Commercial properties such as strip malls, retail centres, and office buildings are locations that are frequented by customers, and employees. These locations house highly valuable commercial or personal assets, and important documents. Due to the high traffic and valuable assets in these buildings, it is critical that you keep these locations secure from trespassers, thieves, and vandals.
What threats do Commercial Properties face?
Whether its thieves attempting to gain access to a building by smashing a window, or mischievous vandals tagging a wall, vandalism is a frequent threat to commercial properties.
Not only is vandalism costly to fix but it can also have a negative impact on your business’s reputation. Commercial property parking lots are another location that sees an exorbitant amount of property damage. Criminals know that the cars are left unattended throughout the day while the people are at work; they will target these vehicles for vandalism & theft, which ends up costing the owner large sums of money, time, and anguish.
With the rise in precious metal costs, thieves across Canada are targeting cars and trucks for their catalytic converters at commercial properties. These vehicle parts are targeted because of their high value and how quickly they can be removed. A skilled thief can remove a catalytic converter within minutes, allowing them to hit multiple vehicles in a short period of time(1).
An example of this occurred in early 2021, at an air conditioning company located in Guelph, Ontario. When the property was vacant over the weekend, a thief removed 7 catalytic converters out from company vehicles that were left in the parking lot, costing the company thousands of dollars in repairs, and lost revenues due to fleet downtime(2). This is just one of the many examples of catalytic converter theft that have been prevalent at commercial properties throughout Canada.
Other commercial property threats include:
Internal Theft
Cyber attacks
Employee/customer disputes
Environmental hazards
Security Protection for Commercial Properties
Our solution to the common security threats that commercial properties face is to ultimately detect and deter criminal behavior before it happens. We achieve this by deploying our industry leading security devices, in tandem with our innovative video & alarm monitoring services.
Anti-Trespassing and video surveillance warning signage is placed around the perimeter of your properties, acting as a first line of defense against criminal behavior. In the event that a criminal is not deterred by the warning signage, our high resolution stationary & pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras are strategically placed to monitor access points, parking lots, and any other areas of importance that require protection.
If a trespasser enters our cameras view, our monitoring operators within our UL certified video monitoring center are quick to respond, utilizing various security peripherals to deter the suspect. Voice commands are issued as a way of letting the suspect know that they are currently trespassing and their actions are being monitored & recorded.
For a visual deterrence, our video monitoring operators will utilize our blue LED deterrence strobe light to draw attention to their location. If the suspect cannot be deterred, our video monitoring operators will immediately contact local law enforcement, providing an in-depth description of the suspect, their location, and behavior.
Our operators continue to monitoring the suspect and gather any additional details that will assist the local law enforcement with the apprehension of the individual. Once the security threat is contained, an in-depth report is drafted & logged into our security information reporting platform, syncroReports. This platform is your private access point to all in-depth reports, robust analytics, and live video feeds streaming directly from our security units.
For an additional layer of security within areas of importance, we deploy our wireless intrusion alarm system, syncroDetect. This device comes equipped with both wireless door & window contact sensors, and wireless motion detection sensors.
Overall, people spend a considerable portion of their lives at commercial properties. Whether it’s for work or leisure, safety and security is of utmost concern. Our industry leading security units in tandem with our innovative video monitoring services, are the most effective solution on the market for combating the threats that commercial properties face.
References:
- 1. “Catalytic converter theft prevalent in Niagara?” The Voice of Pelham, Don Rickers, August 9th, 2021
- 2. “Why are thieves across Canada stealing catalytic converters” Global News, Nick Logan, March 10, 2021