Home break in's and robbery in Australia is quite high and thus, the need for a home security system is highly recommended by the government and many agencies. Having a home security system will allow you to protect the inside or outside of your house from thieves as you will be able to spot them on camera, automatically save footage and send it to the police. They then can identify the person(s), track them down, reclaim your items and ultimately send them to jail so they don't repeat their criminal actions to you or others.
Having a security system in plain view can also scare away potential criminals as they wouldn't want to go near the cameras for obvious reasons which is another bonus of CCTV. The most common home cameras are available in dome and bullet shaped designs.
The most recent (2013/14) Victorian burglary statistics are from RACV where they have concluded that:
- The average number of homes burgled accross Victoria is one in 73
- Top 10 most burgled areas are dominated by suburbs in Melbourne's west and north
- The top burglary hot spot is Ardeer; followed closely by Williams Landing
The Top 10 Melbourne burglary hot spots are:
Rank | Postcode | Suburb / Town | Burglary Rate |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 3022 | Ardeer | One in 25 homes |
2 | 3027 | Williams Landing | 25 |
3 | 3081 | Heidelberg West, Heidelberg Heights, Bellfield | 26 |
4 | 3047 | Broadmeadows, Dallas | 32 |
5 | 3048 | Coolaroo, Meadow Heights | 33 |
6 | 3072 | Preston, Preston East | 34 |
7 | 3019 | Braybrook | 34 |
8 | 3754 | Mernda, Doreen | 36 |
9 | 3079 | Ivanhoe | 36 |
10 | 3064 | Craigieburn, Donnybrook, Kal Kallo | 37 |
*This information is based on 2013/14 Victoria Police Crime Statistics, ABS Census data for number of occupied households and Municipal Council household data. Postcodes with less than 1,000 occupied house holds or less than 65 per cent of households occupied have been excluded.
As we go further into the past, the AIC concluded that:
"Household burglary is one of the most widespread crimes in Australia – with around 335,700 break-ins recorded in 2009-10. Money is most commonly stolen (19 per cent) followed by jewellery (18 per cent), with other items such as firearms also taken from homes."
An older graph reporting robbery victims from 1995 to 2007 (number per month) has also been updated by the AIC:
For more information on these statistics please visit the source site
Some other ways to protect your home from burglary are:
- Make sure that all doors and windows are secured with locks to the Australian standard at all times.
- Don't hide a spare key in an obvious or close location to the door like under a rock or mat.
- If you're going on holiday make sure that that your friends or family can keep an eye on your house and collect your mail so it doesn't fill up and look like the house is deserted. A security system is also a great way to monitor your house on your holiday. You can save around 1 month of HD footage on a hard drive so when you return you can play back the recording if you're suspicious. However, the best part is that you can even remotely monitor and view all cameras live streamed through your mobile phone wherever you are! The remote monitoring feature works on almost all of our products.
- Don't advertise your holiday on social media to everyone you know as news can instantly spread to criminals or even people who you thought were your friends.
- Lock your front door when you're in the back yard
- Don't leave valuables in plain sight for the whole street to see. Put them away in a draw or simply out of sight.
- Keep your garden groomed and neat. Also, don't leave any large bushes or trees in front of windows as thieves can use this as a hot spot to break in because they'll be out of street view.