Whenever a site is preparing to shut down for the summer, we always do a walk around to check for security risks. And every time, we always spot the exact same risk.
It’s not that there isn’t an alarm installed. There almost always is. But an alarm on its own isn’t enough to keep a vacant premises property secured. After all, an alarm only tells you that a breach has already happened. A proper security setup puts eyes on your property the second a threat appears, and lets you shut down the vulnerability before it turns into a loss. This month we’ve put together a short guide covering 4 ways you can keep your vacant sites fully protected.
Use Visible Deterrents
Alarms are great. We highly recommend them to everyone, as they’re an invaluable tool and do prevent a huge number of incidents every day. But they’re also fairly passive. Their job is to confirm a problem after it’s happened. In an ideal world, you would want a system that not only confirms the problem, but provides an active deterrent while your site is empty. After all, an obviously empty site could be a goldmine to a criminal, so they need a good reason to walk away.
This is where your visible deterrents come in, mainly in the form of cameras. But don’t just use little ones you can hide so that you catch people out. Use clearly visible cameras, and make sure they’re pointing at loading bays, entry points, and any area that would normally be staffed. The idea is to make it really obvious that you’re keeping an eye on the site while you’re not there. When a site looks watched, most people decide not to test it.
Remote Monitoring Closing the Gap
All of that’s well and good, but a camera that no one’s watching only records what happens. It can’t really do anything about it. So if someone does decide that, despite the big obvious cameras, they want to give it a go, your cameras will watch on quietly.
But with remote monitoring, they don’t have to. Remote monitoring essentially connects your live camera feeds to a monitoring centre (either a professional control room or a mobile app). This means that when a sensor or a motion detector picks up something, it sends an alert and a real person can have eyes on your site in seconds. They can then verify if it’s a false alarm or a genuine intruder and call the appropriate authorities. If you want, you (or the monitoring centre) can even challenge the intruder directly over a speaker! Remote monitoring means you can respond quickly, rather than just record what’s happening.
Smart Alarms Catch it Early
Most incidents aren’t caught until the next person walks into the building. If your site was operating normally that might be just a few hours later and damage control can start quickly. But in a site that’s shut down for the summer, it could be as quick as a few days (if you’re lucky to be hit right at the end) or as long as 2 months. By that point, it’s far, far too late.
Smart alarms use motion and behaviour-based alters to flag unusual activity to the main contact for the site. This could be things like movement after hours, too many people in one place, or doors being unlocked when they shouldn’t be. These systems can log and flag this behaviour long before it starts, meaning you’re more likely to be able to catch the incident and take action.
Add a Human Layer
Technology covers the building and gives you eyes everywhere. A human being applies logic, and can tell you whether things really are ok.
We’re not saying you need a security guard on site 24.7 while the site is closed. But having a regular, scheduled patrol going around the site means that they can check for basic physical security measures. Like making sure doors and gates are locked, cameras are pointed the right way, or that there aren’t any subtle signs of activity that a camera might miss. That small amount of human presence is the final layer that closes any gap that the tech might miss, which is what makes it so valuable.
If you want your empty building watched just as closely as a full one would be, drop the Securifix team a line and we will be happy to help.
