With Christmas just over a few weeks away(!), many of us will be hitting the shops – hard. It’s the busiest period for shopping all year round; however, it’s also the busiest period in a thief’s calendar. And with the crowds, noise, hustle and bustle, and screaming children, it’s easy to get distracted or disoriented.

Around this time of the year, many police forces begin issuing seasonal crime preventions and measures to help come and combat the crime rate associated with Christmas shopping, home safety, businesses and religious fellowship. The police are more vigilant on high-stress robberies and home and business center robbery.

As a professional security analysis who is much aware of the risks posed to people during these busy period, it has therefore compelled me to put together some handy tips to help prevent theft of personal items and keep your belongings safe.

Home safety and security measures

1. Light up your home.

Burglars can use the darker days around Christmas to conceal their break –ins from your neighbors. Security lights placed around your home can act as both a deterrent and an effective way to spot anyone trying to break into your home. They come on when they detect movement nearby and can be quickly and easily installed.

A lovely lit-up display of festive lights can also help to provide some much – needed illumination around your house at this time of the year.

2. Deadbolt your doors and ensure all doors and windows are properly locked.

Intruders will often try to pick or snap the lock on your outer doors to get into your home. While you can invest in anti- snap locks to prevent this from happening, it’s also wise to add a deadbolt to your door as it cannot be interfered with from the outside and makes it more difficult.

Also you must ensure that, your doors and windows are properly locked up whenever you moving out of your homes because they are the two easiest way for thief to break into your homes and always try to do a double check if they are really locked up properly. These will help prevent thief from getting easy access into your house or room.

3. Secure garden, sheds and garages

Most people know that they need to secure their home in some way, but many often forget to secure gardens and outbuilding like sheds and garages. These areas give intruders additional entry point to your main home area and can often be hidden from neighbors. Sheds and garages can also give intruders access to tools that will make their break – in easier. Also homes with CCTV and security light can help here, as well as putting high – quality locks and padlocks on your sheds, garages and gardens gates.

4. Turn off all electrical garget, taps and disconnecting of cooking cylinders.

Christmas is mostly a period of festivity with much joy and enjoyments since each and every one would love to go out on shopping or spend time with love once to recount past memories and have fun. During these period, each and every one is been advised to ensure that all electrical applicants are turned off completely as well as taps and cooking cylinders and electric stoves. Christmas light tress are to be turned off in order to avoid fire outbreak. During these period, a lot of fire outbreaks are being recorded and some statistics shows that most are due to the forgetfulness on our parts to turn off such gargets when moving out of our homes.

5. Don’t level your home vacant.

Houses which do not have care takers shouldn’t level their homes empty during Christmas periods since it the period for intrudes to operate and when they notice that a home is vacant for some period of time, it gives them easy access to manipulate. Houses without care takers when going out can either let one person stay behind as a care taker for the sake of the safety of the houses and the properties in the houses. Also homes without housekeepers or care takers can activate their CCTV cameras and door alarms to scare this thief. They can also seek for monitoring assistance from the nearby neighbored for monitoring of their place for them.

A new trend that the intrudes have discovered and operate with is during 31st night. During these day, most Christians go to church at the night to bind farewell with the outgoing year and these is the new trend that the intrudes have discovered and use it to perform a lot of criminal activities, especially stealing from various homes since they know that, most of the homes during that day are vacant and these has become rampant and the police after 31st night receive series and countless reports and complains of theft and robbery incidents and as a security analysis, I would advise that, during these day, the house must near be left empty under no circumstance with the view and presumption of attending 31st all-night and making the house vacant for thieves.


Business safety and security measures

As we are left with some few days for the approaching of the global biggest festivity known as Christmas, many businesses will close and employees may be away for an extended period of time. Unfortunately, that can prove to be an opportunity time for ill – intentioned individuals. To help you keep your business safe and secured during the holiday season, let observe some business security measures.

1. Test all your security equipment.

If your business will be closed for an extended period of time and will have different operating hours during the holiday season, be sure to test your fire alarms, security cameras, access control system and more, so you know they’re working and reporting properly.

By doing this at the beginning of the holiday season, you’ll allow for ample time to make any needed adjustments or repairs, so you can leave your business with peace of mind that it’s protected. Also make sure your monitoring provider is aware of your holiday hours and has an updated call list, should any alarms go off in your absence.

2. Make sure your facility is properly locked and armed.

While it’s normal procedure to lock up when leaving, if you’ll be gone for an extended period of time, I recommend going around to every exterior door to make sure they’re locked and secured prior to departing.

If you have an access control system, be sure that any schedules set to automatically open doors on specific days and times are overridden during your absence, so the building is not unlocked and unattended during the holiday.

