Image credit: Starry Night Lights
Want to know what makes a home or neighborhood vulnerable to crime? Ask police officers; they see it every day.

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Safety by Design, an announced program “by the Lexington Police Department and Eastern Kentucky University’s Center for Crime and the Built Environment,” hopes to help inform “Lexington developers, architects, planners and property owners build and renovate safer homes, neighborhoods and commercial buildings by using design principles known to discourage crime.” Inspired from a successful 20-year-old program in England called Secured by Design, Safety by Design hopes to achieve the same level of success in the United States. Here are a few tenets behind the Safety by Design vision:

“Those factors include the design and strength of doors, windows and locks; landscaping considerations, such as shrubbery height; sidewalk, window and garbage can placement; the style, placement and height of fencing; and site plans that maximize visibility.

Some of the guidelines are common sense, but not all are. For example, Lexington Police Chief Ronnie Bastin said he would have assumed that the more outdoor lighting around a building, the better. But research has shown that it’s not necessary to create a lot of light pollution. The key is to put the right amount of light in the right places to discourage criminals and make people feel safe.

Common building design issues in Lexington that encourage crime include overgrown shrubs, tall privacy fences and a lack of windows on the sides of houses”

According to officials at Safety by Design, one does not need to sacrifice aesthetics in order to build a ‘fortress.’ If anything, Safety by Design, is a voluntary program that offers advice and expertise to “the table that might avoid problems before they happen.” Starry Night Lights‘ catalogue features motion controlled lights, Outdoor Wall Lanterns or even light bulbs to help outfit your home into a safer and more environmentally safe residence.