Home Defense

Given current and emerging threats such as the open U.S. Southern border and crime surges throughout the major cities, law-abiding citizens have a commensurate and justified concern about rising home invasions. What are some recommended proactive measures to protect your home and family from such an undesired incident? Red cell, concentric rings, and training.

 

Red Cell

 

First, consider your home a potential target because it is to the predator. 

 

One of the most effective and low-cost protective measures to defend your home is to red cell it.

 

The term “red cell” hails from the world of professional protective services. It refers to a vetted proactive measure initiated by the good guys to discover the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of a facility or an operation targeted by the bad guys. Running a red cell operation on your residence involves creating a target assessment listing on your home.

 

To do this, you must assume the perspective of an unscrupulous predator or, more likely, multiple home invaders trying to break into your abode and having no qualms about causing severe bodily harm or even worse to you and your family.

 

Once you’ve assumed this perspective, think of a home invasion as a stairstep process of breaking through multiple concentric rings of security to get to a predetermined location such as your master bedroom. 

 

Concentric Rings 

 

Accessibility: Step outside your home and stand at the very front of your property line facing your home. Looking at this outermost security ring, ask yourself some hard questions about the furthest reach of your property. Are there any barriers such as a gate, fence, or vegetation that prevent direct street access? Would they stop a vehicle from rolling straight up to your front door? What about foot traffic? What kind of accessibility does foot traffic have to your doors and windows? 

 

Assisting: Consider the next concentric security ring. Are you aiding and abetting actors in planning or executing nefarious activities involving your home and your family? Are there any of your own tools such as pry bars, screwdrivers, hammers, shovels, or sports equipment such as baseball bats, golf clubs, and the like left out in the yard or otherwise readily accessible resourceful actors could utilize that to gain unauthorized entry? A common error by unknowing residents is leaving such gear and other seemingly innocuous items like stepstools and ladders, either strewn about the ground or stored in the backyard or garage, with the garage door wide open.

 

Detection: A critical security ring that is often overlooked is detection. Some examples of detection are visual and audio electronics, including digital local and remote cameras readily accessible by your phone, laptop, or other personal digital devices. Forewarned is forearmed. The sooner you can be alerted to a potential or active threat, the more time you have to respond. Threat awareness is the currency that buys you time to resolve an emerging threat.

 

Deterrence: The next concentric ring is deterrence. Suppose a would-be invader observes that your home is protected by fences, gates, locks, security cameras, motion sensors, flood lights, and other deterrents like a large dog. In that case, the first question they ask is “Are there easier targets?” and the obvious answer is “Yes, of course there is.” The predator will perceive a sufficiently hardened target as an opportunity denied.

 

Delay: Another often overlooked concentric security ring is to hamper or delay surreptitious entry. The home defense market offers many home protection and defense devices such as hard rooms, safety doors, and ballistic or blast-resistant glass/ film. One of the best suppliers of such devices is American Defense Structures. At a bare minimum, you should at least have robust exterior door and window locks that work. The purpose of this security ring is to buy you more time after dialing 911 and waiting for the cavalry to arrive or, if need be, managing it yourself.

 

 

 

Deploy: The last, but certainly not least, of your concentric security rings should be the remaining option of an effective deployment capability. 

 

In this scenario, you know that multiple invaders have defeated all of the previous rings and are inside your home; you may not know their exact location and whether they are armed or not. 

 

To support your physical interception, would you deploy a weapon? If so, does that mean you’re armed with a rolling pin, a kitchen knife, pepper spray, or a firearm? Would you stay in place? Would you retreat? What is your family plan? If you have kids, very young or elderly parents – how do you coordinate movement to the designated indoor safe rooms or outdoor rally points? What are your roles and responsibilities? (Who exactly is doing what?) Is your domestic partner responsible for dialing 911 and explaining the situation to the dispatcher while you manage the kids? You must do this before an undesired incident occurs.

 

 

Training

 

Security professionals know that there are only two types of people in the world – those who are trained and those who are not. Consider a pilot, a doctor, and a SWAT commander; each is trained to a high skill level. If you do not possess that skill level, could you justifiably fly a plane, perform open heart surgery, or use specialized weapons and equipment to clear a high-threat environment? You don’t need to be a doctor to administer first aid or a SWAT commander to know a few basic residential defensive tactics. 

 

When it comes to home defense, training your family and yourself in exactly what to do in such exigent circumstances as a home invasion is an essential proactive measure.

 

Your concentric home security rings should be constructed using a balance of both convenience and security in your design. It’s unnecessary to live day to day in a maximum-security environment. However, rendering your home an easily accessible soft target is equally inadvisable. Home defense proactive measures are limited only by your time, budget, and creativity.