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Your residence or estate should be the most difficult target to penetrate and the place where you and your family can feel safe and relax, free of worry concerning personal injury, kidnapping, invasion, and burglary. Safety of a residence can be provided both by technical and physical (human) means of protection.

The task of technical protection is to create artificial obstacles, which intruders have to overcome disclosing themselves. Although you can not make your home 100 percent invasion proof, you can take simple precautionary measures to make forced and illegal entry so difficult that a burglar will look elsewhere for an easier target. Here are some simple precautions and procedures you can use to deter, delay, deny or detect an intruder.

Fence and territory

If possible, do not buy a house, situated in low place, since it can facilitate intruders to observe the territory. The residence should be surrounded with a reliable fence at least 2.5 meters high with a minimum number of entries not to scatter security efforts. You can top this with barbed wire, but that can create quite a provocative image.

At present the technology is available to provide the very highest in sophisticated electronic protection. On the exterior and grounds of the estate are seismic alarms that can be buried in the ground to detect the footsteps of a person. There are photoelectric beams and microwaves that can be positioned to sound an alarm when broken or disturbed by an intruder. The closed circuit television cameras are connected to VCRs that record an entire 24-hour period. The tapes are usually retained at least for a week and are available for review should the necessity arise.

When planning and engineering an alarm and associated systems, the cost should be taken into consideration with the systems being integrated into an efficient combination that provides maximum coverage while minimizing costs. For example, in contrast to any alarm system, which does not allow to determine the level and nature of the threat, a close-circuit television system makes it possible to observe the situation after getting an alarm signal and assess the threat. So adequate coverage can be provided by combination of both systems.

Clear out the trees and shrubbery close to the fence by which it can be scaled and which can make good hiding places for intruders. Do the same along both sides of the road, leading to the residence, as a counter-ambush measure. Trim all outdoor foliage which obstruct a clear view of the entrances and windows of your home. Plant "prickly" or thorny shrubbery near windows to discourage hiding. Ladders and tools, useful to gain entry, should be locked inside garage.
 
The entrances to your home should be well lighted. There should be a light fixture outside every door on a house to enable a scan of the area to be accomplished safely from inside. Motion sensors can also be installed in almost any existing exterior fixture that will turn on the light automatically when anyone approaches the door. Lights should not cast large shadows, since intruders can use them to their advantage. Illumination is arranged in such a way that there should be as much space as possible between the intruder"s hiding place and the house.

Doors and windows

All exterior doors should be constructed of solid wood and have a wide-angle door-viewer installed for identifying visitors. Low cost surveillance cameras can also be used and viewed from your living room or bedroom T.V. Always lock all your doors when you are home for the night or when you leave your residence. The door should swing in to prevent any attack on the hinges; if a door swings outward, it should be installed on non-removable pin hinges. Sliding doors are less secure, and should be avoided if possible.

You should not scrimp when selecting locks, a few extra dollars can prevent a sizable loss later. Installing a quality lock on a cheap door is pointless. Whether to have double-cylinder deadbolts on a home is largely a safety decision. Double-cylinder deadbolts are those which have no inside thumb-turn, but require a key to open from the interior. While much more secure, they can pose a threat to personal safety in the event of fire. Most law enforcement officials agree that this threat can be minimized by forming the habit of inserting yours key(s) in the main entry lockset whenever anyone is home. The safest locksets are called panic-proof deadbolts; they give you the security provided by a deadbolt but open from the inside with a single action, thus preventing any entrapment in the event of an emergency. Panic-proof deadbolts are somewhat vulnerable to manipulation from outside if adjacent to a glass panel. Doors should be configured so that any glass panel is at least thirty-six inches from the inside doorknob to prevent manipulation from the outside.

Windows are the 1st point of entry for residential burglaries. 30.9% of burglaries occur through first floor windows. 6.0% of burglaries occur through the upper-floor windows. Windows should be equipped with a locking device. Any lock used on windows should operate from the inside so the window can be used for emergency exit. Security bars are not recommended for home use as they must be equipped with a device to enable them to be opened in the event of emergency. They are vulnerable to manipulation from the outside. While they give the appearance of being secure, any competent burglar knows they really are not effective. Each window should be alarmed with glass breaking detectors. Blinds and drapes should be closed at night. It should never be apparent to anyone on the street that you are alone.

You have security with a lock only when you can account for every key. The number of keys and access to them must be tightly controlled. All personnel with keys, including house staff, should be clearly instructed that:

• Keys should be carried on a person and not left on desks, in cars, or in unattended coats or bags. 
• Keys should never be allowed to be duplicated, except under specific instruction from the household owner. 
• Loss of keys has to be reported immediately.

