Visit an estate agent or look at the listings on Rightmove and you will see plenty of ‘keywords’ describing the homes for sale. ‘Spacious’, ‘garden space’, ‘period features’, the list goes on. While these are nice features, there is one thing we require in our homes more than anything else: safety. While some areas are deemed safer than others, there are still risks at any home and in every neighbourhood. Installing CCTV outside of your home can negate potential criminal activity, helping you to feel more comfortable when you’re both in and out of your property. Knowing that any potentially dangerous activity will be caught on camera offers you peace of mind.
Let’s, for a minute, assume the worst and there is a burglary at your home. While a security alarm can go some way to deterring a criminal, CCTV footage can go one step further and help to identify the suspect who has decided to try and break into your home. The police’s job becomes easier with the use of CCTV and the chances of the intruder getting away without punishment are reduced.
Often, CCTV can stop a robbery from happening in the first place. Would-be intruders are more likely to think twice about breaking into a home if they see high-level security cameras outside of the property. Security cameras can also bring your insurance premiums down, as insurance companies will be more inclined to provide better rates for people who have high-tech systems in place.
One of Britain’s most decorated former police commissioners, Bernard Hogan Howe, has been an advocate of homes having CCTV cameras. Talking about the merits of security cameras, Hogan said, “We’ve got a strategy to encourage people, with their cameras, to move them down to eye level. Over the last year as facial recognition software has got better we can apply the software to the images of burglaries or robberies and we can compare those images with the images we take when we arrest people.”
CCTV cameras can not only help to stop break-ins at your home, they can also help with criminal activity that may happen on your street, making the neighbourhood an overall safer place.
