Ways to prevent burglary and damage to your business.
Commercial premises such as call centres, business parks or a small business office centre are a key target for burglars as they know that during the evening the premise will be unoccupied and they are generally situated in remote business parks and out of town locations. These vast business parks become almost like a ghost town when all the occupants have left for the day leaving them at the mercy of burglars and workplace theft. Steps should be taken to ensure work place security & how to prevent theft by making your business a less attractive proposition to a would-be burglar.
Offices have numerous weak areas that can be exploited by a burglar. These include large glass entrance foyers, rows and rows of windows, fire doors at the rear of the property and flat roofs with sky lights. The equipment within most offices also makes them an irresistible temptation for burglars. Although still in abundant use the desk top computer is gradually being replaced with laptops which are either taken home by the user or more commonly place in a lap top trolley which simultaneously charges the laptops up. These laptop trollies can store anything from ten to well over a hundred laptops, so something well worth breaking into the building for; especially considering just how easy laptops are to store and sell on so take measures to protect your computer. Many offices use a computer network run by a mainframe/server computer. This is a fairly expensive bit of kit and if stolen can cause catastrophic consequences for the business owner especially if information held on it is highly sensitive or of a financial value, i.e. banking information of customers etc.
Other equipment worth mentioning includes company mobile phones, I-pads, electronic note books & computer security protection. In fact in comparison to the average domestic property Offices really are a treasure trove of easily transportable valuable electronic goods. Offices also have store rooms crammed full of ink cartridges which as we all know are a very expensive consumable. Several hundred ink cartridges can easily fit into a holdall and are relatively simple to sell on. Most offices also have some amount of cash located somewhere in the form of petty cash this can sometimes amount to several hundred pounds. How to stop crime, although we cannot stop crime altogether, when it comes to security for businesses there are procedures that can be carried out to reduce our risk.
Ways to prevent crime. Business & workplace security is no mean feat especially when taking into consideration the sheer number of vulnerable areas that would require some kind of physical protection. The best solution is to identify the weak areas that are at risk first. This will mean carrying out a security at work/ risk assessment and determining what can be achieved whilst keeping down the costs. The simple rule is to make it as difficult for a burglar as possible to first gain access to the building. Look at the likely areas a burglar will attempt a break in. If you have a particularly large office with dozens of windows then it may be a wise solution to create a secure area with in the building itself. This is probably best in a room with no windows and preferable not on the ground floor. The door to this room can be upgraded to an insurance approved steel door. At the end of the working day all the company laptops can be loaded onto the trolley and securely stored in this safe room. Safety and security procedures like these can make a big difference to deterring theft in workplace areas. Thieves prefer quick and easy robbery, IT equipment behind locked steel doors are a far different matter than ones simply left on a desk.
Ways to prevent burglary. If there is an abundance of desk top machines, accompanied by large LCD monitors then it may be wise to look at securing the windows. The options here range from internally installed retractable/folding retractable security grille security grills for windows, (known as “grilles”) or a diamond lattice fixed grille to externally installed roller shutters manual or electric operation or a perforated mesh grille. There are numerous advantages and disadvantages as to whether you should install your physical security internally or externally. From a security point of view if you can install your chosen type of protection on the inside of the windows then this will provide a better level of security than externally fitted grilles or a window shutter. This is because the burglar will have to break the glass first and in doing so will trigger the alarm system. The burglar wants to be in and out of the premise as quickly as possible once the alarm has been activated but in this instance is still on the outside of the property with either a grille or shutter to now break through using up valuable time.
On the other hand having windows with a retractable security grille or door roller shutters installed externally offers an excellent visual deterrent and prevents vandalism if this is also a problem. It does however mean that the geographical area can look at bit depressing especially if every office building uses shutters. If the shutter or grille is breached then you windows are now vulnerable to attack and reliant on purely the alarm system.
Securing a large glass entrance lobby can be a very awkward and expensive exercise. It may be better to secure the doors that lead into the offices and sacrifice the reception area. This may be a good strategy as if a burglar has gained entry into the reception lobby they will have activated the alarm but will now be faced with attempting to get through the shutters or grilles that have been installed over the doors into the main office areas.
The fire doors can also be a weak area (see what is a fire door) as they are usually at the rear of the building; it may be worth upgrading them to an insurance approved steel door. One final area worth looking at is skylights, a weak point in most buildings which is often over looked. A simple but effective solution is to use a fixed mesh grille secured to the underside of the skylight. This offers both a visual and physical barrier.
If you wish to discuss your particular needs in more detail, or would like more information about the QSec Security range of products you can call FREE on 0800 999 6 777.
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