At the end of the day when you walk into the house and lock the door you start to feel safe and secure.

Or do you?

That real sense of security has more to it than just those dead bolt locks on the doors or the alarm system on the windows. And more Canadians are having a tougher time feeling that security.

Perception Versus Reality

For five years the Canadian Council on Social Development took the temperature of Canadians on how they feel about their personal security. It's called a Personal Security Index.

John Anderson is vice president of Strategic Partnerships and Alliances for the Canadian Council on Social Development. He led the research on the security index. Anderson says the index is a way to compare objective data to the way Canadians are feeling. And the results were surprising.

"When it comes to their physical safety, most of the indicators have been positive but people's perceptions have not moved in the same way." Anderson says. In other words, although the crime rate is down, our fear of crime is up.

According to the study, in the five years from 1998 to 2002, the number of people feeling safe has fallen. In 1998 77 per cent of Canadians felt safe. In 2002, the number dropped to 72 per cent. That's over a period in which there has been a significant drop in the number of violent crimes.

Fear Means Business

The result of that sense of insecurity can be seen in some of the upscale neighborhoods in Windsor. That's where you find private security guards like Mike Tremblay. He spends his nights making sure that the people living in the expensive homes don't wake up to smashing windows and intruders.

And the security business has become very big business.

For a company in Windsor called Elite Protection Security Specialists the fear in some neighborhoods has directly resulted in money in the till.

Sherri McCourt runs Elite with her husband. She says demand for security just keeps growing.

"In the past four years I would say we have tripled in business... in every division, from guards to mobile patrols and even the technology wing has just exploded."

McCourt says in those four years she's seen a change in the attitude of her customers.

"Up until (the terrorist attacks) of September 11th, everybody was reactive... security was the last thing people worried about, certainly the last thing they budgeted for. But now people have come to the point where they are proactive... they want to know how to protect themselves, their loved ones, their businesses."

Security on a Budget

Of course not everyone can afford the kind of protection offered by security companies like Elite. Most people need to find less expensive ways to protect themselves and their homes.

For Don Beneteau of Windsor part of the answer was a simple sensor light. After some equipment was stolen from his backyard, he put up a light that comes on when there is movement in the yard. And so far that's been enough to keep the thieves away.

Deborah Marchand has gone further to protect herself and her daughters. She's heard about home invasions and she wants to make sure it doesn't happen to her.

"We have double locks on the front door and we also sometimes put a chair just to wedge it underneath just in case the locks don't work and somebody pushes the door open."

Reality Check

Should people be worried? It depends on how you look at it.

Nationally the number of serious crimes in Canada has decreased. But that hasn't changed the perception of crime.

John Anderson of the Canadian Council on Social Development says part of the reason is the media.

"We know that in terms of the media that there is a great attention to crime. The media is more dominant than it used to be. If we look at all forms of media including the internet, we've got a wide range of information and crime is often put front and centre."

And for people in the Windsor area, the dominance of Detroit media can add to that feeling of insecurity.

But there's more to personal security than just finding ways to protect yourself from crime. Many people are also coping with a fear that maybe, just maybe, they won't have the money to keep up those mortgage payments or afford that retirement in Florida.