Home Security Tips: Safeguarding Residential Properties

Written by: James Hart

Everyone deserves to feel safe in their own home. 

Unfortunately, that can be harder for corporate executives, celebrities, wealthy families and others with high profiles or high net worth. Unlike the average homeowner, they might have to deal with disgruntled employees, angry protesters or overzealous fans showing up on their doorsteps. In some cases, organized burglary rings may be targeting their properties. 

That’s why many security firms have introduced protection services especially for these high-exposure clients. Their teams design and implement programs that guard against outside threats without making their clients feel like those homes are under siege.   

“As successful as these people are, they’re also very vulnerable at times,” said Max Briggs, vice president for central operations at Chesley Brown, the national security management and consulting firm.

Briggs knows of one incident where an executive walked into his kitchen and found a laid-off employee sitting at the table, talking to the executive’s wife. 

A well-designed security program not only secures the property, it allows clients to feel secure.   But serving high-end residential properties — what are sometimes called executive homes — comes with a unique set of challenges. Security providers in this niche must operate with a higher level of expertise and judgment.

Let’s take a closer look at some of those issues and how the most effective security teams manage them.

In this post, you’ll learn about the requirements that set these properties apart, the types of services that security teams can perform, and other best practices for residential security, 

Why residential security is different

Finding the right security personnel

In residential security, the relationship between clients and security officers is much closer than in other types of properties. Just compare it to the one between security and the tenants of an office building. Ideally, officers will get to know the people who show up to work every day, but they won’t interact nearly as much as a residential detail will while serving a single family. 

It’s a deeper immersion, Briggs said. That’s why it’s important to find officers that are a good fit for the families they serve. Are they beyond reproach in respecting confidentiality? Do they get along with the clients’ dogs? 

“As a provider, we obviously have to make sure we’re vetting and finding people that the family will feel comfortable with, but will also feel protected by,” he said.

And that can be difficult because, even while clients want to feel secure, they may invite security officers into their homes only begrudgingly. Some clients don’t even want to see the officers.

Sometimes, Briggs said, executives don’t appreciate why they need security. But if an attacker were able to injure or even kill them, it could have terrible consequences for their families and the organization they lead, along with that organization’s employees and their families.  

“At the end of the day, those security officers have to be trusted, and they have to get along with the family,” Briggs said. “They have to be in a position of authority, but also have empathy and inspire trust among clients.” 

Some clients request security officers with medical training because they have a family member with a condition. In an emergency, the officers can provide immediate aid until paramedics arrive.

Tailoring security to the property 

Residential security also must be customized to a much greater degree than a commercial property, Briggs said. Most office buildings, for example, aren’t radically different from one another so, aside from a few alterations, their security plans look a great deal alike. Homes tend to be one of a kind. 

“In dealing with family protection or home protection, it’s far more difficult to adopt a standardized approach,” Briggs said. 

One of the first steps in a new security detail is to conduct a site assessment of the client’s property — or properties, if they have multiple homes and buildings that need to be secured, whether those are located on the same estate or in different cities. 

The security team can determine the most effective places to install cameras and access-control devices to stop burglars and other intruders, and they can ensure that technology is kept in good working order. They may recommend and oversee modifications to the interior, such as the construction of a safe room or a vault.

They can also provide remote monitoring for any out-of-town properties that are currently unoccupied. 

For currently employed executives, their organizations will often pay for their security, but may cease support if that executive either quits or is fired. The executive might still need a security presence, though, so in those cases, they will be responsible for paying the contractors with their own funds. 

What other services do residential security teams provide? 

“In addition to patrolling the property, one of security’s most important jobs is visitor management,” Briggs said. Clients may have multiple service providers or delivery trucks visiting the property on a typical day. (In some cases, the security detail will travel off-site to pick up packages.)

“You really have to manage that access control and understand who should be there and who shouldn’t,” Briggs said.

In addition to former employees, security must be on the lookout for another type of unwanted visitor: people who show up and ask the clients for financial help.  

“A lot of these clients are very kind-hearted people, and they’re very interested in other people,” Briggs said. “But they can easily be taken advantage of, so that’s something we have to take into account.” 

And the security team’s service doesn’t just stop at the property line. Security officers frequently travel with clients, too. 

Well-trained security delivers the right level of response

Security officers must get to know their clients and understand the environment they’re guarding, Briggs said. 

The same way that simply sticking a beat cop in a jet doesn’t automatically make him an air marshal, “you can’t put just any officer into these roles,” he noted.

The stranger wandering in the back yard might be an older relative suffering from dementia. The “overnight break-in” could be a child or grandchild getting back late from an evening out. Well-trained officers will recognize them as family members and respond appropriately.

As part of that, the residential security team should also coordinate with any security teams employed by the neighborhood or nearby properties. The stranger with a gun walking along the property line could be a security officer working for another homeowner. 

“Typically, these are armed accounts,” Briggs said. “They are armed officers, so we make sure we have officers that are trained and have the appropriate understanding of use of force within these types of settings.” 

Best practices for a successful residential security program

When it comes to residential security, it’s important not to skip the basics, Briggs said. 

Sometimes, for example, clients feel so protected at home that they forget to lock the front and back doors. 

“Some clients have a perception that they are within a cocoon, so to speak,” Briggs said. “So very often our officers will have to literally go and lock doors at night.”

Take care of those smaller steps — like locking windows and replacing burned-out exterior lights — and they’ll work together to make it harder for would-be intruders. 

“A locked door is a hundred times harder to get into than an unlocked door,” he said. 

It’s also important to avoid patterns, Briggs said. This is an issue in security generally, but it’s especially urgent for residential details. 

Taking the exact same route to work each day, eating at the same restaurant at the same time on the same day, always using the same entrance —- those habits all give critical information to bad actors because they know where and when you’ll be. 

“If you do the same thing every day, you become predictable and that can be taken advantage of,” he said. 

A good security team can help recognize these patterns and introduce just enough unpredictability to make life harder for anyone who wants to cause problems. 

The bottom line on residential security for high-exposure clients

Securing residential properties is part technical challenge and part customer service issue because security officers tend to be deeply enmeshed in the lives of the families they serve. 

To function effectively, the security team must be a good fit for the clients and earn their trust. Officers should develop a deeper knowledge of clients than what’s required to protect an office building or shopping center. And they have to guard the clients and their homes without letting security’s presence feel oppressive or annoying. 

Chesley Brown serves clients of every type and size, and that includes providing residential security for high-exposure individuals and their families. Get a clearer idea of what kind of security presence your property requires — start a conversation with Chesley Brown today.