Arrange to have mail and newspaper deliveries halted until you return.
  2. Use automatic timers when you are away from home to create the illusion that someone's
    at home; use them on lamps, TVs, and/or radios.

Finally, install an alarm system.  You can decide on the accessories such as motion detectors or
glass detectors but arming your doors and accessible windows is the least you can do for the
piece of mind that when you enter your home, no one is still their robbing you.  A caught robber can
become a murderer or rapist by opportunity!
Women's Safety
Information That's NOT
Just for Women Only!
FOR INFORMATION ON RAPE/SEXUAL ASSAULT PREVENTION, CLICK ON THIS LINK:  
RAPE/SEXUAL ASSAULT PREVENTION
For crime prevention tips,
click on one of these links.
Copyright© 2008 WPSN