Fall & Halloween Family Safety Guide:
Protecting Your Kids, Home & Neighborhood with Smarter Security

Halloween is on a Saturday this year. In metro Detroit the sun sets at 6:28 p.m. that night, so if your city’s trick-or-treat hours run until 8, most of the kids ringing your doorbell will get there after dark. Then the clocks fall back an hour the next morning.

This family home safety guide starts at the front porch and works out to the street. We’ll cover the lights, the doorbell, the lock your kids use after school and the side of the house nobody looks at, which is mostly what smart home security handles. Then comes the talk to have with your kids before they head out with their pillowcases.

Researchers at the University of British Columbia looked at 42 years of U.S. traffic deaths (1975 to 2016) and compared Halloween night with the same hours a week before and a week after. Between 5 p.m. and midnight, pedestrian deaths were 43% higher on Halloween. For kids ages 4 to 8, the risk was 10 times higher. The study was published in JAMA Pediatrics in 2018.

Get the porch lights on before dark

On Oct. 1, the sun set in Detroit at 7:15 p.m. On Halloween it sets at 6:28. If you set your porch light timer back in September, it’s been coming on late for weeks.

If you have smart lights connected to your Guardian system, set the porch, walkway and driveway lights to come on at sunset instead of at a set time. On Halloween that’s 6:28. The next night it’s an hour earlier, and the schedule moves with it.

A kid in a dinosaur costume with a tail can’t see the front step very well, or the cord running to your inflatable. Lighting the driveway side of the garage also gets rid of the one dark spot where someone could stand without being seen. If you’re coming home late, the Places feature in the MyGuardianAlarm app can turn the lights on when it sees your phone heading home.

Before Saturday, sweep the wet leaves off the steps and get any extension cords off the walkway. In the jack-o’-lanterns, use battery candles or glow sticks instead of real flames.

Answer the door from your phone

Say the doorbell rings at 7:40 and you’re two streets over with the little ones. With a video doorbell, you open the app, see who’s on the porch and talk to them through the speaker. At home it works the same way from the security panel, and the door stays locked. Ours records in HD with infrared night vision and can tell a person from falling leaves, so leaves blowing across the porch all night won’t keep setting off your phone.

Kids home alone after school need one rule: they talk through the panel or the app, and the door stays closed. A delivery driver doesn’t need a 10-year-old to sign for anything. If a grown-up they don’t recognize won’t say what they want, the door doesn’t open, and you can watch the clip together that night.

Guardian’s video analytics can also ignore people who just pass by, like a jogger, and alert you when someone stays near the door too long. Trick-or-treaters don’t stick around. If you get that alert after you’ve turned off the porch light, take a look.

Give your kids their own door code

If your 11-year-old keeps a house key in her backpack, it’s going to get lost at some point. A keypad deadbolt means she doesn’t need one. In the MyGuardianAlarm app, you can give each family member their own code for the lock and the alarm.

Because each code is tied to a person, the app can tell you it was your son who disarmed the system at 3:52, not just that someone did. Turn on disarm photo alerts and you’ll get a picture along with it. If a friend learns your daughter’s code, delete it and give her a new one. You don’t need a locksmith.

This matters more after Nov. 1, when sunset in Detroit drops to about 5:30. By Thanksgiving it’s just after 5. A kid walking home from a practice that ends at 4:45 gets to the door in the dark, so put the entry light on the same sunset schedule as the porch.

The five spots where Halloween mischief starts

Take this table outside Friday night after dark and walk around the house. You’ll know pretty fast which of these spots you have.

If you’re wondering whether a camera actually scares anyone off, we went through the evidence in Do Security Cameras Deter Burglars?. Shopping for one that sees well after dark? Start with Darker Nights Call for Better Night Vision.

Halloween safety tips for kids on the street

In the UBC study, the most dangerous stretch was 5 to 8 p.m. Go over these with your kids before anyone heads out.

• Put reflective tape on the front and back of costumes and treat bags. A flashlight or glow stick helps drivers see them too.
• Face paint is better than a mask for seeing traffic. If your kid wants a mask, make sure the eye holes are big enough, and skip long, trailing fabric, which the NFPA warns against.
• Kids under 12 should have an adult with them. Older kids should go in a group, with a route you’ve agreed on, a time to check in and location sharing turned on.
• Cross at the corner, never from between two parked cars, where a driver won’t see a kid in a black cat costume. Watch the driveways too, since people backing out aren’t expecting kids.
• Skip houses with the porch light off. That’s the usual sign they aren’t handing out candy, and it keeps kids off dark lawns.
• Candy waits until you’re home and the bags are dumped on the kitchen table. The FDA says to toss anything that isn’t commercially wrapped, plus anything with torn wrappers, tiny pinholes or odd discoloration. For little kids, pull out gum, peanuts, hard candy and small toys.