The 4 Ds of Security: DELAY
security, you need to consider each of these 4 'D' principles today (and every day !)
1: Deter - Prevent criminal activity
2: Detect - Detection of breaches
3: Delay - Slow down an intrusion
4: Defend - No more Mr Niceguy!
An improvement in any of these 5 areas will make you safer. But if you apply all of these together, you become Fort Knox. Don’t play around with your safety. Clever people apply their sunscreen BEFORE going out fishing. Don’t consider these ideas only AFTER an intrusion which can easily end up in tragedy. Do it now.
In a nutshell:
We try to deter the would-be intruder from even trying. If this does not work, we want to detect his intrusion as soon as possible, allowing us the opportunity to do something about it. After we detect him, it would be great if the intruder can be delayed. We make him cross several obstacles designed to cost him time. Time we can use to make decisions, to flee, to load a firearm, phone someone. We need to Deny him access on multiple levels. Deny him access to the property, to the residence, and to the room. Finally, if all fails, you need to be ready to defend yourself. Don’t be a sitting duck.
Delay
Make that sucker work for it. Make sure you FIRST detect him and THEN have the delay measures.
A true story will suffice. There is a farmer out in the bush who was forever trying to prevent thieves from making off with his solar panels. Nothing worked. Whatever he did was circumvented, because those thieves had ALL DAY to get at the solar panel. The intruder was definitely delayed by barbed wire and fencing, but it did not help, because time is the one thing that the intruder has plenty of. Adding delay does not help in isolation! The farmer wisened up. He installed early warning detection that notified him via his cell phone, using a GSM Commander. This is the clever bit: The warning is sent to his phone before the intruder gets to the part that delays him. This allows the farmer more than enough to stroll down with a shotgun to welcome the visitor...
Delay measures do absolutely nothing for you if you do not combine it with early detection. The moment you add detection to delay, it becomes “tactical delay”, which is what you need. First Detect, then Delay.
These tactics can be as simple as a sturdy gate at your door, but remember this is only effective if you are notified of his presence before he starts breaking down the gate. Too many people are surprised in their beds because intruders took their time to break down a gate and gain entry.
I cannot repeat this enough. First Detect, THEN Delay!
Many Delay measures are the same as Deny measures. The reality is that anything you add to deny access can be overcome if you have enough time. Time that will play into your hand ONLY if you detect him first! In case you missed it: First detect, THEN delay.
Some measures that can add tactical Delays:
- Gates - A proper gate can take a few minutes to open. If you add a sensor to detect his presence at the gate before he starts messing with it, you gain the time it would take him to break down the gate...
- Rough Terrain / thorny bushes. An intruder will choose the easiest path, even if it takes him longer because he thinks he has all day. Of course, he is wrong because (if you took note of what we say here) you detected him before he started on its detour...
- You can use walls, fencing and strategic lighting to channel the movement of the intruder, similar to what is possible with rough terrain...