Where to position cameras so burglars can't avoid them
The camera positions professional installers actually use: heights, angles, the doors-not-corners rule, and the classic DIY mistakes that produce useless footage.
Cover the routes, not the views
Amateur installs point cameras at the widest possible view — the whole garden, the whole street. Professional installs point cameras at the routes an intruder must use: the front door, the back door, the side gate, the drive. A burglar can avoid the middle of your lawn; they cannot avoid the doors.
Walk your property like a burglar would. Every way in — doors, low windows, gates, flat roofs — should force them past a camera at identification distance. That's the whole strategy; the rest is detail.
Height: the 2.5 metre sweet spot
Fit cameras at roughly 2.5m — high enough to be out of casual reach, low enough to capture faces rather than the tops of hoods. The classic DIY mistake is mounting under the gutter at 4–5m: unreachable, yes, but every recording looks straight down at scalps and produces nothing an officer can use.
Where a camera must sit higher, compensate with placement: angle it to catch faces on the approach, where people look up and ahead, rather than directly below the camera.
The positions that earn their keep
Front door and porch: captures every caller — legitimate or not — at face height. This is the highest-value camera on the property, which is why video doorbells transformed home security. Drive and vehicles: angled along the car's flank, catching both the vehicle and anyone approaching it. Back garden: covering the rear door and the fence line burglars actually climb, not the flowerbeds. Side passage: the forgotten route on most homes, and the first one burglars try.
One camera inside, facing the main hallway, is worth considering too: if someone does get in, it captures them centre-frame in good light — often the clearest footage of the lot.
Mistakes that ruin footage
Backlighting: a camera facing a bright sky or the low sun records silhouettes. Angle slightly downward and let walls shield the horizon. Pointing through glass at night: the infrared reflects off the window and whites out the image — outdoor coverage needs outdoor cameras. Obstructions that grow: the sapling brushing the frame in March fills it by July; position clear of vegetation or plan the pruning.
And test at night. Every position that looks perfect at 2pm should be checked at 11pm — night performance is the difference between evidence and noise, and it's part of our sign-off on every install.
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