I recently hosted a local meeting on crime and crime prevention in the area. The meeting took place in The Comet in Santry and was attended by a number of people in the locality whose lives have been effected by crime or who are working to prevent crime in Whitehall, Santry and Beaumont.
As the local Peace Commissioner, I come into regular contact with local guards for a variety of reasons, and I know that many of them are doing great work in keeping our community in order, but I know too that we can never be too soft on crime locally, and that we need to be tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime. That’s why I am working on a number of local initiatives at present aimed at crime prevention locally.
In the meantime, why not review this checklist which I have distributed to households in the area and see if your house is geared up to prevent crime:
Ignore questions not relevant to your own home
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON THIS OR OTHER CRIME PREVENTION ISSUES,
PLEASE CONTACT your local GARDA CRIME PREVENTION OFFICER
1 Are all your external doors properly fitted and equipped with appropriate secure locking systems? (i.e. 5-lever mortice locks for wooden doors, multi-point locking for uPVC doors etc.)
2 If you have glass panelled doors – are they reinforced in some way so that they cannot be shattered?
3Have you a wide-angled viewer in your front/main entrance doors or other means of viewing callers?
4 Do you have a door chain / limiter fitted and do you use it?
5 Since moving into your home (where there may have been a previous occupier) have you had the locks changed?
6 Are your spare keys kept with a trusted neighbour and never left under an external mat, flower pot etc.
7 Do you lock your external doors when away from home, no matter how short a time?
8 Do you lock the doors out of your view when working in the garden / yard?
9 Have you installed an additional lock(s) to your sliding glass / patio doors?
10 Can you close and lock your garage / outhouse doors?
11 Are the garage / outhouse doors protected with quality locks or deadbolts?
12 Do you close and lock your garage /outhouse doors?
13 Are all your windows secure?
14 Can the window openings be restricted for ventilation?
15 Do you check to see if all windows are secured when you leave your home?