TThe holiday season is approaching; it’s the peak time for traveling and entertainment. Unfortunately, it is also known as the “silly season” and the peak time for criminals. This December, ensure your business is protected and ready for potential criminal attacks.
Typically, there's a spike in armed robberies over the festive season as customers tend to indulge. So, by recognizing danger zones in and around your business premises, you'll be able to brace yourself higher for any damages to your business. Examining your building from top to bottom before the season begins is crucial.
Here are some areas to double check or reinforce, to make your premises less attractive to opportunistic crime:
- Lighting: Be sure to light up all the blind spots of your premises. Good lighting elimates shadows, which burgalars use for cover when breaking in. Consider motion sensor lights. Hikvision offers the ColorVu camera series. Hikvision’s ColorVu technology has the ability to capture critical details in low light with accurate color rendering.
- Locks: You want the best locks to secure doors, windows, skylights and different possible openings. Change locks frequently and use deadbolts wherever possible. Of course, no lock is totally burglar-proof, however the longer criminals struggle to break-in, the longer you have to take action. Besides locks, consider perhaps installing a facial recognition system and a finger print access system.
- Windows and doors: Always ensure that window frames aren’t loose – it’s nothing for a criminal to lift a security gate or forcing open burglar bars with a crow bar. Window glass should always offer employees good visibility during the day, so that they can see if someone is skulking around outside.
- Parking Lot: Not only do you want to keep your employees safe but you’ll want to keep your customers safe as well when visiting your premises. Hikvision AcuSense takes security to the next level. AcuSense assists with accurate, real-time threat detection which distinguishes people and vehicles fom other targets. It also features a built-in sound and strobe-light alarm.
- Alarm System: Inspect your alarm system with your security company, ensuring that it is working 100%, including panic buttons. Educate your team on the proper use of the system as well as the panic buttons.
- Prevent Fires: When everyone is enjoying their holiday break, boxes and packaging materials may pile up and create a fire risk. Remind your team to always keep exits clear and material away from any possible fire risk. Install a smoke alarm and ensure ti have prenty of working fire extinguishers on hand. You can also install a heat sensing camera like Hikvision’s HeatPro series. This series can detect early warning of temperature changes and trigger pre-alarms before a fire occurs to prevent possible damage. This thermal camera sense an objects heat radiation, capturing 24/7, regardless of the environment such as darkness, lowlight, strong backlight etc.
Criminals don't take holidays, and so shouldn't your security. It's about creating a safe environment for your business, employees and customers, which is why preventative security solutions are essential for any company at any time of the year.