Burglaries over winter: how you can protect your property

Burglaries are often a crime of opportunity. Winter raises the risk of burglary by creating favourable conditions for prospective burglars. According to the Office of National Statistics, the overall rate of burglaries decreased from 2024 to 2025 but the winter months show an increased rate of burglaries compared to other months.

With winter just around the corner, now is the perfect time to strengthen your security. Here we provide a few tips to get you started.

Under cover of darkness

One of these 'favourable conditions' is the earlier and longer nighttime darkness, with 60% of domestic burglaries taking place at night. The reduced visibility aids a burglar on approach to your property or site, obscuring them from potential witnesses or CCTV. This can also be caused by overgrown plants such as trees or hedges, making it a good idea to trim back foliage after the growth of spring and summer.

This also ties in with making sure you have sufficient lighting; if burglars benefit from darkness, it makes sense to get as much coverage as possible with your light setup. This should also be augmented with motion detection and timer controls for a greater deterrence factor.

CCTV deters criminals

With the correct lighting, CCTV can also be a valuable deterrent to criminal activity. The College of Policing found that CCTV reduced vehicle and property crime by 14%. Their CCTV 'crime reduction toolkit' lists several ways in which CCTV might reduce crime, including:

• increasing the perception of the risk of being caught
• increasing the actual risk of being caught
• reducing the opportunities for criminal activities
• suggesting staff or police will quickly respond to incidents

The toolkit also notes that CCTV is generally more effective when there is greater coverage, live monitoring and when it is used with other prevention methods — including lighting.

When installing CCTV, the official UK police guidance from the Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner recommends that it "provides facial recognition as well as good quality images and covers any vulnerable areas."

Tensor can provide expert installation advice and products for a high-quality CCTV setup, including Facial Recognition options. Our extensive experience in installing CCTV surveillance and commissioning comprehensive video management solutions for large multi-site facilities means that we can provide a fully scalable total security management solution of the highest standard to meet individual requirements and budgets.

Our high-performance Facial Recognition system is one of the fastest on the market, processing up to 100 million comparisons per second, and is capable of processing very high-resolution video streams from live or pre-recorded footage, on up to 30 videos simultaneously.

Due to our modular system design, we can combine CCTV with Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR), as well as other access control options like card readers for doors and turnstiles.

Window and door security

However you decide to improve your security, it is most sensible to focus on the points of entry you can control, such as doors and windows. The Security Journal quotes research that found 70% of burglars gain access through doors — so ensuring they are reliable is a vital part of a good security setup.

Simple considerations for doors and windows include:

• ensuring all windows and doors are locked each evening rather than simply 'latched'
• keeping valuable items or keys out of view or in locked storage
• using internally beaded windows
• make sure doors and windows are certified to PAS24 standards
• installing access control with electromagnetic locks on all access points

Tensor's Access Control solutions include robust, market-leading locks and scalable, comprehensive permissions processes, allowing access to authorised personnel and posing a substantial barrier to unapproved visitors.

The system adapts easily to each specific security environment, whether that be a large, multi-site facility or a smaller installation with a few doors, and can easily scale up as a business grows. Access is granted through the use of PIN pads, smart cards, fobs, fingerprints or facial scans, with a combination of these providing greater security.

Our contactless smart cards can be read through walls or glass, allowing security equipment to be hidden from view if necessary, and providing additional security and protection against vandalism and weather.

This is just a small part of what a Tensor Access Control and CCTV security solution can offer — speak to our security experts today to find out what else we can do for you.

More statistics on burglary can be found on the Office of National Statistics website.