Drivers have for a long time parked their cars on well-lit streets in a bid to deter thieves.- There is a feeling that criminals won't want a spotlight when they are carrying out their activities.
But the opposite could in fact be true. Researches have actually found that vehicles are more likely to be broken into on a road with bright overnight lighting than on one where street lights are switched off after midnight.
A study led by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and UCL examined detailed police recorded crime data from Thames Valley Police and data on changes to street lighting from April, 2004, to September 2013. It assessed the differences between lamps being kept on all night and the gradual changes to their timing and brightness over the nine-year period.
And it found that the rate of thefts from cars at night was halved in streets with part-night lighting compared to the same streets before part-night lighting. Car break-ins decreased from an average of 12 per street per month before part-night lighting to 6 per street per month after part-night lighting was introduced. You can get more Swansea news and other story updates by subscribing to our newsletters here.
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The results showed that thefts from vehicles plummeted by 44% when street lighting was turned off between midnight and 5am. Study authors believe opportunist thieves are less inclined to target cars that are left in the dark because it makes it harder for them to see inside, evaluate security and remove parts without anyone noticing. Read here about the new Highway Code rule that could see you fined £100 while driving on the motorway.
The research, published in the Journal of Quantitative Criminology, also found that switching off lighting in certain streets led to a rise in vehicle thefts in neighbouring roads that remained lit throughout the night.
Dr Phil Edwards, from LSHTM, said: “The reason we did this research is because many local authorities in the UK have introduced part-night lighting on quiet, urban residential roads and rural roads, which have very little use after midnight, to save energy costs and reduce carbon emissions. However, safety concerns about this policy have been raised.
“Our previous research showed that switching off street lights at night does not increase crime. This new study suggests switching off street lights between midnight and 6am may actually reduce some types of crime.” Find out about the filthy reason you can be fined while driving.
And Professor Shane Johnson, director of the Dawes Centre for Future Crime at UCL, and deputy head of department at the UCL Department for Security and Crime Science, added: “Research studies such as this can help us to better understand crime and security issues. The study findings suggest that energy-saving street lighting adaptations have not increased crime in the streets studied. This is very encouraging but it is important to note that it does not mean that this will be the case under all conditions, and so changes to lighting should be managed carefully.”
