Important Police Tips for Business Security & Safety

Busi­ness­es face a wide vari­ety of threats, includ­ing break-ins, van­dal­ism, fraud and theft (both inter­nal and exter­nal). Deploy­ing the prop­er lay­ers of busi­ness secu­ri­ty is essen­tial for pre­vent­ing these inci­dents and keep­ing the premis­es safe. How­ev­er, for many busi­ness­es, it’s not always clear how to achieve this secu­ri­ty.

In this blog post, we uncov­er sev­er­al sim­ple secu­ri­ty rec­om­men­da­tions from local police, includ­ing the Peel Region­al Police Ser­vice, that can help make your busi­ness safer and more secure.

1) Assess your business’s exterior.

The out­side of your store, office or com­mer­cial build­ing may have sev­er­al vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties that increase crime risks. Police rec­om­mend con­duct­ing a basic exte­ri­or assess­ment to iden­ti­fy poten­tial risks, such as:

• Over­sized objects or trees/shrubs that obstruct the view into and out of your busi­ness.
• Areas where thieves could hide near your doors or win­dows.
  Signs of tres­pass­ing or sus­pi­cious cars con­tin­u­al­ly parked in poor­ly observed areas around the build­ing.
• “Weapons of oppor­tu­ni­ty” near your win­dows or doors, such as loose rocks or con­struc­tion debris.

2) Secure your business’s entry points.

This is espe­cial­ly impor­tant for offices that keep their doors unlocked for employ­ees dur­ing the day. But it’s equal­ly essen­tial for retail busi­ness­es with acces­si­ble back doors, win­dows or receiv­ing areas.

• Con­sid­er using access con­trol sys­tems that allow autho­rized entry with a code, key fob or smart­phone.
• If an office must remain open for vis­i­tors, sta­tion a recep­tion­ist or oth­er employ­ee at the front desk.
• Nev­er make it pos­si­ble for strangers to pass the recep­tion area unat­tend­ed.

3) Install a security system with cameras.

A busi­ness secu­ri­ty sys­tem is vital in every com­mer­cial envi­ron­ment. The mere pres­ence of an alarm sys­tem and secu­ri­ty cam­eras can sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduce crime risk by deter­ring thieves and van­dals. Plus, if a break-in or autho­rized dis­tur­bance trig­gers the alarm, author­i­ties will be prompt­ly dis­patched.

• Install cam­eras at all entry points and key oper­a­tional areas, such as cash reg­is­ters, stock­rooms, deliv­ery areas, etc. Remem­ber that busi­ness theft often occurs inter­nal­ly too.
• Your alarm sys­tem can be con­fig­ured to detect unau­tho­rized activ­i­ty with door & win­dow con­tacts, motion-detec­tion sen­sors, zoned par­ti­tions and oth­er tools.

4) Prevent retail theft.

If you oper­ate a shop, there are sev­er­al things you can do to low­er your risk of retail theft. Police advise the fol­low­ing pre­ven­ta­tive strate­gies:

• Increase staff lev­els dur­ing peak times so crim­i­nal activ­i­ty doesn’t go unseen.
• Ensure sales counter staff have a direct and unob­struct­ed view of the front door and win­dows.
• Do not place valu­able items in front win­dow dis­plays, vul­ner­a­ble to “smash and grab” theft. Instead, keep valu­ables out of reach and in locked dis­play coun­ters.

5) Educate sales staff.

In retail envi­ron­ments, there are sev­er­al sim­ple things that employ­ees can do to detect and deter would-be thieves – with­out com­pro­mis­ing their secu­ri­ty:

• Greet each cus­tomer who enters the store and make con­tact.
• Be aware of large coats, over­sized purs­es or bags that could be used to con­ceal items.
• Also, train employ­ees to always be on the floor while cus­tomers browse the store. This is a hall­mark of good cus­tomer ser­vice and an effec­tive secu­ri­ty strat­e­gy!

Remem­ber: employ­ee safe­ty is para­mount. Instruct staff to nev­er chase after a thief or attempt a phys­i­cal alter­ca­tion. If they detect any sus­pi­cious activ­i­ty, they should call the police and acti­vate their secu­ri­ty alarms.

Request a no-oblig­a­tion busi­ness secu­ri­ty audit.

Is your busi­ness as secure as it should be? Request a no-oblig­a­tion secu­ri­ty audit from PROTECTION PLUS, and our experts will con­duct an in-depth assess­ment of your busi­ness to iden­ti­fy secu­ri­ty vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties and solu­tions.