Lighting for Nighttime Security and Safety

“Sunlight is the best disinfectant.” It’s an expression that typically applies to exposing corruption, but to us, it can transcend the philosophical and apply to practical security concepts. By bathing a location in light, you can protect it from the contamination of crime and accidents. To that end, lighting goes hand-in-hand with nighttime security in NYC. Here’s what it can do for your site:

Benefits of Lighting for Security

Lighting makes all entry points visible.

When all entrances and exits to a facility are well-lit, people passing by can see what’s going on clearly while security cameras can effectively record activity. This means that any potential crime or accident that takes place at your site will be witnessed and recorded, making your life easier when it comes time to deal with it.

Lighting hardens the site as a target.

Whether someone plans to trespass, vandalize or steal, he or she will naturally seek somewhere that’s dimly lit. A dark location is a soft target, and a soft target is what criminals need to carry out a crime successfully. By hardening the target with additional lighting, you can take away one major comfort factor for criminals and deter them from your site altogether. 

Lighting helps your business.

How many times have you seen a dimly lit, run-down facility and dismissed it as out of business or unworthy of your business? Whether your site is a manufacturing facility or a retail store, exhibiting proper lighting at night will convey that your business is a well-maintained operation. 

Steps to Improve Lighting

Perform a lighting audit.

Just as alarms, cameras and other security systems need scheduled audits to ensure that they’re working properly, lighting configurations need continual and proper maintenance. Each light in and around your building should be checked to ensure that bulbs are bright, wiring is intact, motion triggers and other integrations are functioning correctly and timers are triggering lights when they should be.

Install lights in vulnerable areas.

Entrances and exits are areas that are indispensable when it comes to security lighting. However, they are not the only locations where lighting can significantly improve nighttime security in your NYC establishment. Here are a few other areas to consider:

• Walkways, both ground-level and overhead
• Parking lots and parking structures
• Natural barriers (i.e. landscaping designed to conceal the property)
• Statues, plaques, fountains and other public attraction areas
• Building and exterior safety signage
• Any spaces that appear dark at night, such as back hallways

Lighting integrations. 

One of the most effective integrations with lighting is connecting motion-activated lights to an intelligent video analytics system, so that lights come on automatically when movement is detected. With motion sensing technology and a remote video monitoring service, you can ensure that your security system will pick up on any and all unwanted activity. 

About POM Technologies

Peace Of Mind Technologies has delivered site-specific, cost-effective security solutions to facilities throughout the greater New York Metro area since 2002. We aren’t your average security company, with a wide range of equipment and services for day and nighttime security. NYC facilities can contact us at (212) 688-2767 or info@pom-tec.com to request a free security analysis, or reach out via the contact form below.