Installing Snap Safe Locks

Every man's home is his castle, or so the saying goes, but in today's overcrowded society, getting castle level security is nigh on impossible. The more isolated nature of family life also means that there are less people looking out for each other's properties than before, which means that it's easier for common thieves to try and gain access to unoccupied houses. Fortunately, lock technology has increased along with the rise in crime, and it's important to make sure that your house is as safe as possible for when you leave.
The police happily run demonstrations at summer fairs showing just how easy it is to break the most common locks on back and patio doors with just a normal flat head screwdriver in less than a minute. The ones that the police break for fun have a plastic covering over the lock itself, and once this is broken off (and this applies to metal coverings too), the screwdriver is used to break the central pin in the lock, which is then dug out of its housing, leaving the door with a wide hole in the middle where the lock used to be. This can be quite terrifying to watch, but also acts as a great incentive to replace those weak locks with "snap safe" locks.
Snap safe locks have at least two or three central pins, meaning that if the front one is broken by someone trying to gain access, the others will remain in place, and the whole mechanism can't be removed from the door. It does mean that if someone does try to access the door illegally, they will cause damage to the locks, but the police's stance is that it's better to pay a couple of hundred pounds to replace a broken lock than have to fight the insurance company for your claim, and live in fear of being broken into again.
Snap safe locks are relatively new on the market, so it will be worth asking your locksmith if they carry them before calling them. The locks also come with keys that are registered with a central company, showing both your name and address, and the name of the locksmith that installed them. This also protects you against cowboy locksmiths giving your keys away to criminals, as they can be traced back easily. They are also not cheap, but serve as a castle-strong form of protection against invasion.