3. Ensure decorations don’t obstruct security systems.

Many businesses put up decorations for holidays. When doing so, it’s important to take into consideration where you put them, so they don’t obstruct your security system. Make sure your decorations aren’t hanging near security cameras, especially outside where the wind could cause them to move and potentially cover the cameras. Additionally, make sure that any hanging decorations inside your business aren’t in the view of a motion detector, as the decorations could cause a false alarm if they fell. Finally, make sure that larger decorations outside don’t create a hiding spot for intruders.

4. Revisit your security arming protocol

If using a monitoring service, it’s always a good idea to revisit your security arming protocol ahead of the Christmas break. Your security system should be fully armed for the week nobody is present and your provider should be aware of any possible activity that could arise while the system is fully armed. Doing so prevents unnecessary phone calls from your monitoring company leaving you and your staff to enjoy Christmas undisturbed.

It’s important to ensure that those responsible for taking calls will be available in the unfortunate event of a threat being identified. Although it sounds obvious, this role is best given to someone who will be available over the break and not planning to leave the country.

5. Take precautions to prevent pipes from freezing and bursting.

With the cold weather upon us, the risk of pipes freezing and bursting increases. Burst pipes can cause thousands of dollars in damages to your business, so take precautions to prevent this from occurring. Set your thermostat to at least 55 degrees Fahrenheit while your business is closed.

You should also consider getting a low – temperature sensor that can notify you possibly through your security system when interior temperatures have dropped too low or installing a smart thermostat that you can adjust remotely while you’re away.

Church safety and security measures

1. Keep your ministry’s money safe with organizational optional theft coverage

Theft isn’t just an issue for banks and large companies. Sometimes the kind and caring nature of your ministry is exactly what makes you a target. Organizational optional theft coverage helps to assure that, if a thief takes advantage of your institution, what’s lost can be restored. Theft can be disorienting and often leaves ministers wondering if their budgets will be able to recover the loss of resources. Theft happens in more ways than you might think. For example, your business administrator’s laptop is hacked, and the thief accesses your ministry’s bank account login information. They use it to transfer several thousand dollars to an untraceable account. You discover this a few weeks later when multiple ministry’s

The organizational optional theft coverage pays up to the selected limits of coverage for losses including:

Loss by theft of money by coercion or electronic means.

Loss by theft, forgery or alteration of instrument or contracts representing money or other property.

Theft of personal property

Theft of materials or supplies used for construction, alteration or repair of your building.

2. Evaluate your ministry’s fire safety plan.

With the holiday season right around the concern, it’s wise for ministries to evaluate their fire safety plan. Whether your ministry is hosting a holiday party, prepping treats for charity, or running a community kitchen, make sure you’re well – prepared with these tips.

Prevention and equipment maintenance are always good investments. Not only does maintenance increase appliance usefulness, it can prevent losses caused by property damage and injury. Security professional analysis Yaw Obeng – Appiah has laid out eight questions every ministry should ask themselves about hazards hiding in their kitchen facility.

Another beneficial way to prepare for a fire is to create a disaster plan. Disaster plans include information about how to continue the “business” of ministry. For instance, it organizes where you’ll meet if your church is closed, how you’ll access church records, and how to respond to emergency situations.

Step one: Form a Team- A knowledgeable team can create a robust response plan. Look for key professionals such as law enforcement, medical and fire and other first responders in your organization.

Step two: Assess Risk- Once the team is in place. It’s time to perform a risk assessment – determining which hazards could affect the ministry. Look into potential threats, the probability of each threat affecting the ministry, and the potential magnitude of each threat.

Step three: Create a Response Plan- using the information found in the risk assessment, the team can begin developing a disaster response plan to minimize disruption, losses and injuries caused by a disaster. Ideally, a disaster plan will include plans such as evacuation and first aid.

Step four: Train Employees and Volunteers- A response plan is most effective when employees and volunteers are trained to follow it. it’s a good idea to provide copies of the plan to employees and volunteers and post evacuation routes.

Step five: Evaluate and Refresh- A response plan should be a dynamic document. Evaluate the plan on an annual basis, fine – tuning it as needed, and obtain approvals from the ministry’s attorney before finalizing any changes. Once changes are approved, re-train employees and volunteers to follow the updated plan.

3. Church safety evacuation plan
When it comes to evacuations, you need to make sure that your plan addresses these five elements;

What circumstances would warrant an evacuation?

How will the need to evacuate be communication?

Have you trained your volunteers on where to lead people out of the building?

Where will evacuees stand out of the way of responding emergency vehicles?

Have you communicated to patents what the evacuation plan is should there be an evacuation?

