Why It's So Bright at Night? Interview with Art Hushen on #9PMRoutine.

Host Bill McGeeney is joined by Art Hushen, founder of the National Institute of Crime Prevention.

The seemingly harmless advice to leave all your exterior lights on overnight might not be the crime deterrent you think it is. Host, Bill McGeeney, reconnects with Art Hushin, a 30-year law enforcement veteran and founder of the National Institute of Crime Prevention, to dissect the popular #9PMRoutine campaign sweeping across police departments in the US and Canada.

What started in Florida in 2017 as a well-meaning initiative has attempted to craft people's habits into a nightly ritual: remove valuables from your car, lock all entry points, and keep exterior lights blazing until dawn. But does that last recommendation actually make us safer? 

Art brings fascinating insights from his decades of experience, revealing how modern criminals have adapted to constant lighting by simply covering up – hoodies pulled low, faces obscured from cameras.

Our discussion explores more effective alternatives that balance security needs with environmental concerns. Motion-activated lighting emerges as a superior option, creating an immediate stimulus that often causes intruders to look up reflexively – "that puts that extra doubt" in their minds about being detected. 

Perhaps most revealing is Art's perspective on simple solutions like actually using garages for cars instead of storage boxes, eliminating tempting targets altogether. Whether you're concerned about property crime, light pollution, or simply want to make smarter security choices, this conversation offers practical wisdom that goes beyond simplified routines and outdated assumptions about keeping the lights on.

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Chapters

• 1:22 The #9PM Routine Campaign Explained
• 2:24 Evaluating Exterior Lighting Recommendations
• 6:11 Light's Relationship with Crime
• 8:16 Smart Security Recommendations
• 12:29 Closing Thoughts and Contact Information

Transcript

Bill McGeeney: 0:00

Welcome to why it's so Bright at Night. I'm your host, bill McGeaney. Why it's so Bright at Night is a periodic show that I do whenever I come across an interesting topic or news article that I really want to dive into. You can find all the helpful links, show notes. You can find even a whole dedicated tab of the current research of the ecological impacts of light pollution over on our website at lightpollutionnewscom. But let's get started today with why it's so Bright at Night, featuring Art Hushin, a returning guest.

Bill McGeeney: 0:31

I wanted to reach out to a recent guest, art Hushin, to really help me understand something that I came across a couple months back. It's called the hashtag 9pm routine. For you who may not be familiar with the 9pmm routine campaign, it's a well-meaning campaign by law enforcement across the US and Canada that tries to remind people into doing kind of common sense things or at least what they consider common sense practices to reduce property theft and burglaries and break-ins and burglaries and break-ins. Art, you're a 30-year law enforcement veteran who started the educational program, the National Institute of Crime Prevention. You promote crime reduction through environmental design and listeners will find Art on two of our shows back in March Gateway Topics and follow where the others are going. Do I have that all correct, art?

Art Hushen: 1:22

You've got it all correct. That's perfect.

Bill McGeeney: 1:25

Well, I want to talk about this 9 pm routine. I dove down this rabbit hole after seeing a local news article mention the 9 pm routine. Lore has it that it began actually in a your fair state down in Florida. A police department set it up back in 2017. And there's subtle variants of it across the messaging platforms and over time, but the gist is pretty much this that law enforcement is instructing folks to remember every night at 9 pm to remove all valuables from your car, to lock up your pretty much any way anyone can get into your property, be it cars, houses, sheds, garages, etc. And to leave exterior lights, security cameras and alarm systems on all night. So, obviously, light pollution news this is the last item is the one I have questions about. However, before we get there, maybe you can give us kind of a rundown on why law enforcement is settled on these three pieces of advice.

Art Hushen: 2:24

Well, first of all, thanks for letting me talk to you about this. I'm always excited to see what they're doing and what law enforcement is promoting and, just like you, that 9 pm, making sure the lights are on, that's a tough one. I know what they're trying to do. They're trying to help people develop a routine where they know, nightly, we'll take these steps. We'll make sure everything's locked away or put up, because we can go back and take a look at all those home videos that people have in their driveways of just people casually walking down the street, walking up trying to door handle and seeing if it's open or not, and looking inside to see if there's anything inside.

