Panama Home and Personal Security
Panama security in a nutshell
Panama is a very safe country to live in. While cities like New York City have more violent crimes partaking in the course of a single day as to Panama City has in the course of a year. With that noticed, caution and prevention measures should be taken accordingly.

Campaigning for a robbery in Panama
This is a term that is used with many people which refers to regular people acting stupid. For example, people running around with a $20, 000 gold Rolex in a country where the monthly wage is at an average of $300. You should only have the gold and diamonds displayed on special occassions when you are indoors like at your wedding or a private celebration which has security on the premises. By having valuable goods on your body like jewellery, you will tempt many financially unstable people to snatch that item right off of you. While you walk around the streets of Panama City after getting drunk as well you are inviting crime your way.
Panama Home Security
Panama only has a few home invasions each year. Even though that is little, you should always be cautious. These are usually inside jobs when the criminals knew the victims in play. Whether they did work for them like painting or cleaning and they saw something in the house that had a fair dollar value to it or they saw a large safe, this is a way many people are tempted to do such things. Workers around the household may notice easy entrance spots and take advantage of them at a later notice. While many victims are not hurt or opened to much potential danger, they are severely harmed and may face a financial loss. This type of crime in Panama usually contains suspects that are working men who surveyed the area before. It is hard to prevent such things from happening as they may enter almost all the time no matter how well you are protected. Here are some suggestions for you to keep safer. Understand that Panama private homes are usually more at risk then condos. Some of the newer Punta Pacifica condos have recently had a few invasion robberies. The robbers were likely unknowledged about the security provided in your building and these robbers are likely to get caught by the police easily. The majority of criminals that do crimes in Panama end up in jail as the Panama Police seem to always catch the suspect.


Alarms in Panama
The police in Panama have very fast response times and are always willing to help. If any thiefs enter your house and are armed with weapons, and upon arrival of cops they will have one warning to drop their weapons and if they do not cooperate, they will be shot dead on the spot. This is one of the main reasons why Panama has had a shortage of thiefs over the last few years. If you point a gun at someone, you are risking your life as a cop will immidiately shoot you for dead. When a home invasion robbery occurs and the alarm goes off, the robbers will flee usually but try to get a radio to call the police or alarm dispatcher if your phone line is cut off or out. A cell phone on hand is also a good source of communicate for emergencies. Do not be scared to alarm your condo doors, and do it for all your doors. At night always close your balcony doors because if it is easy to climb over from one appartment to another you may be at risk. If someone gets into your neighbours appartment, you don’t want them to get into yours too. You could get the security company to put a light beam switch on your balcony so if anyone walks onto your balcony, a flashing light goes off and your alarm will sound too. This will scare most thiefs away immediately but some may flee through your house as it may be faster. Just having a visible signed up saying this premises is secured from your local alarm company will help scare thiefs away too.
Dogs
Many people use dogs as a source of security all around the world. The majority of latin americans have a big fear of getting bit by a dog. A large sized dog in healthy shape with a large bark will scare strangers away very easily. Make sure that your dog is trained to only eat food that you give to it so no strangers will throw food in the yard and let your dog eat it as you may end up with your dog being poisoned. Make sure that your dog is not able to get up to a fence because a stranger could just loop him up and tie him to it preventing him from protecting the household. You may want your dog to stay inside the house at night with you. A small dog is a good source of an alarm as well. Professionals say that a dog needs to weigh at least 80 pounds to be able to attack a grown man to the ground. Big dogs eat a lot more then little dogs, take more room to poop but if there are bad guys in your house, a 125 pound dog is a good protection to have. Even if the person invading your household is armed with a gun, try to hit a dog charging at you in the dark while it is about to chew your neck off, its pretty hard to do. Even if the thief has a gun, the odds when these two battle are in the dogs favour. A charging dog is impossible to stop, kicking or hitting the dog does not get him off of you and doesn’t stop them from attacking you.
Web Cams
Using a web cam or a surveillance camera is a great way to survey your home for any possible danger. Get a web cam or surveillance camera and put it outside of your condo door, put one on your condo’s balcony, and one inside your house by the doors. Put them all around your private home. Get a sign that displays text that notifies everyone that the premises is under surveillance. Web cams are relatively cheap and easy to set up.

