A Crime-stopping Push for Home Security Systems

Congressional efforts are underway to provide improved security for judges in the United States.

These efforts come in the wake of a terrifying tragedy that struck in February when U.S. Federal Judge from Illinois Joan Humphrey Lefkow’s husband and mother-in-law were found brutally slain in their home by an intruder who was reportedly in the Judge’s house on Chicago’s Northwest Side for some 24-hours before the murders.

In recalling that terrible tragedy, Judge Lefkow testified on Capitol Hill in hopes of prodding federal officials to acquire better resources for protecting judges, lawyers, and others who work in the judicial system. “Judges are grateful that money has been appropriated to install home security systems for them,” according to a FOX News report describing Judge Lefkow’s testimony before a Senate committee this morning. She even pleaded that monies be distributed quickly.

But the real issue surrounding the Judge Lefkow tragedy is not limited to the protection of judges and of the judicial system. It deals with personal security, especially in this post- 9/11 world. Unfortunately for the Lefkow family, their house did not contain a home security system or an alarms system that could have detected the intruder entering their home and possibly preventing the murders.

The existence of a home security system or an alarms system safeguards against outside threats like burglaries, fires, and other dangers. It could lessen the fear of people’s homes being burglarized or, in the Lefkow case, diminish the chance of arriving home from a hectic work day to find family members dead.

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To protect deadly attacks from occurring to other families, a home security system can provide homeowners with a safety net from possible criminal wrongdoing. Without such a system, criminals who appear to have become more desperate and brazen could invade homes more easily when they’re occupied. This was certainly the situation with the Lefkow family, which was not an isolated incident. The Lefkow murders caught the media’s attention because of the stature of a federal judge who had previously ruled on a high-profile case. In fact, the defendant in that case was first believed to be responsible for the murders. That wasn’t the case, though. What did unravel days later was the common occurrence of burglaries. Burglars invade homes everyday. They just do not receive the media scrutiny because there is nothing unusual about them.

Despite the commonality of crimes such as home burglaries, people have become accustomed to a false sense of security and that is why they, quite often, leave their doors open when they’re home, especially during the spring and summer seasons when warm weather arrives. Just imagine how easy it would be for a burglar, sexual predator, or some other criminal to open an unlocked door. With a home security system criminals would be prevented from doing just that. Home security systems contain built-in, intruder protection designed to detect human movements.

Because of the Lefkow family murders and now with the judge’s own testimony about her personal ordeal, the public’s consciousness is raised about the need for good, sound security. But it should not end with just raising the public’s awareness. People need to act on that awareness and utilize existing resources. There are many different services offering home security. Until such services are fully used, the lesson that Judge Lefkow and others who are victims of violent episodes have learned from their individual tragedies will not have been learned. And that is the worst tragedy of all.