Art Hushen: 2:56

So that part I understand. Put your stuff away, lock it up, make sure it's secure, set your alarm. It's a nice routine to get into. The sure it's secure, set your alarm it's a nice routine to get into. The tough one is the lighting, though, and again, law enforcement trying to help the public. Let's get into the cycle, let's do this regularly, and that's going to drop some of those break-ins which you all want to see. And now offenders know, coming to the neighborhood, that there's not going to be anything left in the cars anymore. So I'm not even going to even try to go into that neighborhood, let alone deal with the cameras and the alarms or the lighting. But just that routine by itself might be enough to deter that type of activity or behavior.

Bill McGeeney: 3:30

I mean on the face of it, right? I mean I'm always someone who takes everything out of my car right. Live in a major city, you get conditioned not to leave anything in your car. Make sure everything's locked up. On that last piece for the exterior lights, I mean I get the security system. Cameras are phenomenal these days. You don't really need, they're really good at detecting things and you have motion sensing lights that can come on and record videos and all this Do a lot of amazing stuff where you don't necessarily need exterior lights on all the time. If I can, can I probably do a little more on that? When they say keep the exterior lights on, is that because nine times out of 10, the light deters crime? Or is it because they want to show that someone's home Like? What is the thinking behind the exterior lights?

Art Hushen: 4:18

That's a good one because work with the different agencies. Some of the mindset is that if you leave your lights on, you know that's going to serve as a crime. Deterrence, like that's part of your alarm system. You got that light on, people know you're protecting your property because you've illuminated it and that's just that old world that we see. But we still have break-ins at nighttime with lights on. We still have them getting into cars with lights on.

Art Hushen: 4:41

So it's just this mindset and the public is looking for guidance. They really do and they look to law enforcement to say here's what you should do and if you want to leave your light on, then we get into the dark sky component and then just wasting that energy. I'd love to see if they switch to motion. I'd love to have classes on shielding and have police tell them in that statement you know, leave exterior lights on that are shielded, that it might be on a timer that might be motion activated facing your vehicle, you know. So again, they're specific to what they want to do, but that's a lot of thought process that goes into that and when they only have maybe three or four minutes to get to the public, it's easier for me to rhyme this remove your stuff, set your alarm, turn your lights on. That is so easy. That is so easy. The public can remember that.

Bill McGeeney: 5:40

But when you get into well, your lights should be this and that, and you should have this with that as well and do that. Now it's a little harder. People are like you know what? I'm just going to leave my lights on. I don't need to hear this other stuff, because I've learned if I leave my lights on, that lets criminals know that, hey, I'm taking care of my property, I'm taking care of my space.

Bill McGeeney: 5:48

I think, as a dark sky advocates, is one of the more disheartening things, in that I understand what law enforcement is trying to do and I get it. You know they want to, like you mentioned. You know they want to have something quick and digestible out to the public so that way they can minimize the propensity of having these crimes pop up. I think it's really disheartening on the dark sky side because what it's doing inadvertently is perpetuating this idea that light actually prevents crime, and you know I don't necessarily believe that. I think the data goes both ways on that. And is there something you will want to talk about regarding light and its I guess its correlation with crime?

Art Hushen: 6:31

Yeah, we've seen that too, and especially now and I'm just going to just focus on typical neighborhood crime. Just in the neighborhood you got 300 houses there. Everybody kind of knows each other. You know. A lot of times it's kids in the neighborhood that might be committing these break-ins. So they know. And what do you see them wearing? Now? They throw on again. I'm not trying to stereotype in any way, but they put on that hoodie, they put that hat down low, make sure everything's covered up, because all the lights and the cameras are on. So they know they're being recorded and so they'll walk into that. Even with those floodlights and I've seen it on my cameras at my home too Even no matter what light is on, they're still going to go up and try out the door, because it's three in the morning, there's not a lot going on, and they know if I put this on, even though they might get a picture in the color of what I'm wearing, they still don't see my face.

Art Hushen: 7:15

And so does that light serve as a deterrence? Does this alarm serve as a deterrence? No, it's just that there's an opportunity. There's something of value in that car, because I know at least 50% of people in the neighborhood don't clean their car at night, they don't put the stuff away, they don't lock it up and I've seen them break into cars for lighters and cigarettes and change in the cup holder. You know, for them it's no big deal to do that. But lighting, I do love the again. If we just go into that motion activated lighting, if we go into, I don't need to light the street, you know, I just need. If I'm going to light, I'm going to light where my car is parked. You know, just keep it simple. But it's, how do you get that to the public?

