Security cameras serve as the proverbial eye in the sky. The watchdog that doesn’t sleep. Any thief would be foolish to approach a house sporting a battery of these devices. And yet, so many do – and get away with it! If you are planning on implementing a security camera system, there are some good rules to know that could play a key role in building up your Fort Knox.
The other day my wife forwarded an email to me that had a video attachment. Upon replaying the video clip I was able to quickly make out my neighbor’s front porch. A few seconds into it, I watched a woman walk up the porch and proceed to take the all of the packages that had just been delivered just a little while earlier. I only knew that the thief was a woman from her long hair and the clothes she was wearing. (I could be wrong on that suppose!) Beyond that, it could have been anyone. My point is that for all the good intel that a security camera could have brought in, it didn’t stand a chance from where it was mounted. Seeing the overhead view of your burglar really isn’t going to help anybody in a suspect lineup. When installing security cameras (and I have noticed that even the professionals make this mistake) it seems intuitive to mount one high above the front porch – your front door is the main entrance to your home after all! To make the front door cam effective, however, you need to get at a better angle to see the face and make sense out of the intruder’s activity. Unless you worked as an intel analyst for spy satellites, overhead imagery will do you no good. Covering your vulnerable points at the right angles is key. I have seen many good camera jobs and many poor camera jobs. Each one tells a story and provides some insight as to the knowledge and motivations of the installer. Now, I wouldn’t claim to be the most knowledgeable person when it comes to positioning cameras, but I have learned a few things, which I’d like to discuss.
Protecting your fortress can be involved and cameras are indeed pricey. Efficiency and efficacy are the keys and that means covering the right areas with the right angles. Here are a few camera positioning principles that might offer better forensics while saving you a camera or two:
- Cover vulnerable areas
Many houses have little nooks and crannies that offer a sheltered stopping point for somebody looking to do you wrong. Is it around a corner? Is it a poorly lighted area? We all have them and you need to figure out where yours are. Bring in a friend or a neighbor – they think differently than you do and may help you to see something you’ve never noticed about your own home. Just as the overhead camera was rendered useless for the package thief, remember that the camera located in the vulnerable area doesn’t provide any benefit. Rather, it is the view of the vulnerable area that does. To provide that view, the camera will likely need to be mounted away from said area. Consider the mounting point that will give you the best coverage.
- Analyze paths of approach
Intruders can’t just teleport to your window or backdoor. While they are smart enough to avoid the obvious areas (at least most of them), they still must determine some approach to your abode. Everything on your property centers back to your house, and so must they. If you can see 50 to 100 feet out in every direction of your home, then you are off to a good start. Walk the perimeter of your yard and look for every point along your property line where an intruder could possibly cross on to your property. You may find that some obstacles, while still passable, may be difficult enough that most intruders would look for something a little easier (10 foot walls or very thorny shrubbery, for example). From a given point of crossing, what path options does the intruder have to the next point of concealment or entry? These are the bad guys, but unless they are specifically out to get you, they are not going to be too highly trained or determined to turn this into the break in of the century. If those crooks can see you’ve put some thought into it while at the perimeter of your property, they will likely determine that it gets even tougher further in and that your home is just not worth it. Adding more cameras to cover the approaching points of concealment may not be the answer. Perhaps there are ways that you can extend the range of what is visible to your camera instead (for example, removing a tree that provides the last hop over to your shaded window well) or at least make the path a bit less accommodating (thick or dense shrubbery perhaps).
- Pose for the camera
Cameras are no good if they can’t deliver the intel you need. Once you’ve located a strategic point to mount your camera, get up on a ladder and check out what you see from that point of view. If it seems good, follow up by holding your camera up at the same location. Note that in many instances you can simply drag an extension cord and video cable (be it Ethernet or coax) up without running it. If possible, nail down what the camera is seeing via a smartphone app. Ask a friend or family member to walk around the field of view and have them use normal as well as concealed approaches that you analyzed in the previous step. Facial recognition is the key – try to maximize it! High angles are convenient, but lower angles often provide better facial visibility. If possible, align the cameras angles with highest number of approach angles – this will increase your video capture time as the intruder walks to or away from the camera, rather than a camera that may catch a glimpse of him as he quickly runs by.
- Red Team your design
Security forces, when testing a plan of attack, often call in others from their organization as a ‘Red Team’ to test their strategies. The red team’s main goal is to find holes or points of failure in the plan. You need a red team. Call in some friends or neighbors you can trust, but who you have not collaborated with on your security system design, to be your red team. Without any knowledge of how many cameras you have, their capability, or where you have mounted them, have them ‘strike’ at a random time of their choosing. See how far they get! Did you see them? Can you make out their faces? Did they fall into one of the approaches you thought of? Outsiders (and I mean people you can trust who don’t live on your property, or who have a detailed knowledge of your home) are often one of your best assets. Use them! They will likely ask you to do the same at some point – which will only sharpen your skills and awareness.
- Plan for the getaways
Getting in is one thing – getting out is another. Consider it your second (and perhaps, last) chance at gathering some data on your perpetrator. Your house may very well provide better angles of somebody leaving the house than it does angles of approach. The other advantage is that an intruder leaving the scene is likely to be in a hurry and be less concerned with the details of concealment. Again, carefully analyze the paths away from your property – both the fast and dirty ones, as well as those that offer best shadows. Also, consider collaborating with your neighbors. Do they have security cameras too? Any thief trying to get on to your property might be using your neighbor’s as either a point of entry or exit? Can any of their cameras provide some information as well? In return, can any of your cameras cover points of entry and exit to your neighbor’s property? Now that’s extending your range!
- Consider the aftermath
In all things, think of the product you’ll have to deliver to the police or to investigate with. Will it provide anything useful? (By the way, check to make sure that your camera or Network Video Recorder (NVR) device is correctly timestamping all video). Of course you are installing this system with the hope of preventing anything from happening, but also think of the consequences should they get their hands on your goods and get away. What key points of evidence can your system design offer? A friend of mine lives in a neighborhood who was having trouble with stolen mail (he has a home business where he receives many payment checks). His home-mounted cameras were somewhat powerless. Even with night vision, the range out to his mailbox rendered them useless. He opted instead for a camp camera. Not really what it was meant for, but at the cost of frequently having to retrieve and download data from an SD card, it got him in close enough to make out facial details and license plates. The point here is that rather than just give the police data to let them know that something happened (his home mounted cameras provided imagery that showed human-shaped blobs out in the direction of his mailbox) he improvised a solution gave the police real evidence to work with – and you can too!
- Fake’em out!
Let’s face it. Security cameras, while not necessarily just for the rich, are still pricey. The mere appearance of cameras may very well be enough to scare aware many threats. The house we purchased had a few cameras already installed but never hooked up. Our plan, originally, was to tear them out and replace them – they didn’t work. It then occurred to us that leaving them up could only help us – just by being there. If you can’t afford the real thing, the fake ones might just get you by for now. If you doubt it, go visit somebody with cameras. Can you tell? If you doorbell-ditched them do you think you could get away with it.
NEED TO FINISH WRAP-UP!!!