Harden the Target

How many burglary scenes have you gone to where just a little bit of thought and a few gadgets might have stopped the crime—or at least triggered a timely response where you or other officers could have caught the criminal in the act? If you catch one burglary in progress, most times you’ve solved ten others because it’s usually not the suspect’s first rodeo. Keeping our communities safe—preserving life and property—is why we get the “big bucks.” Usually, simply making folks aware of the threats of home burglaries and giving them strategies to combat those threats is all it takes to make your community safer.

The mind of a burglar

When creating strategies to prevent burglaries, it’s important to get into the mind of a burglar. A 2013 study by the University of North Carolina at Charlotte provides an interesting look into a burglar’s mind and their target selection. Researchers talked to 422 seasoned burglars to examine their decision-making processes. That sample group averaged 12.9 arrests each.

According to the UNC Charlotte Office of News and Information, the study revealed the following:

• When selecting a target, most burglars said they considered the close proximity of other people—including traffic, people in the house or business, and police officers; the lack of escape routes; and signs of increased security—including alarm signs, alarms, dogs inside, and outdoor cameras or other surveillance equipment.
• Approximately 83 percent said they would try to determine if an alarm was present before attempting a burglary and 60 percent said they would seek an alternative target if there were an alarm on-site. This was particularly true among the subset of burglars who were more likely to spend time deliberately and carefully planning a burglary.
• Among those who discovered the presence of an alarm while attempting a burglary, half reported they would discontinue the attempt, while another 31 percent said they would sometimes retreat. Only 13 percent said they would always continue with the burglary attempt.

Respondents indicated their top reasons for committing burglaries was related to the need to acquire drugs (51 percent) or money (37 percent), which was often used to support drug habits. Only one burglar indicated interest in stealing firearms—a common misperception.

About half reported burglarizing homes primarily, while 31 percent typically committed commercial burglaries.

Most burglars reported entering open windows or doors or forcing windows or doors open. About one in eight reported picking locks or using a key that they had previously acquired to gain entry.
About 12 percent indicated that they typically planned the burglary in advance, 41 percent suggested it was most often a “spur of the moment” event and the other 37 percent reported that it varied. So, if your community can make their home an unpleasant target and difficult to break into, chances are the bad guys will go elsewhere.

Determine the best lock

Though it should go without saying, you need to lock your doors and windows. In doing so, homeowners should use quality locks installed properly. Most contractor grade external door locks are a joke when it comes to security—they keep the honest people out. Many can be slipped, key bumped or picked with ease. Advising homeowners to invest in high quality/high security door locks and especially dead bolt locks will give them a leg up in preventing break-ins. A single cylinder dead bolt is great if properly installed, but a double cylinder dead bolt lock (a key to get in and a key to get out) is best especially if there is any glass or opening within an arm’s reach.

Keyed window locks are essential. They’re available as latch type locks, sliding window locks, sliding glass door locks and even louvered window locks. If they can’t slip a window open or find an open one a burglar would be forced to break glass. Burglars don’t like making noise. Breaking a window to gain entry makes a lot of noise. It attracts nosy neighbors who call police and it has been my experience that breaking glass often leaves some blood and thus DNA to track the suspect down.

Alarms: A deterrent for burglary

According to the research done by UNC Charlotte, alarms seem to be the number one deterrent for burglary. Educate your homeowners to the alarm industry. Alarm products come in all shapes and sizes. There are monitored and unmonitored systems; systems that work on cellular networks, landline phone systems and a combination of the two; systems that require professional installation and those that homeowners can DIY. Most would include door and window sensors and some include closed circuit cameras, some of which can operate in the infrared spectrum.

Alarm company signs strategically placed around the perimeter of a property can be a strong deterrent. However, I’ve talked to crooks that ignore the signs and look for indications that a real alarm system is present. So, just buying an official looking sign stating, “Monitored 24-hours by Melvin and Sheila’s Alarm Company” in the driveway might not give the homeowner the desired result.

If the homeowner decides to invest in an alarm system, they would need to choose from a monitored, an unmonitored or a self-monitored system. There are advantages and disadvantages to each.

In a monitored system a sensor is tripped and a notification is sent to the monitoring center after the alarm delay has passed. The monitoring center tries to contact the owner to determine if it’s a false alarm, and depending on their assessment of circumstances, emergency services are dispatched. There is a cost associated with a monitored system that usually starts around $15 per month and goes up from there depending on the additional services the homeowner chooses.

An unmonitored system is just as it says—unmonitored. In this case when a sensor is tripped a loud bell or siren would sound and continue until the system is reset or until a predetermined timeout is reached. Usually a neighbor would call the police if the homeowner were away.

A fairly new development, most self-monitored options depend on the cellular system. When a sensor is tripped the system would send out a text or alarm to the homeowner’s cellphone. Some are even equipped with video cameras that the homeowner can access with their phone.

Environmental design

Deterring criminal behavior through environmental design was born in the 1970s by a criminologist and a more limited approach was the defensible space idea. This is where the design of the homeowner’s landscaping, lighting and access to the property comes into play in making a home safer.

Law enforcement officers should remind residents that crooks don’t like to be seen, so a good lighting plan is essential to deterring break-ins during the hours of darkness. Landscaping is another area folks seldom take into consideration. Residents shouldn’t allow plants or bushes to grow up over windows and obscure sight lines. You should be able to clearly see all window and access routes to a home’s entrances.

If you want to have plants or bushes around the house, there are many species of bushes that are very colorful, but have long thorns or stickers. Hawthorne is a dense hedge that grows 20 to 25 feet high and produces fragrant pink and white flowers. But, its sharp thorns can range from 1 to 5 inches in length. Hardy Orange is a fruit-bearing tree often used around prisons. It grows 15 to 20 feet high and wide and is covered to the ground with lacerating thorns. Black Locust is resistant to rot and pollution and produces creamy white flowers and a pair of short thorns at the base of each leaf. Barberry is commonly referred to as sticker bushes and is characterized by distinctive three-spined thorns. Pyracantha is a very thorny evergreen shrub that produces red, yellow or orange berries in the fall. Most burglars don’t want to injure themselves with puncture wounds and would be encouraged to go elsewhere.

In the end, all the security features in the world do no good if homeowners don’t use common sense. They need to keep an eye on what’s going on in their neighborhoods and what’s happening with neighbors. Neighborhood Watch is practiced less now than in prior years, but is still a viable option. Teaching your homeowners what to watch out for, how to communicate with other neighbors and with law enforcement will go a long way in making a safer neighborhood. I’ve never been a fan of neighborhood patrols—it should be left up to trained professionals—but the transfer of information from homeowners to law enforcement can be invaluable. After all, nobody knows a neighborhood better than the people that live there.