Stay Safe: Your Home Security Checklist

Toron­to has a pop­u­la­tion of more than 6 mil­lion peo­ple. Even in the safest neigh­bour­hoods, Toron­to’s alarm sys­tems improve home secu­ri­ty.

At Pro­tec­tion Plus, we work with home and busi­ness own­ers across the GTA. We under­stand what goes into the safe­ty of the aver­age home, con­do, or apart­ment.

To get a bet­ter idea of your home and where safe­ty risks may be, our secu­ri­ty experts have put togeth­er this home secu­ri­ty check­list to help.

The biggest step in being secure is stay­ing informed. Keep­ing our clients in the know ensures that you under­stand your home’s strong and weak points. If you’re con­cerned about your home­’s safe­ty, fol­low this home secu­ri­ty check­list to see where you could use some extra rein­force­ment.

Outdoor Security

Before you begin secur­ing the inside of your home, check your exter­nal prop­er­ty. Alarm sys­tems in Toron­to homes can incor­po­rate areas out­side the home as well.

Your prop­er­ty tells would-be thieves a lot, from the trash at your curb to the trees in your yard. Some of the things to check out­side include:

• Secure trash cans: Can poten­tial crim­i­nals see what you spend your mon­ey on?
• Tree cov­er­age: How much of your home is vis­i­ble from the street?
• Win­dow views: Can you see into your home from the yard?
• Out­door fur­ni­ture: Are your BBQ, ride-on mow­er, and tools safe­ly secured and out of view?

Out­door secu­ri­ty also extends to struc­tures on your prop­er­ty, such as:

• Sheds
• Garages
• Pools
• Boat hous­es

These sec­ondary struc­tures can be pro­tect­ed with many of the same safe­ty prod­ucts used inside, includ­ing alarm sys­tems, secu­ri­ty cam­eras, and smart locks. Many Cana­di­ans choose to include door and win­dow sen­sors in their garages.

Once you know the prob­lem areas, you can bet­ter pro­tect your home. Pin­point poten­tial entry points and rein­force them with secu­ri­ty prod­ucts.

Doors and Windows

The most obvi­ous places to enter your home are the doors and win­dows. As you per­form your secu­ri­ty check­list, look at things like:

• Rein­force­ment bars: Slid­ing doors and win­dows can be rein­forced with a bar to keep the glass from slid­ing open.
• Base­ment win­dow bars: Base­ment win­dows are easy to access and rarely thought about in terms of safe­ty.
• Locks: How secure are your locks? Can you get into your home with­out a key?
• Sen­sors: Win­dow and door sen­sors tell you when any entrance in your home is left ajar.

At Pro­tec­tion Plus, we can help improve door and win­dow secu­ri­ty with smart locks and sen­sors. Con­trol your locks from any­where with your smart­phone. Pro­vide indi­vid­ual codes to vis­i­tors and fam­i­ly mem­bers so you always know who is com­ing and who is going.

Security Cameras

Secu­ri­ty cam­eras are an obvi­ous choice to rein­force the safe­ty of your home.

If you already have secu­ri­ty cam­eras, check to see if they are vis­i­ble out­side. A vis­i­ble cam­era can help scare off poten­tial intrud­ers. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, they’re also easy for intrud­ers to spot and block.

Installing a vis­i­ble cam­era along­side a hid­den cam­era (like a smart door­bell, or less notice­able secu­ri­ty cam­era) improves the chances of catch­ing wrong­do­ings in the act.

Smart door­bells mon­i­tor your front door. They are con­cealed and can send video clips to you by email or push noti­fi­ca­tions when acti­vat­ed.

Oth­er secu­ri­ty cam­era options include inte­ri­or cam­eras to check in on your home in real-time. They are use­ful for whether you want to see how the kids are doing with a new babysit­ter or check on some unusu­al activ­i­ty relat­ed to you by a neigh­bour.

Alarms and Detectors

Alarms and detec­tors pro­tect your home by alert­ing you to prob­lems inside. At Pro­tec­tion Plus, we offer alarms such as:

• Bur­glary
• Smoke
• Tem­per­a­ture changes
• Fire
• Floor
• Car­bon monox­ide

These detec­tors pro­tect you while you’re away from home or tucked into bed. Check how many alarms you have, what they detect, and whether they require bat­ter­ies. Run a test to ensure each is work­ing as you com­plete your secu­ri­ty check.

Home Lighting

The light­ing in and out­side your home plays a role in how secure your prop­er­ty is. When a home is vis­i­ble, even at night, it’s less like­ly to attract unwant­ed atten­tion.

Poten­tial invaders are less like­ly to engage if your neigh­bours can see and report unusu­al activ­i­ty around your home.

The lights on your prop­er­ty can also be used to deter intrud­ers by trick­ing them into think­ing you’re home when you’re not. Smart light sys­tems let you place your lights on timers. This is a great fea­ture for fam­i­lies who vaca­tion or work late.

For­get about your home look­ing emp­ty all evening. Smart lights can be con­trolled from any­where to bring life back to your emp­ty home.

Exter­nal sen­sor lights are anoth­er light­ing fea­ture promi­nent in the secu­ri­ty indus­try. When move­ment occurs out­side your home, the out­side lights turn on. This illu­mi­nates any would-be trou­ble and improves night vision for you and your fam­i­ly if you return home in the evening.

Home Alarm Systems in Toronto

Installing secu­ri­ty sys­tems in Toron­to homes is always a good idea.

A thor­ough secu­ri­ty sys­tem includes many of the fea­tures and prod­ucts men­tioned above. This means few­er safe­ty checks and greater peace of mind in the future.

Pro­tec­tion Plus secu­ri­ty sys­tems offers ALARM‑i Visu­al Alarm Ver­i­fi­ca­tion alarm sys­tems, includ­ing fea­tures such as:

• Ver­i­fi­ca­tion alarms on secu­ri­ty video footage (text/email)
• Increased police dis­patch and response times
• Pho­tographs of arm­ing and dis­arm­ing of sys­tem
• Glass­break detec­tor

Your alarm sys­tem can be part­nered with oth­er prod­ucts and ser­vices, includ­ing:

• Smart locks
• Smart door­bells
• Video sur­veil­lance
• Out­door cam­eras
• Indoor cam­eras
• Smart lights
• Smart ther­mostats

The pur­pose of a home secu­ri­ty sys­tem is to keep you in the know where your home’s secu­ri­ty is involved, no mat­ter where you are.

Call Us for a Home Security Audit

A home secu­ri­ty audit thor­ough­ly assess­es the cur­rent secu­ri­ty fea­tures of your home. We test doors and win­dows, check for weak points, and deter­mine which safe­ty prod­ucts will pro­tect even the most incon­spic­u­ous entry point.

Pro­tec­tion Plus is a local secu­ri­ty com­pa­ny. We aren’t just a busi­ness sell­ing a prod­uct. We’re your friends and neigh­bours, and we want to keep our neigh­bour­hoods safe.

You can count on us to walk you through your secu­ri­ty check­list and explain any prod­ucts you’re curi­ous about.

You can sched­ule a home secu­ri­ty audit with Pro­tec­tion Plus by call­ing us at 1–844-365‑7587, or vis­it­ing us online.