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Crime & Safety

10 Tips To Protect Your Home and Property

Precinct 12 officer Marianne Snyder, North Point station police community relations liaison, offers tips for protecting your home and property.

Burglary is a crime of opportunity. Each resident can take measures to decrease their likelihood to being a victim of a burglary by “target hardening.”

Target hardening is a combination and variety of security measures. Target hardening refers to devices that are put in place to reduce/eliminate the opportunity for a crime to occur.

Criminals are opportunists and are looking for an easy target. Target hardening works by making the location or area too risky, too difficult, and not profitable. The purpose of target hardening is to deter, delay and to deny crimes from taking place.

Listed below are some tips for preventing burglaries of your homes and sheds:

1) Make your home look and sound occupied. Leave a T.V. or radio on during the day and at night leave a light on or consider purchasing an automatic timer for lights.

2) Never leave garage and shed doors open, even if you are home.

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3) Install quality locks on your doors and shed doors and make sure you keep the doors locked at all times. Make sure all windows are secured.

4) Consider installing motion activated lightening around sheds, decks and porches and keep your landscaping and bushed trimmed short. Don’t create an area that a burglar could use for cover and concealment.

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5) If you move into a new apartment or home, have the locks changed and never leave an extra key at your door or under a mat.

6) Keep your vehicle keys and house keys separate. If you have a garage door opener in your vehicle, make sure that your vehicle is locked at all times.

7) Don’t advertise your vacation plans. Let a trusted neighbor know your plans and ask them to pickup your newspapers and mail. Consider stopping your mail service for the time that you are away on vacation.

8) Don’t leave your property and valuables out in the open and laying in your yard.  Make sure all valuables, lawn equipment and bicycles are secured and not left lying about even for a few minutes. Stress to children at the home that it is very important not to leave their bicycle in the yard or sidewalk when they come into the house.

9) Valuables, lawn equipment and bicycles can be engraved with a personal identifying number such as a Maryland soundex. Keep a record of serial numbers and valuable property. Taking pictures of the valuables is also helpful. By contacting the Community Outreach Team at Precinct 12 410-887-7337, arrangements can be made to serialize your valuables with an engraver.  

10) An officer can provide further information for Operation Identification, and can conduct a residential security survey by appointment.

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