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We've all seen these signs or similar ones, and they are used around the globe.

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There's a major problem however. Criminals ignore them. Putting a sign like this at the entrance to your community does very little good.

Therefore, I humbly propose a different way to watch your community. Replace the words on the sign above with "Welcome! All homes in this community have entrance and street viewing security cameras. You are being recorded."

Now that sign would get the attention of a criminal! Imagine how much crime would be prevented if it were true. There would be no vandalism, no stolen delivery boxes off your porch, no cars searched through by teens for a quick buck, and a constant layer of protection from even worse crimes.

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In a past post I discussed lighting for your residence. This post introduces security cameras.

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There are countless makes and models of entrance cameras to choose from. The cameras can be wireless since the slight chance of them being hacked does little harm to your privacy. There are applications for your phone that allow remote viewing, two way verbal communication, and other good features as well.

In addition to cameras at all of your entrances, you should also have at least one that views your street. Criminals routinely scout neighborhoods with vehicles, and you want to be capturing vehicle details as they come and go. If a crime is committed, then you have additional evidence to track down the criminals.

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The above concept works equally well for commercial buildings.

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The city I live in has had numerous attempted kidnappings. One woman a couple years ago was kidnapped and later found murdered. There were a few grainy and poor quality images of her walking on the streets outside a bar before it happened, but no one had clear high quality video of her abduction.

Imagine how much safer your city would be if all of the businesses included at least one more security camera that watched the public area. Almost all businesses use surveillance cameras already. They already have security systems. Adding one more camera to improve public safety would be a good customer service move.

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Video protects us as long as it is under our control.

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Privately controlled and monitored public cameras should greatly outnumber those controlled by governments. It would be very difficult for video of a crime to disappear on a street with ten businesses that all had separate street facing security cameras. The more public cameras controlled by individuals and private companies, the safer our communities will be.

If you have a business with a security system, consider adding an additional camera to watch the public space outside. If you have a home, install entrance cameras and at least one street viewing camera that captures license plates and other passing vehicle information.

Please follow me if you're interested in residential security, and resteem this post if you found it valuable enough to share. The strategy above seems like a pretty solid idea to me, but perhaps I've missed something. Let me know what you think about it in the comments below. Thank you!