Outdoor Lighting and Crime - Amper

over limited areas of no more than a square metre, say, where good
visibility of money, documents or work tasks is essential. Allow
temporary levels to 1000 lux over limited areas of no more than a square
metre, say, for urgent first aid or medical emergency treatment.
vii. Insist on provision and use of internally reflective opaque drapes,
shutters or blinds on all house, apartment, office and factory windows and
skylights through which indoor light would otherwise escape at night.
139
viii. Insist that outdoor lighting goods and services, including all ‘security’
lights, are accompanied by prominent and clear written statements that
outdoor lighting will lead to more crime even though it may reduce the fear
of crime.
ix. Insist on decommissioning of outdoor floodlighting where any part of
the direct beam can travel at or above the horizontal for any purpose.
x. Introduce stringent limits for luminous flux and illuminance or
luminance on all outdoor illuminated signs, transilluminated signs and selfluminous
signs, and apply early curfews, or completely disallow lighting of
all such signs.
xi. Monitor outdoor ambient light levels and insist on diminution of
contributing commercial, retail or privately owned light sources until the
ambient horizontal illuminance at ground level is less than 20 lux or some
lower local maximum that has been set.
xii. Discourage use of outdoor sports lighting after the end of civil twilight
where daytime or indoor nighttime facilities are available as reasonable
alternatives. Decommission all outdoor sports lighting installations that do
not meet full-cutoff characteristics by the end of 2005, say.
xiii. Prohibit the use of searchlights, skybeams, laser beams and laser light
displays where any part of the direct beam travels at or above the
horizontal, unless the use is genuinely for scientific, technical or
navigational purposes.
xiv. Cease or deprecate the use of coloured or bright lighting as an
attempted means of discouraging illicit drug injections.
b. Educate the public about the evidence relating to outdoor lighting, actual crime
and fear of crime. Slogans should be considered as a means of helping the public to
accept the facts about too much light at night. 111
111 Some old and new ones are:
Shine doesn’t pay. Light attracts lawbreakers. Stars are the best security lights.
Turn night into day, crime will pay. Outside light, false security at night.