Why You Should Think Twice About Crime Statistics

Today I want to talk about crime and how you should think about a security system.

Some quick background about me.  I have been in the security industry since 1986 and have installed thousands of systems in those years.

During that time, I have seen many alarm companies, some big national ones, use scare statics to get people to sign up for their monitored alarm service.

So, let’s look at how scary those statics are and break them down.

As of 2020, the last year of data with the federal government, there were 123.6 million households in the United States.

And in the same year there were 349,370 burglaries, a pretty big number.

Let’s look closer at these numbers.  Assuming for a moment, that no house in the United States is broken into twice in the same year, when we figure the odds of getting broken into it is 1 in 354 households.  Still scary right?

Less scary is when you look at this as a percentage.  Doing that you only have a .28 percent chance of being the victim of a burglary.  Put another way you have a 98.82 percent chance of NOT being broken into in 2020.

Another “Statistic” that is often used is a home being broken into every so many minutes.

How does that break down.  With 349,370 burglaries and there being 525,600 minutes in a year this works out to be one break-in every two minutes.

While every two minutes seems like it is frequent this is not really accurate.  The burglary rate is for the entire United States and for every two minutes to be true we need to assume that only one burglary occurs at any given time.  Using this logic, a burglar in Chicago or anyplace else for that matter will wait until someone is done breaking into a house in Los Angles before they break into a location.  This is just a unrealistic assumption.

Both statistics assume that a home only gets broken into once in any given year.  In reality, homes in high crime areas can be broken into more than once in a given year.  So, you odds of being broken into, if you do not live in a high crime area, are very low.

Lastly, one needs to look at the actual number of break-ins.

While there is a huge spike in violent crime, mainly homicide, has raised the overall crime rate.  Property crimes have fallen 67.4 percent and burglary has decreased 44.8 percent from 2011 to 2020.

This is not to say that you should not consider a home or business security system.  It is just to say that you should not be scared that a burglar is just lurking around the corner. 

If you live in a high crime area, have a special security need such as high value items, or you just like the peace of mind that having a security system gives you then looking at a home or business security system is something you should consider.

The best way to determine what security needs are right for you is to consult a licensed, insured security company.  They can help you to understand your security options and find a system that meets your needs and budget.

If you live in the Detroit Michigan area, consider call us at Waves at 248-652-2809 or visit our website at www.waveslowvoltage.com to set up an appointment for us to help you with your security needs.