Exterior lighting is one of the lowest-cost ways to make a rental feel safer after dark. This short video covers the three CPTED basics for an existing East Bay building, and why the November clock change is the moment to check your lights.
Prefer to read? Lighting, Sightlines and Access: Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design for East Bay Rentals adds the full after-dark walk-through checklist, a comparison of lighting controls, the research on lighting and crime, and five FAQs.
What This Video Covers
- 0:00 Why lighting is a low-cost place to start
- 0:06 The three CPTED questions for an existing building
- 0:28 Lighting and Oakland’s 2-foot / 6-foot landscaping guideline
- 0:51 The November 1 clock change and lighting timers
- 1:12 How AEBP handles tenant reports of lights and doors
- 1:30 Where to find the full guide and checklist
Key Takeaways
- CPTED for an existing rental is mostly lighting, sightlines, entries that latch and visible upkeep
- Best practice: provide steady dusk-to-dawn lighting at entries, walkways, mail areas and parking
- Oakland’s checklist: shrubs about 2 feet high, and about 6 feet of clear space beneath tree canopies
- Clocks fall back Sunday, November 1; reset basic timers or switch to photocells or astronomic timers
- A tenant’s report of a dark walkway or a door that won’t latch is notice; log it and fix it promptly
Laws & Resources Mentioned
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Video Transcript
Want one of the lowest-cost ways to make a rental feel safer after dark? Look at the lights.
Security planners call this CPTED: crime prevention through environmental design. For an existing East Bay building it comes down to three questions. Can people see and be seen? Is it clear where the entrances are, and do the doors close and latch? Does the place look cared for?
Start with lighting. As a best practice, we recommend steady dusk-to-dawn lighting at entries, walkways, mail areas and parking. Oakland’s own CPTED checklist also says to trim shrubs to about two feet and keep tree canopies at least six feet off the ground, so nobody has a place to wait out of view.
Timing matters this month. Clocks fall back on Sunday, November first, and sunset in Oakland jumps from about six ten to about five ten. Lights on a basic timer set for summer can be off when tenants are coming home. A photocell or an astronomic timer can adjust for the season automatically.
At AEBP, our tenants see the property after dark every night. We mostly see it in daylight. So we ask them to report any light that’s out or a door that won’t latch. We can only fix what we know about. And once someone reports it, we do know about it.
The full guide, with a walk-through checklist and five common questions, is linked below.
