Safety and Security Are Also Important

Author: Sameer Rohatgi

Date: March 13, 2022

I am writing to express my opposition to the proposed lighting regulations. While I appreciate the Dark Skies initiative in controlling light pollution, safety and security should take precedence as individuals should feel safe in their own homes. San Diego recently reported a 13% increase in overall crime with property crimes (burglaries, thefts, and vehicle thefts) seeing a marked uptick. On Tuesday March 8th of this past week, criminals brazenly broke into our neighbor's home on Via De Fortuna at 6:15pm, and it was all recorded on video.

Further, merely a month ago, I had to call RSF Patrol and the Encinitas Sheriff as a woman had driven her car onto my driveway and across my shrubs. It was 6:30pm and given how dark it was on my property and along the street, I never saw her from inside my house. I only noticed her because I had to drive out to CVS. The responding officers found her unconscious and stated that she could have died had I not seen her.

Individuals may argue that lighting alone won’t deter crime, but this assertion was recently dispelled by a study that was published in the 2022 Journal of Quantitative Criminology by Chalfin et al. Of most significance, this rigorous randomized control trial, the gold standard in scientific research, determined that neighborhoods with increased levels of lighting saw a 36% reduction of index crimes.

To be clear, I’m not advocating street lights every 10 feet and giving home owners carte blanche on implementing SoFi stadium lighting on their properties. Rather, as stewards of the Covenant community, the Association Board needs to evolve and propose more progressive measures that are aligned with current and future trends.