In 2019/2020, there were 356,000 burglaries in England and Wales. To avoid being included in this statistic, many homeowners are eager to prepare themselves and their properties in any way possible. 

When it comes to protecting your home and garden, there are plenty of ways you can increase the security of your property. Alarms and sensors are all fantastic ways of deterring potential criminals and intruders, and can also give you peace of mind, and something to fall back on if an incident does occur and you need to provide the police with any evidence you can. 

An increasingly affordable and popular method of surveillance is CCTV, which can help you keep track of activity that takes place on your property, welcome or otherwise. Security cameras used to be a luxury for only the wealthiest of homeowners, but advances in technology have led to them being much more readily available and, providing you are willing to invest the time and finances, can prove to be one of the most valuable forms of criminal activity prevention money can buy. 

But when it comes to deciding on where to place your security cameras, what sort of locations are best? While much lower in cost than a few years ago, these cameras can still prove expensive if a larger number of them are purchased – they also become more costly to operate. This is why strategic location choice is key, and why, in this guide, we’re going to take you through some of the key factors and locations you should consider when designing your own CCTV camera layout. 

• What Should I Consider When Placing My Security Cameras? 
• Where are the Best Places to Install CCTV Cameras? 
• What Should I Consider When Placing My Cameras Outside? 
• Can I Install CCTV Cameras Inside? 
• Where Shouldn’t I Install CCTV Cameras? 
• Final Thoughts
• What's Next?

There are a few things you need to think about when choosing the best places for your security cameras. Some of these may require additional information and research, so be aware that it may take a couple of days or so to decide on the best locations. 

• One factor you should consider is past break-ins in and around your property and neighbourhood. Do you know of any burglaries or similar crimes that happened in your area? If so, do you know how the crime was committed? Maybe a weak door was exploited, or maybe the intrusion was carried out by smashing a window. The methods the preparators used to gain access to the victims’ property can influence your decision on where the cameras are placed. For example, if the window of a nearby house was smashed, placing a camera focusing on the inside or outside of your window may be a good idea. If you don’t know of any burglaries, ask friends and neighbours in the area if they know of any criminal activity that has taken place in your neighbourhood before, and how said activities were carried out. 
   
• Thoroughly investigate your home for potential weaknesses and, if you cannot replace or remove the exploitable vulnerability for whatever reason, prioritise setting up a camera that covers this area. Such vulnerable areas could include older doors (with weak locks or hinges), damaged windows, and easily accessible gardens. Dimly lit areas of your house, whether inside or out, could also attract unwanted attention – these areas also serve as ideal places for concealing security cameras, making their location less obvious to thieves to avoid.
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  Identify areas of your property that are protected from the weather. Being electrical appliances, CCTV cameras can prove to be very susceptible to intense weather and temperature conditions, so try to ensure that you can place them in areas that are least a little sheltered from the worst of the rain, hail and wind. It may also be useful to cut away any plants or branches that may be located nearby, as this will ensure the vision of your camera is not blocked out in any way. If considering placing cameras indoors, avoid placing in areas where the sun can shine directly through the window and into the camera, as this could damage the lens very quickly. 

There are steps you can take to prep your camera for certain conditions if you feel they are unavoidable. Weatherproofed casing and night-vision features are two key options that can be purchased for most makes of CCTV cameras. These will help your cameras to be more prepared to catch any suspicious goings-on, regardless of the weather conditions taking place (especially useful as potential thieves may well use the cover of night or even bad weather to better hide their activities). 

The best places to install CCTV is areas that you and, more importantly, criminals may consider weak points. There are several potential weak points throughout your home and even if they’re good condition, they could be exploited by lawbreakers, and should therefore be monitored if possible. These potentially vulnerable areas include: 

• Front Doors – You may be surprised to find that many hundreds of the break-ins and intrusions that happen up and down the country each year actually happen due to the perpetrators gaining access to the property via the front door. In fact, it is one of the most popular ways of entering breaking into a home. Fitting your CCTV camera so it eyes your front door may help to deter criminals from attempting to break in, but be sure to protect your camera with, say, a wire mesh netting or similar – often CCTV cameras overlooking front doors are amongst the easiest to spot.
• Back Doors/Side Doors – Doors in general are some of the most popular methods of entering a household, and while you may want to prioritise protecting your front door, don’t forget to look into getting your side and back doors covered by a camera too, if possible. You should make a particular effort if your patio or conservatory doors. French doors are also very vulnerable, and you should certainly attempt to set up a CCTV camera overlooking these if you have them.
• Windows – All windows serve as potential entrances through which criminals can access your house, but the most appealing are windows that don’t face onto the street, where they can be accessed without members of the public spotting any suspicious activity. Therefore, take extra care to have your garden and side windows covered by the view of a camera when planning your CCTV layout. Older windows are especially vulnerable, as many newer windows come with their own security measures, and many more traditional designs do not, so if you have to prioritise, and are unsure of which windows are most important, go for the oldest and largest windows.
• Garden – Some of the most inviting structures to potential criminals are sheds, stables and lean-tos, with sheds in particular, encouraging intruders to come onto your property for a closer look at what may be inside. This is why it’s a good idea to kit out your garden with well-placed cameras to watch over these structures. Try to place the camera near a light so it can get a good view of its surroundings. Alternatively, install cameras with night vision features to pick up activity and identify perpetrators without the need for nearby lights.
• Garage – Our homes are not the only structures that may contain valuables, and even if your garage doesn’t, it may still be a target for thieves, which could potentially leave you with expensive damage for which you’ll need to fix. Therefore, it is always a good idea to set up a camera or two focused on your garage. Try placing the camera opposite the garage if possible. This will allow you to get a good view of the driveway, meaning you won’t only pick up break-ins but will be able to pick up any suspicious vehicles or characters that may show up on your drive to scout out any items or areas of interest. 

