Three Simple Ways to Make Your Home Less Appealing to Criminals
Three of my closest friends are retired APD police officers and detectives, and over the years I've probably annoyed them with hundreds of questions about how they would handle different situations. One of those conversations was about home safety. I expected the answer to be something along the lines of making sure you have a weapon nearby, but that wasn't where they went at all. Instead, they gave me three incredibly simple things homeowners can do to make their house a less appealing target: lights, dogs and cameras.
The first thing they recommended was good exterior lighting. Their explanation was pretty simple. People doing things they shouldn't be doing generally don't want to be seen. A dark side yard, driveway or front porch gives someone a lot more cover than a well-lit property. Good lighting around the front of the house and motion-activated floodlights around darker areas can make your home less inviting to someone randomly looking for an opportunity. Of all the things we talked about, this was actually their number one recommendation, and the more you think about it, the more sense it makes.
Second was having a dog, and their reasoning was a little different than I expected. I assumed it was simply because people are afraid of getting bitten, but they explained that a dog creates another unpredictable variable. It can bark, alert the homeowner, draw attention and generally make things more complicated. They also pointed out that someone committing a relatively minor or opportunistic crime may simply not want to deal with an animal at all. The point isn't that you need a 100-pound guard dog. It's that when someone is looking for an easy target, a house with a barking dog may not feel like the easiest option.
Finally, security cameras. Cameras obviously can't prevent every crime, especially if someone is specifically targeting a property and has planned around its security. But we're talking about reducing the chances of random, opportunistic crime. Visible cameras, a video doorbell and exterior lighting all send the same message: you're probably going to be seen and recorded. None of these things can guarantee that nothing bad will ever happen at your house. The goal is much simpler. Make your home a little harder, a little more visible and a little less appealing than the alternative. Sometimes basic deterrence is the best first line of defense.
