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Invest in exterior lighting! - West Mercia Police


iamjulian

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Just had an email from West Mercia Police's Neighbourhood Watch team passed to me.  Now that the clocks have changed, make sure you leave lights on in your house to reduce crime.  Fair enough I suppose, reasonable advice.  However they ended the list of action points with "Invest in exterior lighting" - for the same reason.  Groan.  This despite West Mercia police here in Shropshire saying publicly on a couple of occasions, that the reduced night lighting (street lights) have 'coincided' with a fall in night time crime.

To be honest I don't mind security lights if they only come one if someone sets foot on your property, if they are directed at the floor, and if they aren't stupidly bright.  I have to deal with four from the back garden, though only one of them is used inconsiderately - I can trigger it from my own property, it is pointed at my house, and is brighter than a super nova.

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I hate so called security lights. They do nothing to deter criminals at all. I think that lights that stay on permanently should be banned. It's a waste of electricity so on green grounds alone I think there is an argument, in live in a small village in a Northumberland with no street lights. If it wasn't for neighbours security lights I would have lovely dark conditions. However, many have lights which stay on all the time. Some as security lights and some just as porch lights. Might try and have a polite word and see if I can spread the word about preserving our dark skies.

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It's very tough for us astronomers in the UK - most of us live in communities where outdoor lighting is a constant menace. Only a very, very few of us live in remote areas with no neighbours and can enjoy night skies free from direct light pollution.

I do think PIR sensors are a 'happy medium' - especially when they trigger, they can alert the presence of someone on your property. However, as Julian has said, they are often incorrectly installed (and the instructions can often be incorrect, too!), with the light pointing in unwanted areas and the sensors angled far too wide.

Julian, I know it might be a tough thing to do (been there, LOL), but have you approached your neighbours regarding the outside light that is triggered from your garden? You have a number of reasons; for example, your child needs a dark room to sleep in, (disturbed sleep) and that your presence in your garden triggers their light which uses the same amount of KW per hour than a small vacuum cleaner and therefore, costing them money?

In addition, the local authority takes a dim (pardon the pun) view of light trespass as to disturb sleep (this is borne from my own experience). This might be an option to take if your neighbour does not comply.

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"Yes! Keep your lights blazing! Don't risk a burglar slipping on something in the dark and suing you for damages!"

Seriously: Every study I've seen shows most break-ins to residences occur during the daytime. Burglars keep regular hours and go to "work" when most other people do as well. Most burglars are terrified at the prospect of encountering an angry homeowner in the dark!

I caught one at gunpoint trying to bust into my neighbor's house. You could smell his fear. And needed to change his shorts.

Clear & Dark Skies,

Dave

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My neighbour has a new WHITE LED one. :o

In fairness, he has offered to shield the PIR! Now, every time I merely open my

back door, it triggers. If I *were* to go out regularly in the evenings, I need hardly

"blow a bugle" to announce to the whole road (burglers etc.) I will be out? :(

And frankly, with two adults, various semi-resident, adult-children, dogs etc.,

it would be a daft burglar that chose THEIR house over mine to break in.

But wait... perhaps that's all part of their cunning plan! :mad:

One of the reasons I changed to remote control video astronomy.

But now I need a CCTV to see what the weather is doing...

Currently the screen gets whiter, as it clouds over. :p

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Down here we've had a couple of people move in recently. They have taken the policy of lighting up their houses from the second it gets dark to the second it is light. Before when the streetlights went off couldn't see the end of the road, now I  can see it quite clearly. Why the lights have to be so bright I don't know. The lady across the road has one that lights up half the street.

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Street lighting and nuisance lighting are contentious issues on an astronomy forum and suggestions on how to 'fix' the situation sometimes defy common sense.

 

The moderation team would like to remind all posters that CRIMINAL DAMAGE IS ILLEGAL - do not post suggestions of criminal damage on SGL.

 

This includes air rifles, black paint, pointing lasers at the sensor, tampering with the electrics (you could die) and 'anything' else that prevent it from working.

 

Suggestions of illegal activity, even in jest,  concerning tampering with any nuisance lights will result in 'WITHOUT WARNING' sanctions from the moderation team.

 

If this is unclear or you feel you cannot comply with this request please do not post on this subject.

 

Many thanks

 

The SGL Moderation team.

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Street lighting and nuisance lighting are contentious issues on an astronomy forum and suggestions on how to 'fix' the situation sometimes defy common sense.
 
