Let’s talk about two of the most commonly used, and misunderstood, tools in the security tool box.

First, lights and cameras are tools, not solutions (let’s give the marketing and sales people a minute here to breathe…).

I’ll risk a metaphor: consider the security approach for your community like a house. You’ll need to design, build, and maintain it. Throwing a hammer and some nails on a piece of dirt gives you some of the tools you will need, but doesn’t so much solve the issue of having a place to sleep, throw dinner parties, etc. Lights and cameras are tools that can help to build the security approach for the community, but on their own, they are not a solution.

Looking a bit deeper, consider lights. We (well, most humans anyway) find lit spaces to feel more secure. However, lights as a tool can be a problem. Say there is a pathway through a park. If we light that up at night, we are sending a signal that it is a place we want people to go, a place that is safe. However, if the bad guys are hiding in the bushes halfway down the path, they can see the potential victim walking towards them from a good way off and know there is no one else around. Before we use the tool (lights) we need to walk through the “and what else” questions about what will that lead to and is that really where we want people to go at night when there aren’t a lot of people around.

Similar to lights, cameras are a tool, not a solution. Cameras are good for two main roles: providing information to support a response to an incident and providing forensic information about an incident after it happens. Cameras can also make spaces feel like big brother is watching, video systems can be hacked (they are dependent on the network security they are on) allowing potential bad guys to view when you are, or are not, around, along with a multitude of other potential issues. That is not to say they can’t be valuable. I have used camera systems as part of a security solution many times. But like the hammer in our metaphor, they need to be used when you have a nail to drive in rather than say a glass pane you need to putty to hold in place.

Asking about the “and what else,” exploring the potential unintended consequences, developing the story of what you want your community to be like will help to identify where to use, and where not to use, the tools like lights and camera. That way the action helps to build the community you want.