NOVEC and Police Recommend Security Lighting

Contact: Priscilla Knight, 703-392-1580, pknight@novec.com

NORTHERN VIRGINIA — The Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative, the Fairfax County Police Department, and the National Association of Town Watch recommend outdoor security lighting to prevent crime. NOVEC urges communities to participate in National Night Out on Aug. 4, 2009, with block parties and by keeping their outdoor security lights on all night.

“Lights on during NNO signifies unity of a community against crime,” says MPO W. M. Brock, crime prevention officer, Fairfax County Police, Sully District. He notes the important relationship between lighting and crime prevention by citing a study of lighting improvements in English communities. The study showed how increased lighting in Stoke-on-Trent reduced crime by more than 43 percent compared with a 2 percent drop in a control city. The report said, “Even better, the savings from reduced crime far exceeded the cost of the lighting improvements.”[1] 

NOVEC’s Energy-saving Tips for Outdoor Security Lighting

• Install a lamp post with a low-cost photoelectric sensor that will turn on the light automatically when the sun sets and off when the sun rises. If applicable, use a compact fluorescent or light-emitting diode (LED) light bulb.
• Connect timers to porch and door lights. Adjust them seasonally to coordinate with night hours. A time clock system can turn lights on inside and out at different times to confuse thieves.
• Install spotlights with energy-saving compact fluorescent spotlight bulbs on house corners under eaves. (Avoid shining them in neighbors’ windows.) Lights with motion detectors will turn lights on when an uninvited person or hungry deer intrudes on the property.
• Solar-powered garden lights use photovoltaics to convert sunlight into energy to illuminate bulbs. Solar lights need just a small battery every year.
• A property owner may request NOVEC to install a dark-sky friendly security light on an existing power pole on his or her private property. The installation is free, but the Co-op charges a small monthly fee for the light. Dark-sky friendly lights illuminate areas where safety, security, and visibility are needed, but they do not aim light into the sky.
• NOVEC works with community developers, counties, and the Virginia Department of Transportation to install cobra head, colonial, and decorative street lights.

For more information on street lighting for security, visit security and street lights or contact NOVEC’s distribution engineering department at 703-754-6750 or toll-free at 1-888-335-0500, ext. 6750, or via e-mail at disteng@novec.com.