According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, offense is the means or method of attacking, while defense is the capability of resisting attack. In a lawful society, few would argue that defense is preferable to offense.
Defense is primarily everything you can do ahead of time to dissuade a criminal from ever deciding to attack your home. Offense, by contrast, is everything you can do to achieve victory (survival) once a criminal element has commenced an attack on your home. During an attack, defense plays the role of slowing your attacker down to give you more time to prepare your offense.
Offense is easy to imagine and train for in this paradigm. The idea of having the tools and training to succeed when someone is attacking your home is a visceral concept and one that firearms training often focuses on. Looking at a national home defense course, the breakdown is approximately 25% focus on defense and 75% on offense. Offense in this case is much easier to visualize, and there is a clear outcome: An attack happens, you have the plans and skills to counter-attack, and if successful, you have survived the encounter.
By comparison, defense is a more defused concept. When defense does not work, we know in an instant, requiring us to go on the offense. When defense does work, we will never know when, if, or how often criminals decide to pass on the idea of attacking our home.
The Best Offense is a Good Defense
Let’s look at some low-cost options to reduce the likelihood of your home being targeted for a home invasion or burglary in the first place. The first is to identify any easy-to-access doors. Once identified, check each one using the following checklist:
- Do all the exterior doors look newer and stronger with deadbolts? If a door does not have a deadbolt consider adding one. Criminals prefer the front door, but will also look for the weakest and least observable door.
- Do you regularly lock each door and keep them locked? A surprisingly large number of burglaries occur with just entering (no breaking) as criminals go house to house looking for unlocked doors.
- Are the strike plate screws long enough to extend through the door frame into the studs of the house on each door?
- What is the condition of the interior garage door to the house? Is it locked as well?
- What is the condition of the door leading to your bedroom? Is it locked?
- Are all the doors well-lit at night and not obscured by plants and bushes? If there is a darkened area obscured from sight that contains a door, this becomes the most likely door to be used to gain entry.
- Consider adding locks to the interior doors of rooms that contain valuables.
The goal is not to make the house impenetrable; it is to dissuade someone from choosing your house as a target and to slow intruders down. Next, we should look at ground-floor windows, using another checklist:
- Pay special attention to ground-floor windows. Are they in good working order with locks, and are they kept locked?
- What is the quality and strength of the locks, do you have secondary locks (bar stops)?
- Make sure each ground-floor window is well-lit and not concealed by shrubbery.
- Evaluate the area around your house for features that make windows easier to access.
- Consider adding a protective laminate reinforcing each window to not shatter.
Lights, Cameras, Alarms
Previously, when I regularly lived in large neighborhoods, I had a ritual I would do about once every two or three months: I would wake up in the middle of the night, get dressed, and walk my neighborhood well after midnight. During this walk, I would look for the houses that would be the easiest to break into (no lights, entry points well concealed, no signs of security systems, etc). If I found a home that looked more dissuading to a burglar than mine, I would take notes, and I would then take steps to make sure my home returned to the top of the ‘don’t try it’ list. Through this method, I would then make sure that my house was the least likely target in my neighborhood.
Lights:
Although most home burglaries occur during the day, a significant number still occur late at night, and home invasions are more likely late at night. Additionally, those wanting to break into homes at night look for dark homes often surrounded by other dark homes. Make sure your home’s exterior, especially entry points, is well-lit, and as much as possible easily viewable from other houses and nearby roads. I created a ritual of turning on the exterior lights as the sun goes down, and I have additional solar-powered lights (nominally as landscaping features) installed strategically. If we are going to be away, these lights are tied to sensors and timers.
Cameras:
I did not incorporate cameras into my home defense plans until relatively recently. We currently have a series of visible cameras installed on our barn, workshop, house’s major entrances, and covering the one drive leading into the property. These cameras have backup memory (so they are recording) and connect directly to our smartphones.
While not cheap, cameras are a great deterrent and solid defense plan. Burglars are less likely to attack a home with quality camera coverage. Plus, cameras make it easy to check on the perimeter of the home while away or suspicious of someone snooping around. While writing this, it took me less than 10 seconds to access the main driveway camera and watch one of our barn cats coming up from the barn to the house. The cameras also have smart detection settings and can alert you when motion is detected.
Alarms:
If the goal of a break-in is to do it quietly in a way no one will notice, a good alarm system is a great deterrent at two levels. The first is a clearly marked home with updated alarm signs. Second, if a break-in is attempted, a loud alarm may very well result in the attempt being abandoned.
The ideal alarm system is regularly used (turned on), connected to a loud audible alarm, includes sensors on all doors and windows, has motion sensors, and is connected to an alarm service that can dispatch police. The reality is that only one in five people with alarm systems regularly turn them on. The first and most important element is deterrence. That same deterrence can be achieved at a very low cost with numerous companies providing security system signs and window stickers. The deception of appearing to have an alarm system naturally transitions us to the last section of defense.
Smoke and Mirrors
Factors such as multiple people living at the residence, unpredictable traffic to and from the home, and the presence of large dogs can influence a criminal to choose a different home. There are ways to simulate these factors. If you live alone, consider buying a few pairs of large well-worn work boots and placing them on the front porch by the door each evening (as you check locks and turn on lights).
Higher traffic can be simulated by varying where you park vehicles, such as parking on the street, driveway, and garage. We have multiple vehicles and a garage but purposefully keep one car outside the garage most of the time, even when traveling to maintain the illusion we are home. We have large dogs (ever hear a Great Dane bark?), but what if you don’t? Buy a large dog bowl and a dog chain and stage them where they can be seen. I have a friend who plays a recording all day long when they are gone at work that includes sounds of someone moving around and, occasionally, a loud dog barking.
The goal of such exercises is to further convince a criminal to not target your house in the first place based on what deters such actions. If you have any questions or techniques for making defense your best offense in home protection, I would love to hear them in the comments.
