You could warn local residents that their properties are at risk, maybe offer to improve the locks on their doors, maybe install burglar alarms or timers on their light switches to trick any dodgy people passing by into thinking there’s someone at home. That’s what one study did in Manchester in 2012,33 where they managed to reduce the number of burglaries by more than a quarter. Small downside, though: the researchers calculated that this tactic of so-called ‘target hardening’ costs about £3,925 per burglary it prevents.