Here are some tips to remember the important factors behind ideal camera placement: 

• Higher is Better – you should be aiming to place your cameras higher up in the air, at around 8 – 12 feet. This height allows it to focus on finer details while remaining out of reach of the vast majority of criminals.  
• Criminals are Curious – A closed shed or garage can be just as appealing to criminals as a lean-to or simply leaving your tools and equipment out in the garden; keeping your belongings behind closed doors implies that they are valuable. This is why your garden structures should be prioritised when placing your cameras.
• Avoid the Sun – The sun can be just as damaging to a camera lens as it can be to our own eyes. Not only can direct sunlight severely damage the lens, but it can also create a lot of glare and light imbalance on the footage, making identification of any criminals or activities difficult. Think about placing the camera in shade, as well as remembering the trajectory of the sun over your property throughout the day, when deciding on where to position your CCTV.
• Discouragement is Key – remember, catching criminals shouldn’t be your primary objective – it is a plus if you spot and can identify a wrong-doer caught in the act on your camera. The whole point of CCTV is to discourage such crimes from occurring in the place. Therefore, your goal is not to hide your cameras, as this may also raise privacy concerns amongst your neighbours. If you are worried about criminals damaging your cameras, then you should be installing protective grids or casings around your cameras to prevent them from getting hit by projectiles. 

You can indeed install CCTV cameras inside, but you need to be aware of a few things when you are planning this. The first is that you cannot place cameras in bathrooms, bedrooms, or any other rooms where privacy is expected (more on this later). The second is that any cameras you do place inside will not serve as deterrents – criminals will have to come into your house to even know they are there, and by then considerable damage may have been caused. 

However, with more control over the elements and lighting inside, criminal identification can be far easier once they are inside. Not only this but spotting a camera inside may still prevent them from actually stealing anything, so they may still serve as a deterrent (though this is by no means guaranteed).  

Just as is the case with outdoor installation, there are a couple of things to bear in mind when installing a camera indoors too: 

• Poor Deterrence – It is by no means unwise to place cameras indoors so long as they are positioned correctly. However, they are far less likely to serve as a deterrent, as mentioned above. This is why, for the most part, your camera placement choices should now be based around how easily they can pick up figures and activities, rather than whether or not they are visible enough to deter criminals in the first place.
• Avoid the Sun and Windows – As mentioned, cameras don’t work well with bright natural light, and placing one near a window eliminates one of the advantages of indoor camera placement: more control over lighting. Cameras also utilise infrared technology, which can bounce off of windows and throw your system into confusion.
• Use Corners – Corners are excellent for gaining a view of the entire room. Placing the camera opposite the door also means the criminals will most likely have to be well within the room before they even notice the cameras are present, increasing the chances of identifying them via the footage later. This does decrease the chances of the camera working as an effective deterrent, however. 

CCTV cameras can be great ways to protect the security of yourself, your possessions and your loved ones. However, there are some areas where you shouldn’t install them. Regardless of how well you intend you covering your house with CCTV cameras, there are two places you should not place them in particular: 

ANY Area That Infringes on Your Neighbours’ Privacy 

In short, you should avoid directing your CCTV cameras to show anything off of your property, and this is especially true when it comes to neighbouring houses and gardens. The laws surrounding doing otherwise are more complex – technically, there is no law against having a camera focusing on your property that happens to be capturing a bit of, say, the neighbour's garden. However, you do need to inform the neighbour of this, and the neighbour has every right to ask you to remove the camera altogether, delete any footage you capture of them in their garden, and more besides. It is a tricky area, and best discussed with a professional on the matter as well as your neighbours themselves. Also bear in mind that this usually only applies to video–audio recording without the knowledge or consent of the person filmed on their property is illegal in the vast majority of circumstances.

Bathrooms, Bedrooms and Other ‘Private’ Rooms

Setting up CCTV in one of these rooms is not only considered a major invasion of people’s privacy, but it can also have major legal repercussions, and thus cameras should not be installed in these areas. If you want to improve security in these more ‘private’ rooms, consider alternatives such as motion sensors and glass break detectors that can be added to doors and windows – when used as parts of larger security systems, they can prove just as effective as CCTV, if not more so. 

For more concrete information on this matter, and other legalities concerning the use of CCTV in your own home, take a look at the UK government’s guide for using CCTV. This will give you a better view of what is allowed to do with your CCTV systems and what you are not. 

Whenever installing CCTV systems, the best thing you can do is inform your neighbours and family members of your plans and be ready and willing to show them images of your system, as well as what areas of your property it covers. It is also highly recommended to put up signs inside and outside your house to inform people of the presence of CCTV, making your neighbours more aware and also possibly deterring criminals too. 

Setting up CCTV cameras can be a very complicated and confusing venture, so hopefully, you have found this guide helpful. In order to get the most out of your CCTV system, it is vital the right spots are chosen, and the wrong spots are avoided at all costs, especially if they make your neighbours unhappy or uncomfortable – after all, good relationships with your friends and neighbours can prove to be just as crucial in keeping your property safe as any surveillance system. 

It is also vital to be economic and strategic with your camera placements – you don’t want to position a camera in an area where it isn’t likely to pick up unusual activity, and simply putting cameras all over your property can have a number of negative side effects, such as greatly increased electricity bills and a rather unappealing visual appearance. 

Remember when positioning your cameras why you are doing this – to protect your home from potential criminals and intruders and prepare the cameras to face any areas of your property you feel are particularly vulnerable. Prioritise outside locations, as these will serve as more effective deterrents. 

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