Fire

Smoke detectors should be used in all rooms of the house for early warning of fire. Fire extinguishers must be located in the most important places throughout the house and family members as well as house staff should know their location. The most dangerous places in the house from fire security point of view are garage and boiler-room where combustibles may be stored. Test your smoke detectors once a month. Replace the batteries in your smoke detectors twice a year.

Escape Plan

When a terrorist or a criminal breaks into the house or a large scale fire occurs, there will be no time for people in the house to think over their conduct. Hence an escape plan should be worked out and practiced at least twice a year with every member of the household. Establish a meeting place outside. Make sure that doors needed for escape can be opened easily, and that windows are not nailed or painted shut.

Safe room

In the interior of the residence the home owner might have a "safe room" constructed. The room is fortified and reinforced. It should contain emergency equipment, a food and water supply, an independent lighting system, communications like cellular telephones and a radio monitored at an off-residence location such as the owner"s business place. The room could contain a safe with all important family papers, valuables, etc. The entrance to the room should have an alarm and be secured whenever no family member is present. The owner and his family could seek temporary refuge in the safe room should an attack be made against the residence. A secret escape door should be available if possible.

Physical (human) protection

Fences, walls and alarm systems do not stop an intruder. They only hinder his activity and report an attempted penetration. After an alarm signal is given one should undertake some actions - call for help, prepare for defense, or to hide until the help arrives. Therefore, the main element of a protection system is not technology, but force, which should in proper time react to alarm signals and counteract the penetration attempt. Hence the owner of the residence should determine if he is able to protect himself, his relatives and property all alone or should he apply to professionals.

In the latter case he has three variants: 1. to organize a post manned by security personnel on the territory of the residence; 2. to call a quick response group if the residence is located in a "gated community" and guarded and patrolled by security agency personnel; 3. to connect the alarm system of the residence to the local police headquarters and stand firm till they arrive.

A quick response group should be able to arrive in no later than 5 minutes after the alarm. If response time is more than 10 minutes, all measures of technical protection become meaningless, since they will not save the residence from attack (plunder). Therefore, if the police station is too far from the residence it is prudent to engage a private security agency. The presence of security officers on the territory of your residence will allow you to save on alarm systems by using simpler ones.

The command post is usually located at the drive way gate entrance to the property. A telephone speaker and a closed-circuit television camera should be mounted where the driver must exit the car for admittance and identification.

The post should have all necessary equipment for security personnel accommodation - furniture, heaters, electric stove, etc. The better it is equipped the more vigilant and useful the guards are, since they have no need to worry about conditions of work. All data from alarm and video systems must be transmitted to the post, where monitoring of all objects connected to the network is accomplished. The post should also be equipped with emergency call systems connected to the house and local police station.

Access to the residence territory should be managed by security agents but not the service personnel. Security officers must know any member of the owner"s family and service staff by sight.  They should have a constantly supplemented list of temporary workers (gardeners, plumbers, etc.), with approximate time of their arrival. The most attention should be paid to new workers, replacing their sick colleagues. Whenever possible, temporary workers should not work without supervision. Spontaneous visitors are admitted only with permission of the owner or his relatives living in the residence. A log to register in and out all visitors to the property must be maintained.

Always ask for identification from service callers such as tradesmen, delivery people etc. Call the company they claim to represent and verify their identity, if in doubt. If they can not provide identification, call the police. In order to reveal possible criminal spying, be observant of people, lingering near your residence, inquiring about its inhabitants and home staff, or vehicles, parked for a long time near the residence, as well as outside places, where criminals can equip their observation posts. If any repair, construction work, or any other activity is carried out next to the residence, it is necessary to inquire what company the workers represent. Call the company to verify the validity of  the workers.  If you have any doubt, call the police. 

A very important security element is home personnel, which can have access to the keys and know the daily routine of the residence inhabitants. Since you have to trust your home staff, engage only those with letters of recommendation. Instruct them how to answer telephone calls, receive letters and parcels. Warn them not to talk with anybody about the property owner, his family, place of  work, security measures undertaken. Reliable servants can supply you with useful information if you tell them about possible threat and its signs. Take serious all suspicions your service personnel have.

If possible, choose neighbors of the same social status. It is good, if they are earnest about security matters. In that case you will be able to combine your efforts to undertake collective security measures. Maintain friendly relations with your neighbors, since they can be the first to warn you of suspicious people, which show interest in you, your family, and your property.

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