For many people, life sees a huge shift in August and September when the kids go back to school. You are likely gone more frequently and with more regularity and schedules become more predictable. There are usually more people opening doors throughout the day, leaving more opportunity for them to be left open or unlocked. Often, teens are home alone after school and it can be difficult to know if they are following basic safety practices, like locking the door or not leaving the garage open. All of these simple things make your home and family more vulnerable to accident and crime.
15 Ways to Improve Safety
While you are out buying school supplies, take the time to stay vigilant about security. Keep your family, belongings, and property safe with these helpful mid-summer security tips.
- Remind everyone to take basic security measures, like shutting the doors and windows. Remember the burglars favor the front door and first-floor windows as primary entries.
- Remember to arm home security systems when you leave. The FBI reports that there is burglary every 15 seconds somewhere in the US. Homes without a monitored alarm system are three times more likely a break-in than those with a monitored system.
- Use your home security and home automation systems to their fullest advantage to improve safety. Simulate being home, even if you are only gone for a few hours and use it to create more activity so it is difficult to tell if kids are home alone.
- Install an alarm system with alerts so you know when kids get home.
- Use video surveillance to see children arrive safely and keep tabs on what is going on while you are away.
- Teach your children the signs of a break-in, and not to go in if they suspect something is wrong.
- Use contact sensors to gates and doors leading to pool areas or other areas you’d like to keep off limits.
- If you buy anything expensive for school, such as a computer, crush boxes and dispose of them in the trash where they are not visible, so you do not give clues to big purchases.
- Teach kids about stranger danger, and that even door-to-door salespeople can pose a risk.
- Use sensors to detect things like water leaks so that you do not have to come home to a problem that was made worse by time.
- Draw your curtains so others can’t see into your home. When you provide visibility, you provide information that you do not intend to give away.
- Schedule services such as yard care or dog walking for while you are at work so there is always someone at the property.
- Have snack prepared if kids will be home before you. This can help avoid kitchen accidents.
- Make sure everyone knows how to dial 911.
- Get a video doorbell and answer the door remotely instead of having children answer the door. This way, potential burglars never know kids are home alone.
Back-to-school is a busy time, and that leaves room for gaps in our security. Take a few moments to review your safety practices and evaluate where you can improve them. Call us today to learn more about how to use home security and automation technologies most effectively! 800-303-8877