Protect Property And People

For most people, the primary reason for installing a home surveillance system is simply to better protect themselves, those close to them and their possessions. The presence of visible security, whether in the form of real or dummy CCTV cameras is often sufficient to persuade would be thieves to simply pass on your property anyway. But should your property be subject to a break-in or worse still, anyone be attacked then having a functioning home surveillance system represents one of your best shots at ensuring justice prevails.

Protection isn’t only about prevention; it’s about ensuring that should the worst happen you can put things right and move on. Evidence in the form of time-stamped high quality images can be vital in both expediting insurance claims and helping the police apprehend the culprits and hopefully recover some or all of your stolen possessions. Also, simply knowing how intruders decided where and how to break in can help prevent a future recurrence. Having a domestic surveillance setup is a major factor these days in both deterring and prosecuting criminals.

Deter And Avoid Unwanted Visitors

Putting off would be intruders and burglars isn’t the only benefit of installing obvious exterior security cameras. Many other characters that you quite probably would rather didn’t bother you are likely to be deterred by the prospect of being caught on camera. This includes sales people and political and religious canvassers.

Of course there are always those who are either undeterred or blithely unaware and will saunter up to your front door regardless. In this case a strategically positioned IP camera can act as a door sentry – a quick look on the monitor panel for your camera(s) will show who is at the door and you can then decide whether or not to answer it. This is not unlike consulting a telephone caller display before electing to answer a phone call.

Alternatively, you may choose to install a camera with two-way audio capability which allows you to query what your visitor wants without having to open the door to them. Again, as with the telephone it is much easier to cut someone off, if they start trying to entangle you in their sales pitch for example, when there is an absence of personal visual contact. It may seem rude, but frankly cold calling is a pretty aggressive way of barging uninvited into other people’s lives and often merits a similarly robust response.

Monitor Activity And Maintain Records

While security cameras are unquestionably effective at both deterring criminal behaviour and collecting evidence should it nevertheless occur, they also have a great many other incidental benefits. Not the least of which is simply knowing who has been visiting your property and when.

I once watched (from work) as a courier driver delivered a new and expensive laptop computer to my home. I was expecting that, albeit somewhat later that day, but what I wasn’t expecting was to see him simply leave it there on the front door step with a great big logo on the box telling every casual passer by exactly what it was. I hurried home pretty smartly to a) collect my parcel before someone else did (though I would of course have captured them too) and b) give the courier company some robust feedback on their standards.

But it’s not just monitoring access from the outside where a surveillance system can prove its worth. You can just as easily use small wireless security cameras to monitor activity indoors to for example keep an eye on pets or people working in your home, though in the latter case you really should make others aware that you have an internal monitoring system (unless perhaps you already have strong grounds to suspect them and you’re actually trying to “catch them out”). Certainly for small businesses, the ability to monitor activity plus keep a record can be invaluable should disputes arise. Their word against yours is easily trumped by their word against your photographic evidence.

Reduce Insurance Costs

Insurers increasingly offer better deals to those who take steps to reduce their exposure to risk and hence their likelihood of making a claim. For example, motor insurance can often be considerably reduced for young drivers if they are able to drive a modern vehicle that complies with the latest standards in safety. Increased ability to absorb impacts plus the installation of front and side air-bags mean that even if a youngster should crash their car, they will more often walk away relatively unscathed. This means the insurer only has to pay out for the cost of the vehicle, which is a known and relatively small amount compared to personal injury claims which are typically much more expensive and potentially unlimited. So they get a better deal in the first place for having mitigated some of the risk to the insurance company.

The same applies to security of property. Sound physical security plus possibly an alarm system are the basics that any insurer would expect to see, but they may also offer further reductions in premiums if an effective surveillance system is in place. The reason is simple; the installation of CCTV cameras does deter crime and it also assists in apprehending those responsible and helping to recover stolen property should crime occur regardless. It all adds up to less risk and hence a lower insurance premium. Interestingly, some insurers now attempt on occasion to privately prosecute convicted burglars and the like in an attempt to recover some portion of their own loss, incurred as a consequence of compensating the victim.

Increase Safety And Peace Of Mind

Knowing that you have reduced the odds of becoming a victim of crime (either against yourself, your family members or your property) plus knowing that if a crime is committed you have a reasonable chance of seeing the culprit caught by the police, is an effective way of putting your mind to rest on that score. And it is a simple fact that feeling more secure and able to handle whatever might come your way makes you more relaxed and less stressed about life in general. Which is very much a Good Thing™. Worrying about low life scum is not conducive to contentment, so put them where they belong – on the business end of a camera lens.

Also, as noted above, installing your own surveillance system puts you in control when it comes to deciding which of the many people that visit your property you want to deal with. A quick glance at a camera monitor screen tells you whether the door bell is announcing a welcome friend or neighbour, or warning of incoming door to door sales types. Fending off the many intrusions so common in the modern world certainly helps to maintain a feeling of calm and control.

Help Others

This last one may seem counter intuitive; after all, if your home is bristling with visible security measures then surely all you are doing is encouraging criminals to move on down the road in search of an easier victim? Well that is certainly true, but the more that people install domestic surveillance system, the harder it makes it for burglars and the like to thrive as they get squeezed out of better defended neighbourhoods and forced into leaner pickings.

Installing domestic security cameras does have an indirect benefit to others though. Very often thieves will have considered several properties before actually breaking in to one and there is therefore a good chance that they will have been picked up on a number of cameras as they went about selecting a target. Often they will try the front door bell to see if anyone is at home and will thus have been caught doing this at several properties prior to the actual burglary.

This sort of information and evidence can be extremely useful to the police in determining the identity of the culprits and even charging them. The fact is that the sooner the police know who is behind a robbery the sooner they can arrest them, hopefully still in possession of incriminating stolen property. It is not unusual for the police to have a pretty good idea (i.e. know perfectly well) who is behind a spate of burglaries but unless they can catch them in that window between committing the break-in and offloading the goods to a fence then they have nothing that would stand up in court.

So, even though it might not be your home that gets ransacked, there’s a good chance that your surveillance system might ensure that the ultimate victim at least has a shot at retrieving their property and seeing justice served on the perpetrators. You might also want to consider adopting strategies for further thwarting anyone who actually gets it, for example using a candle diversion safe to hide small valuables.