Resting on your laurels when you care for a family can be risky business. It’s easy to fall into a malaise and run the usual routines, but if you’re neglecting the safety of your family – you could run into disaster sooner rather than later.
Nobody is saying that your parenting skills or lacking, or that you don’t look after your kids – it’s just that the safety of our home, the safe place for our families, is sometimes neglected because of more pressing issues.
Namely – looking after your family – day in and day out.
Your home needs to be protected, and you are the person to take responsibility for that. If you’re still not convinced, there are some statistics that will shock you into action.
If you are robbed, it is highly likely that the perpetrators of the crime won’t be found. The Office for National Statistics figures on recorded crime show there were 392,341 burglaries in 2014-15, while Home Office data shows 54,466 arrests were made for burglary. That’s just 14 arrests in every 100 burglaries. To be exact, it’s a 14% chance. That’s not good news at all.
Now, If you want to know what items are commonly stolen – take a look below. If you’re a geeky and gadgety family, you’ll take interest in these stats from the AA:
- Jewellery or Watches – 43%
- Purse, wallet or money – 38%
- Computer or computer equipment – 34%
- Electrical goods or cameras– 19%
- Mobile phones – 13%
- Other – 10%
- Clothes – 9%
- Food, toiletries or cigarettes – 8%
- Handbag, briefcase or shopping bag – 8%
- Household items or furniture – 6%
- Documents – 5%
- Vehicle or vehicle parts – 5%
- House keys – 5%
- Car keys – 4%
- Garden furniture – 4%
Fifty-three percent of burglaries will involve electrical goods including consoles, computer, TV sets, and cameras. This means that you will need to keep your valuables out of sight – including your phones, jewels, and gaming devices.
What about the risk of a burglary happening to you? The average risk is around 2.5% and this increased to 5.4% if the home or local area is poorly maintained and 4.6% if you have lived in the abode for less than a year (bad news for families who have moved into a house for the first time). The risk actually decreased to 2.2% if the property is well maintained and 1.7% if the home is owned by the occupier and if a family has lived there for a while.
All in all, these are some shocking statistics for the modern family, who could see the risk double just for existing and enjoying the advances of tech.
The key to keeping your family safe is simply taking responsibility. If you maintain the property and are consistent with that – you’ll cut the risk of a break in. There’s a lot of technology that can come to your help – systems from CPI Security (check out some Alarm-Reviews of CPI security), smart locks, webcams and even some apps!
If you combine improvements with maintenance, you can prevent a burglary from happening. It may be that your family home is the next target, so take responsibility and use the information you’ve been given to protect your family!