If the budget allows, electronic security devices should be employed. There is a vast array of security devices available on the commercial market, ranging from CCTV to laser sensors. Always choose the best that you can afford and buy it from a reputable dealer; it is best to also get a service agreement and have all equipment regularly serviced by trusted people. Even if your residence is in an apartment block, CCTV should be considered for the corridors and public parts of the building. Covert and portable CCTV systems are available at affordable prices and have a variety of uses. These days there are also affordable CCTV systems that you can monitor over the internet. I had one client who told me while he was working in East Africa, he watched Hurricane Katrina destroy his house in Louisiana over the internet. Remember if you use internet camera’s they can be hacked into, if someone gets access to your computers, passwords or on a more professional level access to your server they can also see what you’re up to.

Many people have alarms systems and panic buttons in their residences, and it amuses me that a lot of people believe that installing an alarm is all they require to protect their families. We have all seen the adverts on TV where a woman is home alone, the alarm goes off, the bad guy runs away, and the alarm company phones her to make sure she is OK. If only the world was that perfect. What if the bad guys aren’t worried and expect an alarm to go off because they know they have at least 15 minutes before the police will respond? If you have an alarm system then you need to know what the response time will be for those responding, be it an armed response company or the local police. In some places the response can take hours, even in the US. If the responding police believe there is a serious incident taking place, with shots fired, they will usually back off, call for support, cordon the area and assemble a SWAT team to respond. If you’re lucky this may take an hour or two!

Another criminal tactic to counter an alarm system on a residence is to keep setting them off until the target turns the system off. Think about it, if over a period of two weeks the alarm on your back door keeps going off between 1am to 4am what would you do? Initially for the first few alarm activations the police will respond, in a lot of places after 3 false alarm activations the police will no longer respond. If you have an armed response company, they will be charging you for every alarm they respond to. So, I am sure you will call out the alarm company to fix the alarm, but they will find nothing wrong with it. Would you keep putting up with the cost and aggravation of the apparently false alarm activations or just turn the alarm off? Take nothing at face value, if you have an alarm that starts going off for no apparent reason, look deeper!

A lot of people ask me about using guard dogs, something which I tend to dissuade people from doing. Dogs can be weapons and must be kept under control. While working in South Africa I had two German Sheppard’s attack me; they did not die because the client was screaming at me not to shoot them. The dogs had been let out of their cage, as they usually were in the evening, by a staff member who did not know that I was working there. OK, it was only me, so no problems, but what if it was a child or woman, and the dog’s owner was not there to take control of them?

If you use dogs they must be properly trained, if I was in a high-risk area would I consider having trained dogs in my garden, sure but they would need to be properly trained. Dogs can be targeted as same as security personnel, if they are not trained properly, they are easy to poison. Guard dogs that bark a lot are easy to counter, same as an alarm system. We have used this tactic numerous times in parts of Latin America where every house seems to have a pack of dogs, you just need to get the dogs barking and keep them barking. Then in a short time the owner will soon get fed up with the noise, or the dogs will get tired.

Orlando “Andy” Wilson

Books on Amazon
Home & Office Security: Protection of Residencies & Businesses
This book provides simple and effective plans & procedures to secure your home, office and workspace.
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