October is Crime Prevention Month
McGruffWhen it comes to the safety of your family and your neighborhood, a combined team effort with your community is the best way to go. Working with your neighbors, you can help prevent crime and create a safer community. Our police department is sharing their top neighborhood safety tips to help you learn how to improve your neighborhood security.

Get to Know Your Neighbors
The first thing you can do to improve your neighborhood safety is to simply get to know your immediate neighbors. Make sure to share contact information. Keep a spare key with a trusted neighbor rather than under a doormat or planter, on a ledge, or in the mailbox.

Knowing your neighbors and their routines can be beneficial to helping you all watch out for each other. For example, if you know approximately when your neighbors go to work and come home, what friends or family are often around, you can better assist with identifying any suspicious activity around their home (and yours).

Merely being aware of who is in your neighborhood goes a long way to help keep everyone safe. If something is out of the ordinary, you can contact each other. Meeting and sharing information with your neighbors is one of the most effective neighborhood security tips.

Let Your Neighbors Know When You Go Out of Town
Your home is more vulnerable when you aren’t there, so if you’re heading out of town, let your neighbors know. Not only can they keep an eye on your home, but they can help prevent a break-in by keeping up appearances such as collecting the mail.

Install a Visible Home Security System
Burglars are less likely to break into homes with visible security systems.  Protect your home and encourage neighbors to do the same by installing a home security system. If your security system includes motion-activity lighting or an alarm it can further help deter intruders.

Maintain Appearances
Overgrown yards provide hiding spaces for burglars and create the appearance that no one is around which can make your home an easy target. Maintain your yard and encourage neighbors to do the same to show potential criminals that people are active in the community and reduce hiding spots.

Teach Your Children Safety Tips

Keeping your home and neighborhood secure is one thing, but you can also take a few steps to keep you and your neighbors’ kids safe. If you’re new to the neighborhood, walk around with your kids to help them to be familiar with the area. You can also set boundaries for where they can go giving them some freedom to explore within reason.

Spend Time Outside in Your Neighborhood
If a lot of people are outside the neighborhood is likely to be less inviting to burglars as there are more people to see them, especially as most burglaries occur during the day. Spending time outside is also a great way to get to know your neighbors. Working in the yard, walking your dogs, organizing walks, or the kids playing outside can help everyone get to know each other, show potential burglars the community is active, and keep an eye out collectively for suspicious activity.

Close Your Blinds at Night
At night with the lights on and blinds open can make your home a fishbowl for someone to peer into. If you leave your blinds open potential burglars can easily ‘case’ your home and get an understanding of your habits. A good neighborhood safety tip everyone can practice is to close all blinds and windows at night.

Improving your neighborhood security doesn’t require significant time investments. Working together as a team can create a safe, secure and wonderful place to live.