The front door as a point of entry accounts for up to 29% of burglaries in Ireland. Homeowners must be proactive and not reactive to crime. We spoke with Sergeant & Crime Prevention Officer Dean Kerins on simple ways we can improve our home's security.
Crime Prevention Officers (CPOs) advising the public
Crime Prevention Officers are trained to encourage, promote and advise the public on crime prevention measures. Sergeant Dean Kerins is the CPO of the Meath division and has developed innovative ways to engage with the public.
He runs a hugely successful page, The Meath Crime Prevention Page, which promotes crime prevention and alert locals to suspicious activity in the area.
"Preferably, I'd like to go to people before they're broken into," says Kerins, "but that doesn't always happen as you can imagine."
Set up in 2011, the page has become a huge success, with a reach of up to 250,000 each week and over 22,000 followers.
"There's a huge amount of interaction, people engage with it which is brilliant" Keirns says. But for Kerins the day-to-day is ensuring people are proactive to burglary, rather than reactive.
Below are 5 Top Tips for Burglary Prevention:
1. Secure all doors and windows
"If the lock hasn't been changed in the last 3 or 4 years, it's most likely one of the older styled locks" Kerins says.
Statistics from An Garda Síochána pinpoint the 3 biggest points of entry for break-ins include
- Front Door (29%),
- Rear Door (26%)
- Rear Window (24%).
Kerins explains that the new style of Patio, PVC style front doors can be one of the easier points of entry for a criminal, and owners should be mindful of this.
"If you don't have half-decent doors and windows in your house, it makes it very easy for burglars simple as that."
2. Light up your home, use timer switches when out.
Whether it's pulling the curtains, having your house well lit or using timer switches when away, creating the illusion there is someone at home is very important both for security and peace of mind.
This is particularly important when owners are away on holidays.
3. Store keys safely and away from windows & letterboxes.
Keep keys away from the sight of windows and out of reach from letterboxes.
4. Record details of valuables and don't keep large cash amounts at home.
Kerins says that people should have an inventory of their goods, particularly jewellery as it is very hard to replace.
"Don't have lots of cash round the house. Get evaluations of valuable jewellery, take photographs of them. Don't have it all in the one place either."
An inventory list can prove useful in retrieving items, such as tools, which Kerins says has a high success rate when posted on the Facebook page looking for their owners.
5. Lastly, use your alarm! Even when at home.
"You can have all the electronic alarms in the world," Kerins says, "and half the time people don't set them. They rely on other people to monitor it for them which completely defeats the purpose."
Setting your alarm, even when at home, can prove invaluable to alerting you to criminal activity giving you peace of mind and sense of security.
To find your local CPO, visit the directory here. For more information on crime prevention measures, visit www.garda.ie. And for more home related articles, follow RTÉ LifeStyle on Twitter, on Facebook and Instagram.