Bill McGeeney: 7:52

But it's how do you get that to the public? Yeah, so I guess the recommendations. If I'm listening here, if I'm watching this and I want to be able to follow these this 9 pm routine what would the recommendation you have for the individual at home? What is the best practice you would think for that third piece that obviously you know turn on your security system. I think that goes without saying. But what would your suggestion, what would your advice be?

Art Hushen: 8:16

Yeah, I get into that security system. I'd also get into the routine of just taking the step out of your car. You know, just remove even your garage door opener. People still use it. You know, you break in, you hit the button and all of a sudden the garage door opens. A lot of people don't alarm their garage. They alarm the interior door for the garage. So now you've got full access to the garage so you can pull things out of there if that offender wants to go that far, you know.

Art Hushen: 8:36

Adding that, the two little ones, the lighting I go back to. I'm just, I'm a big fan of motion activated lighting, especially in the driveway, and that's going to put a little more fear in that person because now all of a sudden the light comes on. You'd be shocked to see how many, when that light does turn on, that face, even with that cover, looks up right away like oh, and it's just like I'm out of here. Did they really see me? So that puts that extra doubt. So again, I love the lighting, but let's control it. Let's go with that motion activation If you have the technology to hook it up to your camera system no-transcript.

Bill McGeeney: 9:31

Yeah, and I know what we use is relatively cheap cameras. That you can get on and use by the SD card and you control the data and then you can create alarms if it sees activity in certain hours and in that way, you know, it kind of does more than any standard floodlight would be able to do or floodlight would be able to do Right, Because you're a responsible homeowner, you understand these are the tools I need to have.

Art Hushen: 9:59

But most people, lifestyle today is very quick, very we got to go. Got to go. Can I get this alarm system or camera system at again? Not plug it sort of Costco or Sam's Club and hook it up myself? Hey, and now I'm capturing these images. I'm good to go, but take that extra step. Like you said, you know, look at the technology, look at the ways to use it to your advantage, and that helps law enforcement every time. Someone has a good camera system, knows how to use it, Evidentiary. Again, that's going to help them a lot. But most people like was I supposed to store this images? You know, was I supposed to keep it? It didn't come on the instructions. So again, that's that disconnect that we're trying to fix.

Bill McGeeney: 10:35

Yeah, and I think you have to also own some of that data. So if you can get the SD card and purchase data, you have that data when you're in. You don't have to pay someone to access your data.

Art Hushen: 10:46

And.

Bill McGeeney: 10:46

I like before we go. The motion sensing thing always made more sense to me because it's a stimulus and I think people, us, just humans, and naturally stimuli is kind of what drives us to change our actions. And when you have that sudden, you know flash of light and say, if there's a recording video going at the same time, you know some kind of deterrent. That is a direct and obvious deterrent versus a always-on light, always-on light. You know, I think someone can look at a place and just a always on light, always on light. You know, I think someone can look at a place and just notice that that light's always on, after seeing it for a couple of nights and realize, all right, well, that's just, that's just the way it is. So you know, I shouldn't have to worry about that.

Art Hushen: 11:29

Right? No, I agree with you too on that as well. And the other thing I'd like to recommend for people as well you've got these streetcar garages, but well. And the other thing I'd like to recommend for people as well you've got these streetcar garages, but you've got two stalls that are stored with boxes, so you're parking your cars outside. So again and again, you just remove that from the site. I know it's a pain to put all the boxes away and you know everything, but once you get those cars in there, it's just this overall feeling of safety. You know you got it, so let's kind of work around it. Let's make the police job easier for them. So now we don't have all these targets out, and if we can't do that, then we get into. Let's use technology a little better.

Bill McGeeney: 12:00

That's a great suggestion. Well, great, thank you. Always insightful thoughts, as I've come to note, and greatly appreciate your time today. So thank you again for coming on. If you wish to learn more about what we do at Light Pollution News, feel free to jump over to the website lightpollutionnewscom, whereby you'll find helpful tips or bi-monthly episode links, narratives and a page where it documents all of the research in ecology-related news on light pollution. And feel free to also reach out to us over on social media, on LinkedIn, instagram, tiktok, facebook, and you can listen to the show wherever you find podcasts. So be sure to subscribe today. Thank you once more. I'm your host, bill McGeaney, reminding you to only shine a light where it's needed.