The Best Home Security Goes Beyond Electronic Devices
It can be frustrating to search the internet for unbiased information regarding home security systems and equipment. Run a basic search on ‘home security’ and you will be greeted by dozens of links to articles talking about the best cameras, smart locks, and complete home security systems. However, here is the blunt reality: the best home security goes beyond electronic devices.
Every company in the home security business claims to be the best. There are some particularly good ones, like Vivint. But Vivint posts, like their “Best Home Security Systems in Wisconsin” post, still fall short of the mark. Protecting your home can be a lot easier with electronic equipment. And in fact, an electronic home security system is an excellent weapon against burglary and home invasion. But there is more to it than just electronic surveillance.
What Electronic Home Security Does
Electronic home security is designed to do three things: monitor, provide early warning, and deter criminal activity. From a monitoring standpoint, it’s about continuously paying attention to potential emergencies. An emergency can be anything from a burglary attempt to a fire or water leak.
Early warning is self-explanatory. The earlier a homeowner and local authorities can be alerted to an emergency, the more quickly a response can be formulated. Early warning can sometimes mean the difference between minimizing the impacts of an emergency and standing by helplessly while things rage out of control.
Finally, there is the deterrence issue. Home security systems are a good deterrent to burglars and home invaders who simply don’t want to get caught. But as effective as home security systems are in all three areas, they have one fatal flaw: they encourage carelessness.
A Tool to Be Used Properly
A home security system is a tool. In order for it to accomplish its purpose, it needs to be used properly. More importantly, homeowners cannot allow the presence of a home security system to make them careless. Locking the door is an easy example to illustrate the point.
A home security system can be a deterrent to burglars. Yet some burglars will still check to see if a front door is left unlocked. Why? Because they know that leaving the door unlocked is a good sign that the home security system is also unarmed.
Relying too much on a home security system can make a homeowner careless about locking the door. That is a problem. Likewise for leaving the garage door open or not drawing the blinds when no one is home.
Other Tools Are Important, Too
The carelessness issue aside, home automation is a tool that’s best used with other tools. Other tools include heavy-duty deadbolt locks, security locks for first floor windows, adequate internal and external lighting, and block glass for basement windows.
Additional tools should be combined with a variety of strategies to reduce risk. For example, maintaining a home’s exterior can help deter burglars. Other strategies include keeping the garage door down, making arrangements for package deliveries away from the home, and working with neighbors to keep an eye on one another’s properties.
It’s a Mindset More Than Anything
Truth be told, home security is a mindset more than anything else. It is a mindset that involves constantly evaluating security risks and then taking steps to mitigate them. Installing an electronic home security system is just one step and making a home more secure.
If you are relying exclusively on electronic home security devices to keep you safe, it is time to rethink things. Electronic devices are helpful, but relying exclusively on them opens your home to real security risks.
