How to keep the safety of your home a priority as a police wife

This is a sponsored post on behalf of The Gun Box. All opinions are honest and my own.

 

Have you ever felt this pressure as a police wife to keep your home and family safe when your officer is working?

I always have. It is not pressure from my husband or anyone else, but this feeling that weighs heavy on my mind when my officer is working. This feeling that rests in the back of my head that I want to be as prepared as possible for any situation as a wife, mother, female and police wife. I almost have this higher feeling of responsibility because my officer is working. And since my husband and I have had children, this feeling of needing more safety and security has grown tremendously.

Feeling safe within your own home, especially as a law enforcement family, is multi-dimensional. We need mental, emotional, and physical security not just one or the other. There is more than just this feeling of needing to be protected while your officer is gone. What about when he is home, too? As a law enforcement family it is inevitable that you will have guns in your home. So do you feel safe in how those are stored? Do you have an action plan if an emergency occurs?

The time to take action is now, before an accident or event takes place. The safety of your family and home depends on it and you need peace of mind to go along with it. So let’s dive in and talk about ways to feel safe in your own home.

 

Whether your officer is off duty or on, here are some ways to keep the safety of your home a priority:

 

So let’s start with the moment your officer walks in the door after a long shift.

Gun safety: What does your officer do the moment he walks in the door? Take off all his gear, right? Where does that gear go? Where does he place his duty weapon?

I ask this because I can’t tell you how many wives have told me that their officer’s place their duty weapons on the counter or on top of the refrigerator quickly right when they walk in the door.  Our officers can’t wait to take that hot, heavy, cumbersome gear off as quickly as possible. Or if you have little ones then your story may be much like mine. If it is day light then the moment my husband walks in the door he is bombarded by our three children for hugs and kisses. Twelve or fourteen hour shifts feel like eternity to toddlers and they of course, miss their father. While my husband can’t wait to see our children, too, I know it is important for him to have a few moments to decompress after shift. More importantly, he needs time to take off all his gear and safely store his duty weapon. Our kids jump all over him so he can hardly get a moment to breath let alone unpack his gear, lock up his weapon and change his clothes.

It is hard for our young children to understand that even though their daddy just got home, he now needs to walk out of the room into a secure place and lock up his weapon. Cue the tears in my house because my husband now has to walk out of the room yet again.

What homes need is a safe, REALISTIC place for our officers to store their duty weapon with ease. No more trips across the house to a large, bulky safe. No more quick, on top of the refrigerator storage without a proper safe. We need a safe, kid proof alternative to gun storage that allows our officers easy access.

 

 

Photo courtesy of The Gun Box

 

Luckily, The Gun Box does just that! The Echo and 2.0 gun safes are sleek, compact gun safes that can be stored pretty much anywhere! You and your officer can feel safe placing this safe in plain view because it has cutting-edge technology that will only allow the gun owner to open it’s contents. These safes have multiple unlocking features like keycards, FOBS, biometric technology or with the use of your fingerprint. And many safe options are designed with USB charging ports so they are multi-functional.

There is no longer a need for your officer to walk to the other side of your home or to a hidden closet to store his weapon. The Gun Box designs their safes with safety being their number one priority!

And what about traveling in your car or while on vacation? These safes are the perfect and safest option for gun safety when you are away from your home due to their easy, portable size.

The Echo and 2.0 options are more than affordable and can truly put your mind at ease!

 

Good locks and cameras:

Now even when you officer is home, you will need a good set of locks and you may even want to consider a camera system. I was so surprised when we moved into our new home that the previous owner never had deadbolts installed! Yikes! So we immediately bought all new locks, deadbolts and a camera system to make our home safe and secure. If you rent your home, consider asking your landlord if locks have been switched recently or if keys have been changed prior to you moving in. This is just an extra measure you can take to ensure safety.

 

Develop a safety plan:

As police wives I can almost bet that your officer has talked about safety and security with you. How to be prepared in case of an emergency, how to be cautious of your surroundings, being aware of exits in a store and so on. It probably comes with the territory, right? I think a lot of what my husband and I discussed initially involved situations outside of our home, but we have also developed a plan if a situation occurred inside our home.

A safety plan that everyone agrees on is of utmost importance. If you have children then developing secret code words if also a good idea. We have code words with our children and we remind them of them frequently. And because they are small we remind them of the rules a lot, like not to open the door to a stranger, what to do in case of an emergency, etc.

 

 

Don’t we all just want protection for our family and home? In this day and age, we have to make safety our top priority and we can no longer wait for something to happen to us or ones that we love to take action. We must be proactive not reactive. Which safety precaution can you make starting today?