Crime Prevention Advice
Going on holiday 
- Cut the lawns before you go.
- Cancel deliveries of milk, newspapers etc, discretely - don't announce your departure to a shop full of people. Only tell people who need to know you're going away.
- Make sure your house looks occupied. It is worth getting an automatic time switches to switch lights, and a radio, on and off in downstairs or upstairs rooms.
- Mark any valuable items with your postcode or take photographs of all valuable items.
- Consider leaving small valuable items, like jewellery, on deposit at the bank, install a small floor safe.
- Don't leave valuable items like TVs, videos or stereo systems visible through windows.
- Lock the garage and shed with proper security locks, after putting all your tools safely away so they cannot be used to break into your house.
- Don't have your home address showing on your luggage for the outward journey. Put this only on the inside of your cases.
- Lock all outside doors and windows. If you have a burglar alarm, make sure it is set - and that you have told the police who the key holder is.
Register all your belongings on the national property database www.immobilise.com
Around the house
- Always secure all windows and doors when you leave your house and at night, and never leave windows and doors unattended even if you are at home.
- Fit key-operated window locks to all downstairs windows, and vulnerable ones like easily accessible upstairs windows.
- Keep keys and valuables out of sight.
- Mark your tools with your post code and house number or the first two letters of your house name and place the details on www.immobilise.com
- Photograph valuable and unusual garden ornaments and keep these in a secure place.
In the garden 
- Check for weak spots where a thief could get in - a low or sagging fence, or a back gate with a weak lock.
- Fit security lights to the outside of your home at the front and back with sensors so that they are on during the hours of darkness.
- Secure your garden shed, especially if you keep valuable items stored inside.
- Fit a strong, lockable, high gate across any side passage to stop a thief getting to the back of the house where they can work undisturbed.
- Use thorny hedges and plants along boundaries, under ground-floor windows and up drainpipes to make it harder for thieves to gain access.
- Make sure the front of your house is clearly visible from the road - neighbours and passers-by will be able to see any suspicious activity.
Don't leave ladders or tools outside, or chain them up if you have to. They
could be used to break into your home.
