/lightcatch/images/image-5a9e0.png)
After studying 10,000 property crimes and talking to hundreds of victims we learned that what most people think is good security is usually just random chance.
Below are some examples, as well as other common beliefs that I don't believe are true anymore. - Darren
Maybe years ago, before $5 synthetic crystal meth was the most common street drug, and cordless grinders existed, these ideas might have worked better.
Today, the data shows the opposite is more true.
Read More....
This is probably the most damaging and costly misconception about home safety that exists today.
The police are not very good at responding - 'I'm too far away'
The solutions to solve this are very simple and effective.
We use a Facebook group or a chat group to watch out for one another in our community.
Social media or chat groups work as much as 40% of the time.
Letting criminals win 60-75% of the time isn't necessary anymore. These systems are too isolated and information flows too poorly across them.
Our court system and laws are too broken to stop crime.
The court system and laws aren’t perfect but we've seen firsthand that they do work.
They work very effectively when you know what levers to pull. The problem most people have is they try to pull levers after the crime. At that point it is too late.
I have dogs or guns, I'm good.
People who have lived with two crimes in the last five years are the least likely to trust this solution.
From experience they found both dogs or guns have critical gaps that leave their loved ones vulnerable.Read More....
If reading the Common Security Mistakes was helpful, you may also benefit from the
Best Home Security Camera Guide
- The six most common mistakes people make when buying security cameras. - page 2
- The most important things to consider when selecting a security camera. - page 3
- Case Study - How 16 cameras all failed in this TV star's $7 Million Dollar Home. - page 4
- The most most important thing to know, that no one will ever tell you, when shopping for cameras online. page 5
Lights, locks and fencing are an effective deterrent
Maybe 20 or 30 years ago this was true. That was before $5 synthetic crystal meth was the most common street drug and cordless grinders existed. Today, the data shows the opposite is more true.
Hotels, retail store parking lots, apartments, multiunit condo’s, energy services yards, energy lease sites, and automotive repair businesses are almost always well lit. Many of these properties are also fenced.
Yet these locations crime rates as a percentage of the property crime rate is normally higher than other locations.
If lights and locks and fencing worked so well, these locations should have the lowest crime rates, and residential properties with no fencing or lighting should have the highest crime rate. Yet, the opposite is clearly true when examining and compiling the sources where crime takes place.
Most of these recommendations to have good lighting and fencing originate from official police led programs where a property is reviewed and a report is provided about how to prevent crime at that location.
Those studies almost always involve CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design) which is not a police led program. CPTED is a program sold to police services to help in the area of crime prevention. Some University Criminologist Professors appear to have big financial benefits from the sale and marketing of these programs.
The main concepts of CPTED focuses around creating clear open spaces that are well lit and then using locks and fencing.
I've had Civic Councillors tell me 'I can't afford all the lighting CPTED studies require, we just budget for so many light installations every year'. This entire small town Council was under the belief that if they lit up their community, crime would magically disappear. We can't find any data that supports this idea yet they were sinking tens of thousands of dollars into this capital expense every year and cutting other worthwhile services short.
Many other Councillors and police services have told their ratepayers 'Get a CPTED study to help stop the next crime.' The unsuspecting property owner then buys expensive fences and lighting for their property. Our data shows those solutions are usually one of the worst options in terms of measuring what you are spending for how much you get out of it. Far more effective solutions exist at a fraction of the cost, but leveraging technology or the community are not part of the 'CPTED' recommendations.
Low cost, highly rated cameras are all you need
/best-home-security-camerasThis is probably the most damaging and costly misconception about home safety that exists today.
The low cost camera manufacturers have made billions convincing people this is all a homeowner needs.
There is a LOT of data in the Security Camera Guide that shows cameras as a stand alone solution, have been a miserable failure.
In summary, alerts to mobile phones were not common in 2012. Then an explosion in doorbell and cheap 'highly rated' cameras began to be sold starting in 2014.
If this solution was truly great, the crime rates should have plummeted and everyone should feel way more safe. Yet the majority of people feel less safe today, than they did 10 years later when there were no cheap cameras and alerts to our phones. Why would that happen?
Official crime rates in the US and Canada appear to have decreased but independent studies confirm that the real crime rates are far beyond what the official numbers report. In many cases, large capable organizations like the NY TImes, have shown the real crime rate is 10 to 14 times higher than what is being reported.
All cheap cameras may have really accomplished over the last 10 years is to get so many people frustrated with the way the police handled their property crime case, that people then stopped reporting future crimes.
