Crime Prevention Tips
This section has been created to advise you, the residents of Sandown, of steps that you can take to protect yourself, home and family.
Make a “Hard Target”
Over the years, the Sandown Police Department has taken many reports from residents that have had their vehicles broken into and have had their cellular phones, small electronics and other items stolen. The best remedy to combat this is to lock your vehicles. Most often, these are crimes of opportunity. If the door is unlocked, there is less risk in attempting to steal something out of your vehicle. If a perpetrator has to spend time to get into your car or house, it is no longer an easy opportunity and most likely, they will seek out another target.
This also applies to your house. It has been known to happen that someone has had their house burglarized and did not realize it for several days or weeks after the fact. Truth is, their house was left unlocked and the burglars were clever enough to get into the house and only take small, but very valuable items (such as jewelry) and leave without being noticed. This has not happened in Sandown, but there was a burglary ring that worked from Maine down to Massachusetts using these very tactics. They were not caught until they had already stolen tens of thousands of dollars in jewelry.
There are things you can do to your house to make it a “hard target”, such as:
Cutting back trees and shrubs so your front door and house is visible from the street.
Make sure that your front door and driveway are well lit by motion lights.
Use good quality door locks and dead bolts.
If you lose the keys to your residence, change your locks immediately (also, don’t leave any identification on your key ring).
If you are going away on vacation, business trip, make your home look like someone is still there:
Use light timers so lights will come on at random times (this works with the television as well).
Unplug your garage door opener if you have one. The internet is a great resource to find ways to open these doors. Unplug the motor and lock the door until you return.
Make arrangements with the Post Office to have your mail either held or forwarded before your trip. Nothing says “I’m not home” like an overflowed mailbox.
Talk with your neighbors and have them keep an eye on your house. Also, speak with friends in the area and ask if they can check on your house while you are gone.
Notify the Police Department that you are going away, we conduct vacation checks at homeowners requests.
If you notice anything out of the ordinary, such as your dog is barking, the sound of a car door closing, motion lights turning on, call us immediately!
We have Officers working 24 hours a day for you and the sooner we area notified, the sooner we can act!