Security Lighting
Security lighting
Most burglaries and home invasions happen during the day. Which means an intruder working at night probably chose to work at night, so just the presence of light will be enough to make your property less of a target.
If they try anyway, lights make it easier for your family, animals, neighbors, passing traffic and security cameras to catch things early.
Motion-activated wireless lights are a favorite for many people. They’re easy to install and you’ll still have lights during a power failure. Because they turn on from motion and are not constantly on, they are less likely to annoy neighbors. And the sudden surprise of a light turning on is often enough to scare off a would-be burglar.
In addition, you should absolutely have a good porch light that illuminates your house number (in case a first responder needs to find your home at night).
Landscape lighting in the front yard is attractive and can also provide a level of security by illuminating dark areas around trees or shrubs.
While results from studies on how lighting impacts crime are mixed, almost all experts, including the National Crime Prevention Council and local law enforcement officials, agree that a few easy lighting practices make a difference in keeping your home safer.
1) Leave a visible light on inside your home at night. Our Sherriff’s deputies tell us they notice many dark homes on their evening patrols. Seeing lights on in your window(s) can deter criminals as they scout homes looking for patterns that indicate you are not at home. You can add one or two timers to turn lights on and off at appropriate times while you are on vacation.
2) Add automatic outdoor or motion sensor lighting in areas visible to streets and neighbors. Criminals don’t like attention, so well-lit areas that can be seen by neighbors or passing cars help deter criminal activity. Experts urge homeowners to install motion-activated security lighting to protect vehicles parked in driveways and gates into back yards. Landscape, porch and pathway lights should be controlled by timing devices so they switch on and off automatically.
3) Call to have street lights fixed. To report dark or malfunctioning street lights, call 311. If possible, when reporting a problem have the pole number or property address available. The pole number can be found on a sticker approximately eight feet up the pole. For more information, CLICK HERE.
SMUD night light
How to get a SMUD “night light” in your yard?
If you want to improve the security lighting in your yard, SMUD has a plan for that.
For some years, Sacramento Municipal Utilities District (SMUD) has offered a service to homeowners under which it will install sun-sensing light fixtures on existing SMUD poles to illuminate your yard from dusk to dawn. SMUD supplies, installs and maintains the fixture and bills you directly for the service. The cost is less than $11 a month, which covers the cost of the light, the electricity and any routine maintenance or replacement that may be needed.
The service, appropriately called the “Night Light” program, is only available to homeowners who have a SMUD pole on or near their property, according to SMUD billing department staff person Natalie Origel.
Although the Night Lights previously used more traditional floodlight bulbs, SMUD now installs only energy efficient LED units. Homeowners can request either a 40-watt unit or a 60-watt unit which are both about $11 a month. Night Light service is billed separately from your regular SMUD service.
If you are concerned about bothering your neighbors with the light, at no extra charge SMUD will install shields on the fixture to reduce its impact on neighboring properties.
Before you can sign up for a Night Light, you will first need to inspect the power pole on your property to determine if it is, in fact, a SMUD pole. Origel said that’s easy. Just walk over to the pole and check it out at about eye level. Somewhere you will find a little metal tag inscribed in black with a number. If that pole number begins with the letters “UD,” it is a SMUD pole. Write down the number and then contact SMUD’s customer service number at (888) 742-7683. You will have to run through a series of questions to get to a human, but when you do, just say that you want to sign up for the Night Light and provide the UD tag number. Origel said you also can email SMUD at customerservices@smud.org. Or, if you have a SMUD online account, you can sign up via chat, she said.
According to Origel, after you sign up, the order is referred to M&M Electric, a subcontractor that will install the fixture on your pole. Most customers get it within a week to 10 days after placing the order.
“Our customers love it,” said Origel. “There are thousands of them in the county and some of the old customers are now calling us to retrofit their fixtures with the new LED lights. If you ever have a problem with it, you can ask for repair at no extra cost. And if you ever want it removed, we will do that, too.”
Security lighting research
Security experts and police often urge homeowners to install security lighting in both front and back yards as a means of deterring burglars. While this would seem to make sense, research has found that the value of lighting depends on whether it helps passersby or police spot an intruder. If it does not, lighting may simply help a burglar see better while he is breaking in.
Marcus Felson, a professor at the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University, has concluded that lighting is effective in preventing crime mainly if it enables people to notice criminal activity as it’s taking place, and if it doesn’t help criminals to see what they’re doing.
Bright, unshielded floodlights often fail on both counts, as do all-night lights installed on isolated structures or on parts of buildings that can’t be observed by passersby (such as back doors).
A burglar who is forced to use a flashlight or whose movement triggers a security light controlled by an infrared motion sensor is much more likely to be spotted than one whose presence is masked by the blinding glare of a poorly placed floodlight.
In the early seventies, the public-school system in San Antonio, Texas, began leaving many of its school buildings,
parking lots and other property dark at night and found that the no-lights policy not only reduced energy costs but also dramatically cut vandalism.
One of the largest, most scientific studies of outdoor crime