Fake security cameras - worth it?

Two men are camping in a field. One morning when they get out of their tents they see a bull close by. The first man bends down and starts to put on his runners. The second man looks at him and ask, “Why are putting your runners on. You’ll never be able to faster than the ball with or without running shoes.” The first man, you already had his latest by this time, says, “I don’t have to run faster than the bull, only faster than you.” And off he goes!

What does this silly joke have to do with home security you might ask? A lot of the time people think that home security is about stopping criminals from entering your home and of course to a certain extent it is. That’s why we have locks on doors and windows etc, something Insurance companies insist on.  But there’s more to home security than the type of lock on your door.

If you were a criminal considering which house to break into that night and you can see two houses next door to each other and almost identical in every way. Both houses are in a good street in a good suburb. They both have well-to-do owners with in all likelihood the same booty inside. Objects like big TVs, computers, blue ray players etc. Except one of the houses appears  to be unprotected apart from the locks on the doors but the other has security cameras trained on the driveway, and the side passage. A clearly visible alarm unit is mounted on the side of the house with a light ready to flash and wail. In this case it’s pretty obvious which house poses a lower risk to the burglar.  Clearly the house with no apparent extra security is in more danger of a robbery. Therefore if we consider the story of the two men and the bull the security conscious home owner doesn’t necessarily have to you have a system that can defeat the burglar’s crowbar, he or she merely needs a system better than his neighbours.

To this end it is very important to make sure that any home security system you have such as cameras or the external alarm box is clearly visible at the front of the house to potential intruder. A fully specified home security system including cameras and monitoring equipment can be very expensive but there are other ways.

A much cheaper option is to use a fake security camera or two. But you need to be sure that it is not obviously a fake. To this end the best fake cameras have real glass lenses, blinking lights and tilt and pan motion. These features all add to the illusion of being a real, working surveillance camera. These cameras are available very cheaply. I've seen them from $16 but you can spend more for extra realism. If you're thinking of getting one make sure it can be used outdoors and has some of the features listed above to make it look as real as possible.

However we do have to be careful with this approach because it can backfire, there are some risks with fake camera security. If you find yourself up against a savvy burglar who knows burglar alarms and cameras and one who can spot a fake, or recognize even a good fake then he’ll immediately know that there is no real security on the house before you put yourself at risk of becoming a more likely target because your bluff has been called.

A good compromise is to purchase a hybrid system.  This is a real set off cameras except with one or two fake ones thrown in to increase the presence of cameras without overly increasing the cost. Most of the time these systems are used to protect shops and businesses but there's no reason you can't use them for your home as well.