The moderation team would like to remind all posters that CRIMINAL DAMAGE IS ILLEGAL - do not post suggestions of criminal damage on SGL.
 
This includes air rifles, black paint, pointing lasers at the sensor, tampering with the electrics (you could die) and 'anything' else that prevent it from working.
 
Suggestions of illegal activity, even in jest,  concerning tampering with any nuisance lights will result in 'WITHOUT WARNING' sanctions from the moderation team.
 
If this is unclear or you feel you cannot comply with this request please do not post on this subject.
 
Many thanks
 
The SGL Moderation team.

Where in these 9 posts on this thread is there any mention of anyone doing criminal damage to correct the light pollution. I am confused by the SGL team  :confused:  :confused:  :confused:  :confused:  :confused:  :confused:  :confused:

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Not being funny but you may as well post the warnings about religion and politics too, because we weren't talking about those either :)

Have not approached my neighbour with the inconsiderate light yet because it doesn't interfere with my astronomy. Though planning to do some outreach with the neighbours this winter, which should highlight nicely to them all how light pollution can affect others.

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Smells of paranoia to me. 

Sorry that you are displeased with the work the moderation team are doing although I'm sure that you'll understand why we prefer to give a friendly warning rather than wait for infringements after you've been around for more than 34 posts.

Please take it in the spirit is intended. Better to warn folk than ban them for breaking the code of conduct :).

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Our problem is that. as a species, we're afraid of the dark. With good reason (Sort of), after all we've had millions of years of being hunted by nocturnal predators with superlative night vision / smell.

Now, for most of us in the "developed" world, the only nocturnal predators have no better night senses than anyone else. But that doesn't stop the night-fear.

An estate agent said to me when I mentioned insecurity lights "They make people feel safer". Which is the problem today, too much feel, not enough think.

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Where in these 9 posts on this thread is there any mention of anyone doing criminal damage to correct the light pollution. I am confused by the SGL team  :confused:  :confused:  :confused:  :confused:  :confused:  :confused:  :confused:

It hasn't.......yet. However history tells us that there will be someone, despite the CoC you all agree to when joining, who will post something suggesting illegal activity. I don't think we've had a streetlight thread where it hadn't happened. That's why we have posted a pre-emptive warning.

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The reason for the warning post was so the topic can continue.

The idea is to let the thread continue so useful advice can be passed on to all members about reducing light pollution for us all.

In the past most of these threads have had to be closed.

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Sorry that you are displeased with the work the moderation team are doing although I'm sure that you'll understand why we prefer to give a friendly warning rather than wait for infringements after you've been around for more than 34 posts.

Please take it in the spirit is intended. Better to warn folk than ban them for breaking the code of conduct :).

No aplogy needed mods because where have I said that I am displeased with your work?

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There is another thread about security lights at the moment. There does not appear to be a big shouty warning on that one yet. Bit sad this one was derailed with one. May as well lock this one now since we are no longer interested in the original post. Thanks.

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There is another thread about security lights at the moment. There does not appear to be a big shouty warning on that one yet. Bit sad this one was derailed with one. May as well lock this one now since we are no longer interested in the original post. Thanks.

We can lock this thread if that's what you so desire, however it was only derailed by users comments not the initial warning.

Some posts have since been tidied up so the thread can continue as I feel there will be some useful debate. The moment it steps outside of the CoC it will be terminated.

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Pretty much every single thread on the subject of Light Pollution ends up with various people suggesting ways of stopping the light from working.

Most of these involve some form of criminal damage. Which is illegal and in some case dangerous.

We normally try and head these off at the pass by posting the reminder that Ibbo posted. In our experience this works far better than waiting for the inevitable posts and having to remove them.

We do the same in threads that we feel may go down the religion / politics route. From time to time we do miss posts (there are about 2.8million posts on SGL), so the fact that a thread doesn't have a warning either means that we've missed it or we feel it wasn't likely to go down the criminal damage route.

Thanks

Ant

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Some members in a local astro club have managed to get some success by chasing the local council about light pollution. This resulted in lights being turned off after midnight in a local warehouse area & shields being put around nuisance street lights. On the other hand a member has sold all his gear due to light pollution & just does photography now. Look at the Campaign for Dark Skies site as this tells you how to deal with this in a proper manner

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There is all sorts that you can do. Emad recently had some luck in getting some shields put in place which helped him no end.

Also someone else (their names escapes me) complained to the council about a street light outside their house, they came home one day and the council had permanently turned it off!

So there are some great solutions out there. Always best to talk :)

Ant 

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