In fact, it looks like under reporting grew even faster than all the people buying these cameras.
See the Security Camera Guide for proof that crime isn't lower, it is under reporting to the police that is lower.
Our hunches about these problems started to show up in these blog posts.
WARNING: Hidden Crime Data Points To Safety Risk Ten Times Worse Than Expected
Lessons from 145 robberies
Monthly Comparison Data of Crime Between Regions Like This: The Most Dangerous Places in Alberta October 2022
The police are not very good at responding - 'I'm too far away'
The solutions to solve this are very simple and effective.
Often, these very conditions are the foundation for a strong advantage in home safety.
Make a crime clearly visible to the public and law enforcement while it is unfolding, or even better, before it happens and it’s amazing how those concerns are no longer a barrier.
Crime Blocker shows a formula that turns this problem on its head and turns it into an advantage. Once in place, most home owners and property owners will see a 10X increase in their safety level.
See these posts for some background information.
How To Get Police Response in Under 8 Minutes
Two More Near Death Experiences
Small City Spooks Thieves
We use a Facebook or a chat group to keep our community safe.
Social media or chat groups work as much as 40%* of the time. 25%* or lower is normal for most groups.
We don't believe letting criminals win the other 60-75% of the time is necessary or healthy. Having the criminals win more than the victims is a bad outcome for those that pay taxes.
These systems are too isolated and information flows too poorly across them.
Criminals can lose 85% or more of the time when a matrix is built in a community.
I still Administer an 11,000 member group. By far the busiest times in that group are Saturday and Sunday mornings, not when crime posts take place. People scroll through their feeds and alerts when it is convenient, like when they are off work on the weekend.
Trusting people who wait until the weekend to catch up on things allows the criminals to move faster than the property owners and the cycle to continue.
*These numbers have been our general, rule of thumb, experience. We've tried measuring a few groups but when some posts become deleted and others don't communicate the status of what happened, gathering precise data is too expensive to be worthwhile.
Our court system and laws are too broken to stop crime.
The court system and laws aren’t perfect but they do work. They can even work effectively when you know what levers to pull.
The problem most people have is they try to pull levers after the crime. At that point it is too late.
The solution to stop the enormous costs to society from repeat offenders, addicts, organized crime, and homeless camps is simple and affordable.
Most people haven’t seen how to make the burden of proof so overwhelming that no defense lawyer can find enough loopholes to get their client off, but this is certainly possible. It's even possible to use Ethical Ways To Make A Judge Squirm in their seat.
Speed is the most important factor to prevent this kind of crime and to stop crimes in progress.
We can show how to use speed in ways a Chief of Police suggested to other Police Chiefs "It's like watching Amazon being built when I'm used to using the Sears & Roebuck catalog.
The bottom line with the court system is to leverage the perverse financial incentives that exist within the system.
As a home owner you are likely the only one who will ever lose money if crime happens to you or in the community. Every other party will get paid and promoted whether they are good at making a difference or not. See Follow The Money for a complete breakdown of who wins and loses when you are a frustrated crime victim.
Knowing these perverse financial incentives exist, you can use them to your advantage. By making a crime so public, and so well documented, those risk adverse players in the justice system will not want to risk their position or status.
I have dogs or guns, I'm good.
People who have lived with two crimes in the last five years are the least likely to trust this solution. These 'double victims' found out the hard way that both guns and dogs can leave critical gaps that left their loved ones vulnerable.
See Lessons from 145 robberies where we breakdown how these 'double victims' now trusted dogs or guns far less than people who had never experienced a crime.
I like guns. I like dogs too. At one point it seemed since so many rural people trust in them, this is a pretty solid solution.
The biggest problem with both these approaches, is that most crimes take less than 10 minutes and property owners and dogs simply can't respond fast enough, consistently enough.
The other part that is harder to talk about is how much a trust in guns or dogs can leave a spouse worried when they are left alone on the property.
A spouse left alone on a rural property is by far the most passionate and worried person there is about the risk of rural crime.
Ignore that reality if you like, but you can't say you were never warned. I've talked to too many people who have been scarred for years because these solutions were supposed to be their home security plan.
If you are skeptical that's totally understandable. It took me years to see this clearly.
Here are ways you can learn more.
Security Camera Buyers Guide
Security Camera Guide
Built from the lessons and insights after examining over 10,000 property crimes.
The right security cameras can make someone five times safer.
Eliminate The Risk Of Property Crime
Crime Blocker
The better the home security system you have now, the lower the cost to add Crime Blocker.