How to Secure an Open Porch

Place a fence around your property. Anything that can place a barrier between a possibler perpetrator and your property will help keep your porch more secure. The fence should be at least 7 feet tall for best results, since it will be harder to climb. A solid fence works better than chain link since this limits the potential intruder's visibility of the porch from a distance, requiring him to come near the fence entrance and risk being detected.

Plant shrubs around the perimeter of your porch to limit the access to it. With thick shrubbery all around the porch, someone is forced to access it from the porch steps and you can monitor that more easily. Thorny plants about 3 feet wide like rotunda Chinese holly work well for this. Likewise, remove any plants blocking visibility from any windows on the porch since they make it more difficult for you to see if anyone is outside.

Keep the porch well-lit at night. You can either leave a light on or get specialty lighting that activates when it detects movement, which provides an added benefit of giving the appearance of someone being home even if you're not there.

Place deadbolts and heavy locks on doors and windows near the porch if you don't have them already, to limit an intruder's access to the home once he gets to the porch. Deadbolts are much harder to get through than a simple doorknob lock. The porch is normally the main access to the house, so securing these doors and windows needs to be a high priority.

Place an alarm sticker on a visible location either on or near the porch. Intruders won't know if you actually have an alarm or not and are more likely to stay away than take the risk. A sticker or sign right outside of the porch and a second one near the door or windows on the porch effectively warn the intruder that your porch and home and are not easy targets.