Security System Design

Due to the complete lack of real punishment for criminal activities in England it is necessary to give serious consideration to a security system for every dwelling. Certain idot politicians and dogooders consider that all criminals should be treated as victims, they never say that the victims of crime are the villans, which is inferred by their reasoning.

The greatest deterrent to a would be criminal is to be caught, therefore CCTV with recording of the images is by far the best deterrent, to ensure the images can't be destroyed by an intruder either they should automatically be stored remotely or in the cloud as well as locally. It follows that the CCTV cameras should be carefully sited to prevent interference by would be criminals they should also be of the high definition colour type with a minimum resolution of 1920x1080 normally listed by manufacturers as 1080p fitted with a zoom lens that zeros in and focuses on a 'target'. To ensure that there is adequate light for the operation of a CCTV camera the field of vision of the camera should have adequate lighting of suitable colour temperature, thus the CCTV needs to be integrated with the security lighting and the movement detectors.

However a CCTV system is only one layer of security, the access to a dwelling needs to be given particular attention, once the front door is open a criminal may force entry by just barging past the person opening the door, a door entry system together with the CCTV can be a great deterrent, firstly because the caller can be requested to identify themselves by looking directly at a CCTV camera, with the picture recorded, and then the householder has to press a button to unlock the door if they wish to grant entry. Another great benefit of door entry systems is that when doorstep charity collectors or salesmen or other undesirables such as politicians or beggars call all that needs to be done is for the householder to start the entry conversation with the words please go away or a similar phrase.

Security lighting was mentioned in the preceeding paragraphs, that lighting has to be of sufficient brightess for the CCTV cameras if fitted, It has to have a daylight colour temperature (6000K) and it has to illuminate instantly when it is called to be on. The obvious choice is LED floodlights in sufficient number to avoid dark places and shadows. Tungsten halogen lamps which are cheaper than the equivalent LED floodlights have a colour temperature of 3200K which may not be suitable for all types of CCTV. Control of the floodlights should be by carefully sited PIRs that cover the entire perimeter of the dwelling.

Where the dwelling has a gated entry to the road for vehicular and/or personal access that gate or gates can be controlled electrically so that entry onto the premises is controlled, the door entry system can be extended to include the gates. It follows that if the gates can be unlocked to enable entry then that unlocking can be inhibited during predetermined times.

The PIRs controlling the floodlights should also form part of the perimeter security screen, however it is possible to defeat a PIR so reliance must not be placed solely on those devices for detection. Windows and other external doors that can be opened should have limit switches fitted to detect whether they are open or fully closed, this should warn a householder that a vulnerability exists, that is a check of a display panel as the householder retires would indicate the status of the windows and doors.