Ring cameras, medicine cabinet sensors, landscaping: How Long Island seniors living alone stay secure
From Ring cameras to medicine cabinet sensors, experts recommend multiple measures for Long Islanders who are aging solo. Credit: Getty Images/Chip Somodevilla
For aging adults, home security means safeguards against not only intruders with criminal intent, but from the effects of memory loss and decreased mobility.
As investigators in Tucson, Arizona, search for Nancy Guthrie, 84, who was reported missing early this month, All Action Alarm president and owner Brent Mele continues to work with Long Islanders to install home security systems. Though he could not attribute this to the Guthrie case, Mele said his company's call volume had coincidentally doubled in recent weeks.
"We've seen a tremendous uptick in the last two weeks," he said.
For those living alone — and the loved ones who care about them — experts recommend preventive action. A Ring doorbell or Nest camera might offer a playback, they said, but other security measures can interrupt crime instead of recapping it.
Of women over the age of 75 in the United States, approximately 43% lived alone as of the Census Bureau's 2022 Annual Social and Economic Supplement. Nearly 70% of men in the same age group lived with a spouse, which the Census Bureau attributed to women having a longer life expectancy.
On Long Island, approximately 21.8% of people 65 and older were living alone as of the Census Bureau's 2024 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. In Suffolk County, 61,490 people 65 and up were living alone, according to the data set; in Nassau, the corresponding figure was 51,423.
Newsday asked experts what they would recommend that seniors living alone do to protect themselves.
Lock up
Upon leaving the house, all doors and first-floor windows should be closed and locked, said Nassau County Police Department Commissioner Patrick Ryder.
Mele's company integrates electronic door locks, so that doors can be locked remotely, and remote access to the alarm system. Caregivers are alerted if an alarm goes off or a door remains unlocked after a certain time.
"It's full awareness of what's going on at any particular time," Mele said.
Carry a panic alarm
Ryder stressed the importance of a personal panic button. This can come in the form of an app that calls for help in the case of emergency.
Hire a professional
If possible, Mele recommends hiring a professional to secure the property and put other safety controls in place for seniors.
"A lot of people feel they could do security themselves and don't have it done professionally," Mele said. "They don't maintain it; we maintain all our systems with yearly inspections."
For a senior who may take medication and have difficulty with mobility, Mele said his company can place motion sensors around the house so that family members can track movement through an app.
A sensor on the medicine cabinet can indicate whether the person living there has taken medication; one on the fridge can show someone is eating. A sensor in the bedroom can show movement in the morning, Mele said.
Safety first
When he secures a home, Mele's first priority is to install smoke and carbon monoxide detectors that alert his company's central office, which alerts the fire department, he said.
Maximize coverage
Mele recommends having multiple cameras that have cloud recording and on-site recording to prevent loss of footage.
Growing in popularity, he said, are proactive video cameras that use AI to sound alarms or speak directly to someone who approaches the home.
A proactive video camera can describe a suspect to themselves, creating concrete awareness that their presence has been detected.
Landscape strategically
Ryder advises against planting bushes or shrubs in front of windows, as greenery provides a place to hide before a slow entrance.
'Leave a light on'
When no one is home, a house should be brightly lit, Ryder said.
"And always leave some music being played," Ryder said, noting that a Google or Siri device can be used to convince unwanted visitors that someone is there.
Other visual cues — garbage pails left out after dark, a newspaper on an empty driveway, mail in the mailbox — can tip off prospective burglars to an empty home, he said. Ryder recommends pausing deliveries or having someone bring them inside, as well as asking a neighbor to take in the garbage cans or leave a car in the driveway.
Check on your neighbors
"We should be checking on each other," Ryder said. "How about checking on your neighbors, and if you're bringing somebody home that's elderly, watch them get in the house and make sure the door shuts behind them."
Arielle Dollinger joined Newsday as a staff reporter in 2022. Previously, she covered local and national news as a freelancer for The New York Times, Newsday and other outlets.
