After months of mastering Zoom calls, discovering a newfound love for finish-at-home meals, and binging on Netflix series – everything from Tiger King to The Last Dance – Melbournians have finally made it out to the other side.
We’re easing back to what life was like before lockdown, and more of us making the most out of the relaxed restrictions. Seeing friends and family, dining out, travelling out of town and even returning back to the office.
As we start spending more time away from home – whether it’s during the day or weekend away – it’s worth reminding ourselves that our homes will be vacant more often. Meaning more opportunities for break-ins, burglary and property security offences to occur.
In September 2020, Crime Statistics Agency released new data reporting Victoria recorded its largest yearly spike in crime, with incidents risen by 5.6 per cent — an increase of 21,805 incidents to 407,768 — in 12 months. Theft and security offences were among the common crime incidents that increased during this time.
Combining this information with historical trends showing increased crime rates during economic downturns and increased burglaries over the summer months, Signal Security advises homeowners to assess their security measures to continue to keep their families and home safe.
Did you know that crime rates increase during economic downturns?
Downturns such as recessions come with a large increase in unemployment rates in youths, which have historically led to increased petty crime and theft.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), unemployment in our country has increased by just over 45% – the large majority being youths and young people. This is not only a huge upset regarding the unemployment rates but also the potential increase of crime within our communities.
Before we delve into the advice, it’s worth understanding the most common reasons burglars target a premise.
In 2015, a study was conducted of police detainees, who were found guilty of committing breaking and entering offences, to gain insight on burglary in Australia. Although years have passed since the study, there are lessons and learnings that are still highly relevant — especially, as we spend more time outside and away from home.
There are two main areas of focus for targeting premises, as reported from the study, a lack of activity around the property and the visibility/attractiveness of the property.
Lack of activity was indicated by:
And visibility/attraction came down to:
Our advice for keeping your home and family safe.
Improved security and electronic security is reported as one of the most effective ways to deter burglars from attempting to enter a property. And most importantly, an effective way to ensure the safety of you and your family. After all, the most precious possession —that is irreplaceable—is … OURSELVES.
Achieving peace of mind is not simply about installing a CCTV camera outside of your premise. At Signal Security, we take a logical approach to determining which systems and services should be considered to deliver maximum impact and return on investment.
You can download our FREE booklet on How To Achieve True Peace of Mind with Electronic Security Here
In short, there are three key steps in achieving peace of mind and our recommendation in approaching electronic security for your home:
There is nothing more effective in preventing harm and loss than a professionally installed intrusion detection system (burglar alarm) with fixed or portable panic buttons. Depending on the size, shape and layout of a property, coupled with its level of risk, an intrusion detection system can come in all shapes and sizes with various types of detection devices i.e. motion detectors, door/window switches and glass breakage detectors.
In its raw form, an intrusion detection system is a powerful tool that drives intruders away with its loud sirens and flashing lights but relies heavily on neighbours and passers-by to act swiftly in the case of an emergency. Unfortunately, in today’s day and age sounding alarm sirens will more often than not be ignored.
The only way to guarantee a response is to connect your intrusion detection system to a professional security monitoring centre. With highly trained security monitoring professionals available 24-hours a day, 7 days a week to ensure that every alarm signal received is dealt with in the shortest amount of time possible and that help can be sent in times that you need it most.
If a professionally installed intrusion detection system will aid in the prevention of harm and loss, and the addition of a professional monitoring service to the system will initiate an emergency response. Then what next? We need to find a way to assist with the real-time verification of events as well as being able to retrospectively go back in time and review any events of interest which leads us to integrate surveillance cameras (CCTV system) into the fold.
The thought of our homes not being a safe space can be jarring and a break-in is the last thing we want after the year we’ve had.
While we can’t predict when or what’s going to happen, we can put the right measures in place to keep our homes and family safe.
As always, our friendly, knowledgeable team of security specialists can assist you with any questions or security challenges you may be experiencing.
You can organise a free, no-obligation on-site security risk assessment by contact our team on 1300 73 83 93 or sending an enquiry from our contact page.
