By Cecilio Andrade

The second security ring of home defense is the detection phase and access delay.

Like personal protection outside the home, awareness of potential problems or criminal activities is vital to prevent, escape, inform and/or take action to effectively defend yourself or others. Our house is no different, the sooner we detect, locate and identify the threat, before we can respond effectively.

Choosing safe door locks provides inexpensive but effective denying access options.

External monitoring systems can also be highly effective as they provide early warning of any intrusion of the property. However, these systems involve costs and/or ongoing maintenance. Structural alarm systems are more common and provide unauthorized entry warning. But the proximity of this ring to the family core security puts the threats closer, which means less time to respond if the intruders are aggressive and determined.

We must also remember that a visual and/or audible alarm system seeks to alert anyone inside the house, and to the neighborhood, of a violation of the structure.

The idea of denying entry centers on slowing down and delaying the invasion in order to provide time for two actions that can be performed separately or simultaneously:

• Escape
• Response plan initiation

As a closing of the present text, some simple and effective measures to consider are:

• Installation of affective locks
• Steel pins on the possible access points
• Anchor bolts of at least 5 cm
• Frames with anti-lever plates
• Reinforced and resistant exterior doors
• Grills on the windows

We must remember that all this will only slow down the intrusion giving us time to start up the whole contingency plan and the last ring of security, which may involve contact with intruders.