With Uptown New Orleans residents worried about robberies, shootings and other attacks that have taken place between the victims’ front doors and their cars, they frequently ask police officials how to make the front of their homes safer.

District commanders and crime-prevention officers usually suggest that one important step residents can take is to make their home a less appealing target for opportunistic criminals — by cutting back any shrubbery that offers a hiding place, for example, and particularly by increasing the amount of lighting.

In a city that can take years to repair its broken streetlights, an Entergy representative at a recent community meeting where that suggestion was made spoke offered his own solution: For a monthly fee, Entergy will install and maintain what it calls a security light to illuminate any dark areas in front of a customer’s home. Continue reading »