Is A Panic Room Really Needed?

A panic or safe room is a secure place for the occupants of a home to hold up & wait for the authorities to arrive in the event that their home is targeted by criminals that carry out home invasions.

Many people in making their homes more secure wonder if having a safe room of this type in their home is really a necessary precaution to take for keeping their family safe & secure.

Having a secure room for the home occupants to go in the event of a home invasion may very well prevent family members from been physically hurt, raped or even murdered.

In my opinion this makes having a panic room in a home a necessary precaution to take. Unfortunately having a panic room in a home is more of a necessity for some than it is for others.

If you live in an area where the home invasion rate is up, this certainly increases the chances of your home being targeted by such a crime than it would if you live in an area where these crimes are less frequent.

According to an FBI Law-Enforcement Bulletin many criminals are turning to home invasions as an alternative to armed robbery.

It is noted in the report that holding up banks & convenience stores has become increasingly more difficult for criminals because of silent alarms, video surveillance & various technically advanced anti-crime devices.

According to the FBI’s statistical data they also state that homes with women & elderly people are prime targets for criminals that carry out home invasions.

Having a panic room in your home is like taking out extra insurance for the safety, security & wellbeing of you & your family.

It’s the type of insurance that you pray you & your family will never need but you will be thankful for having in the event that it is required.

Depending on where you live & how long you will have to wait for police to arrive at your home will dictate the type of panic room you would need in your home as well as what the panic room should contain.

If you live miles away from the nearest police or law-enforcement agency, you & your family will obviously have a longer wait for help to arrive than for someone who resides in a populated area.

Most communities that are populated normally have a law-enforcement agency of some type right in the community itself & if your home is located in this type of area you shouldn’t have to wait too long for help to arrive.

If you only have to wait a short time for the police to arrive at your home, it would not cost very much at all to create a panic room in your home.

With a short wait time you could easily turn a small room or even a large closet in your home into a panic room.

It was just last year that I built an office for myself in my own home & turned it into a secure room for my video surveillance equipment which also acts as a panic room when we are home.

I built the room in a corner of our basement so I did not have to worry about reinforcing the two outside walls.

The two walls that I did fortify were done by completely covering them with ¾ inch construction grade plywood prior to screwing on the drywall (gypsum board). I built a very strong door box & hung a solid core hardwood door with a good quality lock.

The extra cost involved in doing this was for 6 sheets of plywood & I paid a little more for upgrading the lock & the door. The extra cost for turning this newly built room into a panic room cost me less than $300.00.

You can clearly see that it would not cost you very much to turn an existing room in your home or a newly built one into a secure place for you & your family to hold up until the authorities arrived.

Without ever having to make use of the panic room, my wife & I feel that we obtained an immediate return on our small investment by the peace of mind it provides us, of knowing it is there if it is ever needed.

We live in a community with its own police force & we should not have to wait long for help to arrive, so the only thing we ensure that is left in the room is a fully charged cell phone & an alarm system panic button.

We also receive peace of mind knowing our home and property are well protected by the surveillance cameras recording every motion. This panic room will only keep criminals out for so long but it will keep criminals out long enough in the event of a home invasion or a home burglary. In both cases they will not have enough time to get inside the room before the police arrive.

Most people have certain items or keepsakes that theft insurance will never be able to replace if they were stolen. You & your family could also use your panic room as a secure place to store such items when you are not at home.

Hopefully you never have to experience a home invasion but if these criminals ever do target your home, you & your family will want to take advantage of the protection a panic room will provide. There are two extremely important things you & your family will need to know if these home invasion criminals target your home.

1. You & your family need to realize how important it is to have certain physical security measures implemented. Without making it tough for the criminals to get inside your home, you & your family may not have the time required to get everyone inside the panic room.

It is imperative that everyone in the home has the necessary time to get inside this safe room. If anyone does not make it inside it may end up all being for nothing as they are very likely to threaten violence against the individual(s) who did not make it in if the door to the panic room is not opened immediately.

2. You & Your family will need to acquire some insight into the type of criminals that carry out home invasions. It will be helpful to know the type of tactics they use & the type of deception they use in order to get someone inside to just simply open the door to your home.

As stated in several areas throughout this website & in the Free Special Insiders Report, implementing physical security measures is your first & most important line of defense.

Two of the most important physical security measures are reinforcing the security of all exterior doors & increasing the physical security of all ground level windows as well as any second story windows if an intruder can easily reach them.

Once the physical security of all windows & doors is adequately increased this will require two things that no intruder wants when breaking in, spending too much time & creating too much noise. This should provide you & your family with the time you need to get inside the panic room & bolt the door.

This is the edge you need but don’t take the amount of time that you & your family have for granted in any way as everyone inside the home needs to get inside the panic room as soon as possible.

You will want to place a cellular phone inside the room & an alarm system key-chain remote panic button if you have one. You may also want to set it up with family members that the first one inside the room immediately dials 911 for police assistance.

It is important for you & your family to have some insight into how these criminals carry out home invasions. It is important to know that there are always 2 or more criminals involved.

They have been known to use certain types of scams to get people to open their doors.

If they succeed in getting one of the home's occupants to open the door they usually force their way into the home in a fast, hard & violent manner & quickly assault a few of their victims in order to show they are in charge.

They always seem to bust in quickly & violently to completely take the home's occupants by surprise.

They sometimes pose as a delivery person in order to get one of the home's occupants to open the door to accept a parcel or flower delivery.

They may claim that they were turning around & accidentally backed into a car in the driveway. There are any number of things they will say & do in hopes someone in the home trusts what they are saying & opens the door.

Home Security in today’s society should not be mainly about home alarm systems protecting the homes contents.

It needs to be a combination of physical & electronic security measures working together to protect the home’s occupants from home invasion criminals & sexual predators.

For a clear & comprehensive understanding on what is required to physical secure your homes perimeter the following web pages will provide you with the information & assistance you need.

For securing your home's windows & doors please review the information on my window security & door security web pages.

I sincerely hope the above information was in some way helpful & beneficial for you. You may want to consider bookmarking this site as new & updated content is uploaded weekly.

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This report is a must read for anyone who is serious about protecting their home & family against the onslaught of unlawful intrusions that affects so many each & every day!

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