Many homeowners turn to cameras as a security measure for their homes. Cameras are indeed one part of a defense-in-depth solution to better home security. Unfortunately, many homeowners have unrealistic expectations about what cameras can and cannot do.
It makes sense to want cameras to identify people, cars, and license plates. This type of identification is easier to do in the day and much more challenging at night. Furthermore, the camera angles in residential lots can make it even more difficult. For example, mounting a camera high on your house to prevent tampering may make capturing a face or license plate difficult because the camera angle is steep. Why is the camera angle steep? Well, many residential lots are small.
There are additional challenges. A potential burglar can wear a hoodie and a pandemic mask, making identification difficult, even during the day. Also, some states only require a rear license plate, which also makes capturing a license plate harder. License plates come in different colors, have different background images, and may have an ultraviolet light protective cover. Regardless of whether they have a cover, license plates are also reflective, which can cause problems with infrared cameras at night.
Let’s look at an example property. A typical suburban home has three bedrooms, two baths, and an attached garage. The front yard usually has a decorative fence. About midway on the sides of the house, a larger fence is started with a gate between the fence and the home. This fence encloses a portion of the house’s sides and the backyard. We can further assume that the house is on a street or culdesac, and there is likely an alley or some access by the backyard.
Here are four simple attacks on our property, which are much more likely than a home invasion (assuming you are a law-abiding citizen).
- A car drives up at night, stops in front of the house, and a passenger gets out and throws three medium-sized rocks through your bedroom, dining room, and living room windows. He jumps back into the car and takes off.
- A front-wheel-drive car pulls up on your nice front lawn at night, throws it in reverse, peels out, and then leaves the scene. The car doesn’t have a front license plate.
- Your neighbor’s son pretends to be sick and stays home from school. His parents leave for work, just like you and your spouse. He hops the adjacent side yard fence, cracks open the side yard gate to make it look like someone entered, takes your new mountain bike, and then leaves by the back gate. He sells it to his buddy a couple of blocks away.
- While you are on vacation, a person in a hoodie and pandemic mask jumps the back fence and forces open your storage shed. He takes a couple of valuable tools, then starts the shed on fire and runs away.
Sadly, a typical camera system deployed by a homeowner won’t be able to identify anyone here. For instance, the homeowner might have one camera in the backyard and a video doorbell camera. There needs to be footage to help law enforcement catch these people, and these cameras aren’t going to cut it. However, you’ll probably have footage to help with an insurance claim, so there is something at least. Even a professionally installed camera system will likely only be able to solve one of these attacks (the neighbor’s son).
Because most Home Owner Associations will keep you from throwing up cameras on your front decorative fence (and so is your wife), the first two attacks must be handled differently. The most likely solution is low-mounted wireless hidden cameras, one with IR and one without. The distance is short, and they make these in various models, some with solar power, so you don’t have to worry about charging them all the time.
The attack on the storage shed is challenging to defend against, but a camera mounted inside the shed may be the best bet to get a good image of the intruder. Alternatively, high-mounted auto-tracking cameras can zoom focus on a moving subject. Depending on your backyard size, these may provide what you need.
However, keep in mind another attack. If you are asleep at night and hear a window break, you may wonder if you are dreaming. You may want to check your cameras before hitting your alarm system panic button. In essence, you’ll need a quick and wide overview of your property and the sides of your house. Given their wide view, these cameras may be less suitable for determining identity, but they are great for quickly assessing your property and home for threats.
You may be wondering why I am including these examples. The Uniform Crime Reports show that secondary crimes for aggravated assault are property damage and vandalism, at around 25%. In short, an escalation occurs from property damage/vandalism to aggravated assault. Property theft and burglary are also quite common, much more common than violent crime. In most situations, these criminals do not want to get caught, and having a comprehensive security strategy is vital to preventing these crimes from ever occurring.
Cameras are a fundamental part of that home security plan but aren’t foolproof. This plan includes dogs, perimeter motion detection, outside lighting, cameras, an alarm system, door jamb re-enforcement, security doors, high-quality deadbolt locks, and window locks. Selecting a vendor that knows this fact is critical. The best camera vendor I’ve worked with that gets it is the Security Camera Warehouse.