Beachwood Civic Association

Tips On Neighborhood Crime Prevention – Part 1

Sep 25, 2004

The Burglary Threat

When your home is burglarized, you lose more than just the radio, TV, camera, silver or jewelry that you worked so hard to obtain. You also lose your peace of mind ?– and in some cases, you might jeopardize the safety and welfare of yourself and your family.

Residential burglary is a chronic nationwide problem that is growing in leaps and bounds. For its victims, it is a costly as well as a potentially dangerous crime which can lead to other crimes.

Fortunately, however, you can prevent burglary because in most cases it is a crime of opportunity ?– committed by young amateurs who are able to gain easy access to your home. You can eliminate the ?“opportunity?” by making your home as difficult as possible for a burglar to enter and by making it less inviting to the potential criminal.

The time to take the necessary preventative steps to protect your home and family from burglary, though, is before you become a victim ?– not after the fact. All it takes is a modest investment of your time and not a great deal of money to employ preventative measures and greatly minimize your chances of being burglarized.

Quality security hardware and other preventative measures will serve to deter, delay or help detect a burglar. It will stop the amateur burglar and slow up the experienced one, thus increasing his risk of being caught.

Burglary prevention is much more than good locks and alarm systems. It is also being aware of daily habits that actually invite crime, suspicious persons and vehicles in the neighborhood (and reporting them to the police), and safe practices to follow like looking to see who is at your front door before opening it. It is being a good neighbor.

If you have home insurance, don?’t look at your policy as a burglary safeguard. It won?’t prevent burglary ?– and it will never fully replace the dollar value of your stolen articles because of depreciation and inflation. Needless to say, stolen family heirlooms and other articles of sentimental value are irreplaceable ?– and so is your feeling of well-being in your home?…?…?…?…?…?…?…?…..

Look for more ideas and suggestions in future issues of your Beachwood neighborhood newsletter.