Shining the Light on Crime

I read a sta­tis­tic today from the Insur­ance Bureau of Cana­da indi­cat­ing there is a res­i­den­tial break-in every 90 sec­onds in Cana­da.  I find that a rather sober­ing sta­tis­tic.  The ques­tion we need to ask is how to pre­vent becom­ing 1 of those sta­tis­tics. There are many tips for crime pre­ven­tion. Per­haps an obvi­ous but often over­looked pre­ven­tion tool is Secu­ri­ty Light­ing.

Light­ing is one of the most cost-effec­tive deter­rents to bur­glary. Indoor light­ing gives the impres­sion that a home is occu­pied. If you are going to be away from your home, con­sid­er using auto­mat­ic timers to switch inte­ri­or lights on and off at pre­set times.

Out­door light­ing can elim­i­nate hid­ing places. Install exte­ri­or light­ing near porch­es, rear and side door­ways, garage doors, and all oth­er points of entry. Entry­ways to your home always should be well light­ed. Place lights out of reach from the ground so the bulbs can­not be removed or bro­ken. Aim some lights away from the house so you can see if any­one is approach­ing, or install motion-sens­ing lights, which turn on auto­mat­i­cal­ly as some­one approach­es.

If you are con­cerned about the cost of run­ning lights, you are not alone. Switch­ing to new­er ener­gy sav­ing LED or Flo­res­cent lights will save you sig­nif­i­cant costs on your elec­tric­i­ty bill, and the lifes­pan is impres­sive. The bot­tom line is that a few dol­lars in elec­tric­i­ty can buy you great val­ue in home pro­tec­tion.