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Home safe
Tips on how to protect your property.
Background
Auckland City, the Police and Housing New Zealand have launched a programme called Home Safe in Glen Innes and Panmure.
Police statistics show that these two suburbs have high rates of burglary and the Home Safe programme aims to help people take steps to
protect their properties.
Between July 2004 and June 2005, there were nearly 450 burglaries of suburban homes in Glen Innes and Panmure. This is nearly 17 per cent
of all burglaries in the Police Eastern Area. Many of the burglaries in Glen Innes and Panmure occur in Housing New Zealand homes.
The partnership between Auckland City, Housing New Zealand and the Police aims to reduce the number of burglaries and overall crime in
this area.
The programme
The pilot programme between the three partners has four main planks. These include:
- an education campaign teaching people to protect their homes from burglars
- a security audit of residential homes
- security installations in targeted Housing New Zealand homes
- Police focusing resources in the area.
The education campaign will be the key thrust of the programme and involves the production of a Home Safe booklet giving people advice
on how they can protect their property.
The Home Safe programme may be introduced in other suburbs if this year-long trial proves successful.
Home Safe booklet
The Home Safe booklet has good advice on how you can protect your home.
Many householders in the project area can dramatically reduce the opportunity for burglary by ensuring they always lock their doors. Simple
actions like this can be very effective in deterring burglars.
Burglars like easy targets, and choose the homes they break into carefully. They look for the following things:
- no one appears to be home
- the front door is not locked
- there are windows open
- the garage door is open
- it's easy to climb in a window without being seen from the street
- there's no alarm.
To protect your home and your property, you should always ensure that you:
- close and lock all doors when you're out
- lock the front door when you're in the back garden
- close your windows every time you go out
- get locks or security stays on all your windows
- don't leave large sums of cash in your home
- don't leave keys or other valuables where they can be seen from outside
- put away tools and ladders
- keep bushes and trees trimmed so burglars can't hide behind them
- get a trusted neighbour or friend to check on your house while you're away
- let your landlord know you're going away
- never open the door to strangers, look through a peephole or window to see who is there
- get a security chain put on your front door
- do not discuss your finances with strangers who come to the door
- if you suspect there's a prowler or intruder in your home, call 111 immediately.
You can download the Home Safe booklet below in PDF format:
Home Safe - be smart, lock up (990kb PDF)
To view PDFs download Acrobat Reader from the
Adobe website. Further help on how to view PDFs.
