Is Your Business a Target for Burglars?

Is Your Busi­ness a Tar­get for Bur­glars? Too often, busi­ness own­ers and build­ing man­agers fail to rec­og­nize how their lax secu­ri­ty process­es increase their risk for bur­glary and theft.

But what exact­ly makes a busi­ness a tar­get for these crimes? What are thieves look­ing for, and why do they go after cer­tain types of build­ings while avoid­ing oth­ers com­plete­ly?

In most cas­es, com­mer­cial theft is not ran­dom. Savvy bur­glars and thieves are look­ing for busi­ness­es that allow them to com­mit crimes with­out being caught. It’s that sim­ple. Here are four things they look for:

1) A lack of security cameras

A lack of busi­ness secu­ri­ty cam­eras invites peo­ple to steal from you. And unfor­tu­nate­ly, that applies to your employ­ees too.

In retail busi­ness­es espe­cial­ly, secu­ri­ty cam­eras are essen­tial for deter­ring theft and cap­tur­ing crimes when they occur. The pres­ence of cam­eras alone will make would-be thieves think twice about com­mit­ting theft. And if any mer­chan­dise goes miss­ing, you’ll have the video footage to see what hap­pened.

2) Visible cash or valuables

Let’s face it – it’s all about the mon­ey.

When it comes to the bur­glary of busi­ness­es, thieves are look­ing for the biggest scores pos­si­ble. As such, they are more like­ly to tar­get com­pa­nies with lots of cash or oth­er valu­ables.

Cash and valu­ables may be part of your every­day oper­a­tions. But that doesn’t mean crim­i­nals should have access to them. Busi­ness­es that deal with valu­able assets must use extreme­ly tight secu­ri­ty pro­to­cols to keep these assets out of sight and out of reach. For exam­ple, con­sid­er using heavy-duty safes, secure dis­play cas­es and hid­den and guard­ed cash trans­fers.

If your cash and valu­ables are open­ly vis­i­ble to cus­tomers through­out the day, even for a few sec­onds each time, your busi­ness is like­ly already a tar­get.

3) Unsecure secondary entryways

Why enter through the front door when the rear entry­way is less vis­i­ble and inse­cure?

Sec­ondary entry­ways, like an unlocked back door, are a prime tar­get for bur­glars. And since many shops and restau­rants keep their cash stored in back offices any­way, the rear doors pro­vide a more direct route to the loot. This is why busi­ness­es need to keep all sec­ondary entry­ways locked and mon­i­tored.

For greater secu­ri­ty, con­sid­er using access con­trol sys­tems to allow access to only autho­rized per­son­nel through sec­ondary entry­ways or oth­er areas of your busi­ness.

4) Poor lighting or other obstructions

Remem­ber: besides the theft itself, the most impor­tant goal behind a bur­glary is avoid­ing detec­tion. We already men­tioned how a lack of secu­ri­ty cam­eras can increase crime risk. But thieves are also look­ing for dim­ly lit or hid­den areas of your busi­ness where employ­ees and cam­eras can’t cap­ture their actions.

Even with high-qual­i­ty cam­eras in place, you want to be sure your busi­ness has no blind spots. Ensure all sec­tions are well-lit and unob­struct­ed so your cam­eras and employ­ees can see every­thing.

Get a Free, No-Obligation Audit of Your Business Security

Is your busi­ness a tar­get for bur­glary or theft? Our secu­ri­ty experts can iden­ti­fy any weak­ness­es and secu­ri­ty laps­es you may not have con­sid­ered. Con­tact us at PROTECTION PLUS today to request a free com­pre­hen­sive busi­ness secu­ri­ty audit.