Pepper Spray
Pepper spray is a weapon that is legal to have on hand and easily able to purchase in Panama. You can buy a few cans of it, take it in your backyard and get the feel of shooting with it although makesure it does not contact you. Wear big sunglasses to protect yourself just incase a wind blows the spray towards your face. Keep it with you at almost all times, in your car, in your pocket, and next to you when you go to sleep.
Doors
There are many companies that make very secured doors in Panama. One company, entitled ‘Multilink’ makes various security doors. Their doors are made of steel and have bolts on every side. They come with a reinforced frame as well. This is a safe way to stop an invasion (as far as entering by door) unless the intruder has keys to your house.
Bedroom Door
Make sure your bedroom door is made out of solid wood and put two locks on it with very strong hinges on the inside. This should stop invaders who got into your house from entering your room while holding off for police. Having the same style door for your closet is a good way for an additional hiding spot if they pass your bedroom door to stay safe.
Boat Horn
Go to a marine supply store where you can pick up a boat horn and a gas canister (buy a couple of them). Get the biggest ones you can find for best sound effeciency. When someone breaks into your house you can blast off your foghorn and wake your neighbours, and possibly scare the suspect away.
Motion Activated Lights
If you are living in a private home you may want to get a few of the following so if someone walks on your yard, a light is censored. Put a few motion activated lights around your premises. The important locations include: in the driveway, near the back yard doors, and various other easy entry points. Make sure that your lights are covered so that the bulb does not break easily or put the lights in hard to reach areas. You could also put floor mats infront of all of your doors and have pressure switches hidden underneath them so that if they stepped on it (use 60 pounds of pressure or more so that cats/dogs don’t set it off) an alarm or light would go off. This will give you a warning ahead of time so that they are not aware of it but you can call for emergency help ahead of time and secure your family or roommates while awaitting their arrival.
Locks
Always have good locks on your doors. Use at least two so that one will stop the door from being kicked and the other to stop it from being ripped open enough so that the bolt can clear the frame. Make sure that your door and its’ frames are solid and strong to protect you.
Windows
If your house’s windows are fairly easy to reach for the average heighted person then you should consider covering them with very strong bars for protection from people breaking in through your windows. Make sure that you have an alarm that’s wired for fire and have various smoke detectors in your household. Make sure that bars can come off if the fire alarm goes off for exiting your house immediately to stay away from danger.


Guns
If you need a gun then you probably did something wrong with protectng your household or just don’t have enough faith in the rest of the safety methods you used. Although guns are legal there is a gun law in Panama that you can read up on for more information.
Safes
Panama is a good place to purchase safes to protect your expensive goods. Most of the safes available in Panama are imported from Costa Rica where they were made. They come in all different sizes, strengths, and designs. Most of the safes however are not fire proof but you can find cheap fire boxes for important papers and other flammable items. The safes are usually bolted into the concrete of your house’s walls and or floors with expanding bolts so they can not be ripped out of the platform easily. Put the safe in a hidden area that is not easily seen like a closet so they are harder to locate by thiefs making more time pass by. Hopefully you will use the same closet that you will hide in with a solid wood or steel door to protect yourself until the police arrive. Never let anyone outside your family and or trusted circle see the safe and or what is inside it and make sure it is covered wherever it is located (example: with a blanket). Digital locks on the safe are safer then the spin dials. There are some that you can get with spin dials that if you mess up (x) amount of times it will shut down for three days while after three bad attempts on the digital safe it will shut down for 15 minutes. The people trying to pry open your safe will be using tools such as a ply bar and a hammer so make sure the safe is resistable to that and will last days of being beat and smashed on. The professional safes are not needed as safe crackers do not do home robberies.
Are you really worried?
If you wish to spend an extra $400 or so a month you can hire a guard that will live in your house, drive for you, take your kids to school and basically let you sleep at home in a locked room where you are handcuffed to your bed
In closing, Panama is definitely a place that you are supposed to enjoy yourself in, while in many other cities you don’t take many safety percautions it is the same in Panama City although to be on the safe side there are a few adjustments that could be made but either way you are relatively safe as long as you have enough common sense in your head.