It’s been my experience that churches address the evacuation concern with various degrees of intentionality. Some churches are just planning to “wing it” should an emergency arise. Other churches have actually practiced mock evacuations with the entire congregation.

The one area I find that most churches overlook relates to number five – communicating the evacuation plan. You would hate to see panicked parents frantically searching for their kids because they didn’t know where their children were safety evacuated to. Make sure that your parents- including visiting families – are apprised of the plan.

4. Church safety lockdown plan.

Similar to the evacuation plan, it’s important to know in advance what situation would warrant locking down verses evacuating. One of the common reasons to lock down is when a child goes missing. Whether it’s a child slipping out of the kindergarten room or wandering off from distracted parents after service lets out, you must move fast to enact your lost child plan before little feet take them far away. Assuming that you’re 100% sure that the child is still in the building, the top five considerations for a lost child lockdown known are;

Who will secure the exist to ensure that the child doesn’t slip out?

Who will disseminate the age, description and last known location of the child?

How will the search be conducted?

Who will participate in the search for the child?

Who will notify the parent(s) if they’re not already aware of the situation?

Time is of the essence in a lost child situation. The last thing you want to do is to develop your plan on the fly. If there is ANY possibility that the child may have a plan in place for an internal building search as well as an external building and parking lot search. You also need to know when to involve the authorities so they can aid in the search.

5. Church safety medical response plan.

By far the most common situation you’ll likely encounter is a medical incident. From minor injuries resulting from a slip and fall in the parking lot to a full- blown cardiac arrest in the sanctuary, you need to have a plan and people in place to response quickly and decisively.

When it comes to medical emergencies, here are five things to consider:

Do you have medically trained people in place to quickly respond?

How will you handle bystanders or environment challenges?

Do you have first aid equipment readily accessible?

Who will make the determination when the situation requires a higher level of medical response?

Who will call 911 and direct first responders to the scene?

When it comes to medical responses, most churches I encounter tend to reply on medically trained members of the congregation. While that plan may work, it relies solely on the premise that those people are at church THAT service. I would highly encourage you to develop a medical response plan that offers some level of redundancy so that you’re adequately covered should the need arise.

Safety and Security measures for Events Centers

1. Keep your security measures visible

The main goal of security isn’t to respond to threat. The goal is to prevent threats from happening in the first place. It’s best if a potential agitator sees your security measures and moves on. This is why hiding your security team or putting them undercover throughout your event does more harm than good. Agitators think the event is unprotected and may decide to start trouble.

In one case, an event organizer placed metal detectors at the entrances to the event, but hid them with clever décor. The results were an abnormally high number of people attempting to enter with weapons. When they uncovered the metal detectors for the next day, fewer people tried to enter with prohibited items.

By making your security team and devices obvious, you also make your attendees feel safer. They know you’ve enlisted the help of people and tools to protect their wellbeing. In the event of an emergency, they know where to find help.

2. Create security checkpoints.

One of the key ways to protect people from security threats is to set up checkpoints away from the gathering that attendees must pass through to get inside. This forces agitators to confront security personnel (or even just your registration staff) long before they can cause any damage. For instance, instead of installing your registration desk right outside an auditorium’s doorway, you would want to place it a few hundred feet away in the facility’s lobby. This way if an uninvited person tries to enter, they’ll be stopped before they reach the crowd.

3. Keep private events private.

Some organizations like to announce their events publically, even if the events aren’t open to the public. They mention their events on websites, in newsletters, in press releases and on social media. We know you’re proud of event, but informing the public about an event is a security risk. For instance, a dinner for a company’s upper management isn’t open to everyone, so there’s no need to tell everyone. If agitations don’t know about the event, they can’t disrupt it or cause anyone harm.

4. Consider cyber threats as well

Not all event security risks are physical. As an event planner, you’ll want to take some steps to protect your guests, customers, data identities and devices. For starters, it’s best to password protect your WI-FI service. This isn’t always practical during large events, but it will safeguard against security threats by keeping unwanted parties off the network. Share the password through means only your guests and customers can access, like in the registration materials or through your custom event app.

Second, have an IT person run security measures on the network to make sure malicious parties can’t use it to sneak data on or off your guests or customers or the place device. If the venue provides the WI-FI network, review whatever cyber security steps they take to make sure devices logged into the network can’t access other devices on the network.

5. Develop an Emergency Plan

You’ll want to sit with your security team and the venue before the event to create an emergency response plan. The purpose of the plan is to draft a procedure that everyone will enact in the event of a disaster. The plan should include…

Different ways to mass evacuate the event.

What to do when there’s an active shooter.

The locations of safe rooms or areas.

Where staff should meet during an emergency.

How staff will communicate during an emergency.

Signage and notifications for guests regarding how to respond.