The 4 Ds of Security: DETER

Your mom was never happy with 4 'D' scores on your report card, but if you are serious about
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.
Alert today. Alive tomorrow.

Deter

Prevention is better than cure. Always. It is your FIRST line of defence!

You need to prevent that criminal from even considering an attack on your place. It sounds bad to say it like this, but you should make sure he has other possible targets in your area that are considerably easier to attack.

What would deter YOU if you were Mr Badguy?

In a single word: RISK. He weighs his possible reward against the observable risks of capture, injury or death. If you can increase those risk factors for him, you will be that much safer.

You can improve deterrence by increasing obvious signs of high security like:

• Floodlights
• Heavy gates
• Electric fences
• High walls with spikes
• Cameras -even fake ones! (that are in plain view)
• Outdoor Dogs: Bigger is better. (Will discuss indoor dogs later!)
• Clear Security signs: (“Beware, you are being watched”)

It is, of course, difficult to know how well your efforts in deterrence are working, because, by definition, you will never even know of the possible attacks that were never even considered because of your dog, your cheapskate fake camera or your Chinese security light.

Deterrence is by far the cheapest and most desirable way to increase your safety, but obviously works best when combined with the other 3 Ds of security!