150% increase in homicide and shooting. What can you do to protect yourself and the family?
Crime can strike anytime and anywhere and there are still chances of becoming victimized no matter how careful you think you are.
Still, it doesn’t mean that you should take chances when it comes to safety. What you can do is at least minimize the risk of becoming a victim and make your environment as safe as possible.
Ensuring the Safety of Your Family Not Just at Home
This involves protecting you and your family while you’re at home, while you’re in the neighborhood and you’re on the go. Of course, there’s no one-stop solution—safety is an immense effort that involves not just your physical resources but also your common sense and mindset.
This means getting your mind into a state of being ready for whatever comes, which is essential as criminals will always look for opportunities to take advantage of people and do harm.
Protecting Your Family at Home
Choosing the safest neighborhood to live in is the best option certainly, but not everyone can afford it. Gated communities with guards all around are definitely not for the common people. But there are many other ways to keep your family safe no matter where you live.
- Always lock doors and windows – Make it a habit to always lock the doors whenever you come into the house. Make sure that each family member gets on with the habit and make it their second nature.
- Keep outside lights on until dawn – If you don’t have at least one light in front and at the back of your house, it’s high time to get some. Once you turn these lights at dusk, maintain to keep them on until the sun comes up the next day. You don’t want dark areas in your yard at night.
- Keep inside lights on when you head out – Whenever you go out of the house in the evening, leave the lights on to give the impression that there’s still somebody in the house. Bathroom lights are the most common choice for this one—it leaves enough light that can be seen outside. You can also leave the TV or radio on. These are usually enough to ward off intruders.
- Don’t inform people of your vacation plans – People tend to post on social media about their vacation plans or photos of themselves while they are on vacation. For safety’s sake, refrain from doing this. This makes your home vulnerable to lurkers waiting for an empty house to strike.
- Invest in a good home security system – Gone are the days that home security systems are just for the rich. Now pretty much anyone can buy even just a simple CCTV camera that can monitor the comings and goings in your home.
Of course, if you can afford it, you should invest in more sophisticated systems that will add more protection to your home which a reliable executive protection company can provide.
If you need a more extensive security system, especially if you have a big house or there are always people coming and going to your residence, you can ask assistance from an executive protection company on the best way to secure your place according to your needs.
Protecting Your Family While in Your Neighborhood
You and the neighbors can work together to create a safer environment for all. If you’re lucky, you may be living in an area with solid safety programs in place. If not, now is the time to get to know the neighbors and unite for mutual safety through these:
- Organize a watch group – With the help of your local police, you can plan and organize a watch group that can minimize criminal activity in the neighborhood. Ask the local police for training or tips on what to look for and what to do in case of suspicious activities in the area.
- Get to know the people around you – Even if you’re not the type to socialize with the neighbors for fun, it’s important to get to know them so you can get a good idea of the type of people surrounding you.
This will also help you put at ease when you see people walking around your streets—at least you will know who are strangers or not.
Protecting Your Family While on the Go
For most people, anywhere outside their own home is a more dangerous place to be in. You are always vulnerable to crime while you’re commuting to work, heading to the grocery, or going someplace else for fun and recreation.
This is why you should be even more on alert every time you’re out of the house.
- Consider carrying a weapon – It doesn’t have to be a gun, since not all can carry a firearm. A pepper spray will do, but make sure that the laws in your area allow people to carry non-lethal weapons. You can also consider taking self-defense classes, like boxing, so you still have a higher chance of protecting yourself even without a weapon.
- Avoid traveling alone – This is obviously tricky, but definitely something to consider if you have to go out during the evenings constantly. If you can, you should drive with friends or co-workers during odd hours. Criminals usually hesitate to attack people in groups.
- Don’t park in dark areas – Find well-lit places to park your vehicle so you won’t be prone to mugging or worse, murder.
- Tell at least one person in the family about your plans – This will come in handy in case people start to look for you and your mobile phone could not be contacted.
Now if your family is in a category that will require more protection especially while on the go, you may need to hire security personnel.
Partner with the Right Security Company
Hiring just anybody is not enough—safety is a matter of life and death which is why you should not settle for less than having executive protection agents from the World Protection Group.
We employ only the best people for security—our agents have backgrounds from the military and we use nothing less than the Secret Service standards.
We are the best people to provide protection for you and your family. So, contact our team at The World Protection Group today.
