Welcome to this month’s Community Safety Zone! As spring approaches, we will focus on providing Navan residents with tips on how to make their homes more secure. Although we are lucky to live in such a safe community, our village is not immune to incidents of thefts and residential break & enters.
The best way to prevent your family from being the victim of such crimes, is to make your property as burglary proof as possible. In addition to making sure doors and windows are locked at all times, there are additional measures available to homeowners, which are both simple and inexpensive to implement.
There is no set time that a break-in is more likely to occur. Suspects will usually break into a home which appears unoccupied, and this can take place at night or during the day. If you are going to be away for any length of time, ensure you have a trusted person looking after shovelling your driveway, taking out the garbage and collecting your mail. If you have recently purchased expensive items such as electronics, ensure the boxes are cut up when brought out for recycling.
You can also purchase energy efficient bulbs and/or motion sensors for exterior lights and make sure some are left on overnight, trim shrubbery around the house in a manner that it does not provide concealment to windows/doors and ensure you have good quality deadbolt locks to your house and garage.
Furthermore, there are fairly inexpensive home alarm systems available and several insurance companies provide discounts to residents who have them installed. Some retailers also sell video home surveillance systems, which are both easy to install and reasonably priced.
The Ottawa Police offers a free home security evaluation service to its residents. Contact the Orleans/Cumberland Community Police Centre at (613) 236-1222 ext. 3575 for more details on this program.
If you have a question/comment for the Safety Committee, please e-mail us at: safety@navan.on.ca