What should you do when you have completed your survey? You may be the world’s greatest administrator, or you may get confused if you have more than one task to perform. This chapter suggests a simple approach to selecting, documenting and implementing your chosen countermeasures.

 

Already Started

If you took my advice, you have probably already started responding to and resolving any problems that you identified during your survey. You must now begin a formal process that will allow you to manage and resolve the problems you found and listed by implementing the selected countermeasures.

Identifying Security Issues

During the survey you may have simply listed the security problems you encountered, or you may have written pages of notes. Somewhere you should also have listed possible countermeasures associated with each problem.

Some countermeasures were easy and simple to do, so you have already introduced them. For example, you may already have cut back overgrown bushes and be shutting that window when you leave, so Tiddles the cat will have to wait outside until you come home.

Other countermeasures are awaiting your attention, but first you must decide what to implement and how to do it.

List Problems And Countermeasures

You should start by looking back through the notes and lists you have written and draw up a tidy list of all vulnerabilities, risks and threats that you have identified. For simplicity I will call them ‘problems’.

Against each problem, you should list any known or potential countermeasures that you have identified. At this stage, you may have identified a problem for which you cannot identify a workable countermeasure. That is acceptable; simply list the problem with no proposed countermeasure.

When you have finished, you will at least have documented all of the problems that you identified, so you will not lose track of them.

The problems you identify may be quite lengthy, for example ‘Front door swells up and sticks in winter, but dries out and shrinks in summer making the front door loose and insecure’. For that reason you should assign a number and key word to each problem for ease of reference. See the example below.

Identify And Select Countermeasures

Against some problems you will have listed several possible countermeasures, while against others there may be only one, or even no proposed countermeasures. You should now invest some time in researching those countermeasures, so that you can select, nominate and list those countermeasures that you are going to implement. You may need to:

• Seek expert advice from a tradesperson – what locks would be best suited for use on a patio or garage door?

 

• Investigate the need for planning permission from the local authority to erect a wall or high fence.

 

• Seek permission for structural changes from your landlord.

 

• Look into the availability and cost of new fixtures and fitting.

 

• Investigate the availability, time, skills, tools and costs involved with implementing any particular countermeasure.

 

• Ask for advice from the local police crime prevention officer, who may be able to suggest countermeasures where you have been unable to identify any.

 

All of the above actions should help you to review the problems and the effort needed to implement a potential countermeasure. That should then allow you to compare them, and to select the countermeasure that you want to introduce to improve your security.

Your final objective is to draw up a list of all identified problems and the countermeasures you propose to introduce to overcome those problems.

Establish Countermeasure Priority

When you have finished listing the countermeasures you plan to introduce, you should assign priorities to them. This will be easier using a computer, because you will be able easily to change the order by cutting and pasting. If you don’t have a computer available you may want to do it using sticky notes. As some people don’t have a computer available I will assume you are using sticky notes, which you will stick to flip chart pages (or the wall if you have to) to sort and organise your countermeasures.

I suggest that you assign your problems and countermeasures under four headings:

 

• (I) Immediate

 

• (S) Soon

 

• (I & W) If and when possible

 

• (NS) Non-security.

 

You should write the reference number and key word of each problem and the countermeasures on a new sticky note and add it to the appropriate list. Thus you might write ‘SRI/1 Porch – fit porch light’ and on another note ‘SRI/1 Porch – Fit door viewer’. Using the reference number and key word makes the task manageable, and what is written on the sticky note is enough to remind you what it is actually about.

Your perception of the priority, time required, cost, skills, impact and benefit will eventually allow you to produce a final countermeasure priority list. Remember that the priority rating will be a combination of factors. The most important of these are:

 

• The threat or risk that the countermeasure will remove or protect against. For example, a rotten front door to which you have lost two keys that had an address tag on them is a major concern. The threat and risk is that the door is no longer secure at all.

 

• The time required to implement the countermeasure. For example, it will take about half a day to replace the front door. John the carpenter is good and reliable so it will be half a day well spent.

 

• The cost of implementing the countermeasure. Though a total cost of £418 is quite expensive, a secure front door is so fundamental to the security of the house that it must be done as soon as possible.

 

• Skills needed to implement the countermeasure. For example, a skilled carpenter is needed to fit the door. I do not have the skills so I have employ John to do the job.

 

• Impact on the family and house of implementing the countermeasure. For example, having no front door for half a day while it is replaced. It is summer and I can work at home that day so the impact is minimal.

 

• The overall benefits that will be gained by implementing the countermeasure. For example, total security from a professionally installed door and frame, with new locks, a door viewer and hinge bolts. This door will be totally secure, and will have the benefits of a secure letterbox, mail basket, internal flap and built in letterbox draught excluder.

 

• You should also remember that increased security could give financial benefits as well, because insurance companies may reduce insurance premiums when double-glazing and multi-point locking external doors are fitted.

 

If you have too many countermeasures to easily cope with, or the sorting process causes you any difficulty, do the sorting in stages. For example, take each item and sort them into different piles (I) Immediate, (S) Soon, (I&W) If & When possible, and (NS) Non-Security. Then carefully review and sort each problem in each pile separately:

 

• Immediate. This list will contain all actions that you consider should be completed urgently. This could include such actions as replacing the faulty front door lock, which is clearly an urgent item, but this list might include apparently ‘non-urgent’ items. For example, you may have realised that the bushes at the front of the house have grown too high and you have listed a countermeasure to cut them back. That is hardly an ‘urgent’ countermeasure, but because you can easily cut back the bushes, it will only take half an hour and cost nothing, it can be done in the next few days when you have half an hour to spare, so it appears on the immediate list.

 

• Soon. This list contains all of the actions that you consider should be completed soon, but are not classified as immediate. For example, you may want to replace the locks and bolts on the garage door. Due to the cost, you decide not to do that until next month (when you are due to get a new car and a ride-on mower, which will both be kept in the garage).

 

• If and when possible. This classification contains the actions that deliver the ‘nice to have’ countermeasures. For example, a state of the art, monitored burglar alarm system would be nice to have. It would increase household security immeasurably, but at a price of £3,000 with a £200 a year monitoring fee, due to our financial circumstances it will have to wait on the ‘if and when possible’ list.

 

• Non-security. This list contains countermeasures that are not directly related to security, but which you would be foolish to ignore. For example, you may have spotted a loose slate when performing the perimeter survey, or noticed that the header tank in the loft that feeds the central heating system appears to be corroded. These defects, risks and problems cannot be ignored. You must take steps to address them, and the non-security list is the mechanism through which you manage them. Such things as water pipes not being lagged, or the absence of a smoke detector on the upstairs landings will also be added to this list. Don’t forget these issues; even though they are not strictly security issues, you must address them.