How secure is your home?

A home security campaign to support safer communities is being launched today by An Garda Siochana, writes Brian Byrne.

It will run through to Wednesday 3 June and involves asking homeowners to run through a checklist 'challenge' to see just how secure their homes might, or might not be.

We're all painfully aware of the increase in residential burglaries amongst friends and acquaintances — nationally there was a 4 percent rise between 2013-2014, and two out of three burglaries are from residences.

June is just about upon us, and that means that entries to a home through an unsecured door or window will almost double.

The front door is the most likely entry point, at 27 percent of burglaries, while the back door follows with 25 percent. But a back window tops both as a favoured entry point, at 28 percent.

And more than 200 cases of car keys were 'fished' through letter-boxes in 2014, with the favourite cars stolen being family compacts.

Here's a thing — if you can deny entry for three minutes or more, chances are the burglars will go elsewhere, so make sure doors and windows are properly fitted with quality locking systems that present a good physical barrier to the burglar. But use them — if a door or window has been left open, their security qualities won’t make any difference.

The Home Security Checklist Challenge is available here and is a simple survey which takes a few minutes to complete and enables the householder to see just how secure their home is.