A HOUSING company has joined forces with community safety officials to offer more protection to some of its most vulnerable tenants.
Housing Hartlepool is working closely with police crime prevention officers, under the banner of the Safer Hartlepool Partnership, to identify and tackle gaps in residents' home security.
As a result, 17 bungalows in the King Oswy area of the town have been fitted with additional locks, alarms, glass guards and window sash jammers. The tenants have also been provided with community safety information.
Sandra Twidale from Housing Hartlepool said: "We always put the safety of our residents first and thanks to the great partnerships in the town we were able to carry out this project. We intend to continue our work to provide crime prevention advice and additional security measures to homes in other parts of the town."
PC Steve Davies said: "Although crime in the town is continuing to fall, criminals tend to target vulnerable people above any others so projects like this are very important."
Residents are now being urged to heed some basic crime prevention advice to protect their homes. This includes:
- Ensuring large amounts of cash are not kept in the house
- Not opening the door to strangers
- Having a door peephole fitted so that you can see who is outside
- Not giving out personal information such as credit card information to strangers who knock at the door or telephone
- Making sure you have good outside lighting on your home
- Fitting alarms and locks to your property
