How to Prevent Burglary at Your Business
Having your business burglarised is a deeply disruptive event.
Not only do you need to handle the emotional impact of having your workplace broken into, but also deal with the damage, lost inventory, and downtime for police investigations, repairs, and other necessities to make your business operational again.
While it isn’t possible to completely eliminate the probability of a burglary happening at your business premises, you can take several steps which will minimize it. Krypto Security’s primary concern is to help you enjoy a safe, undisrupted workplace that enhances productivity and lowers stress levels for everyone involved.
A big element of achieving this undisrupted safe environment is prevention. And efficient prevention means understanding the nature of the crime and working to actively discourage it when it comes to your business.
Know your burglars
Burglars tend to come in three types, of which the most common is opportunistic burglary.
Opportunistic burglaries are those where the burglar finds an easy entry into the business, grabs whatever is near and easily accessible, and flees. While this type of burglary causes minimal damage, it is also the most frequent because it isn’t planned. It’s done because the burglar saw an easy opportunity.
The second most frequent burglary type is the smash-and-grab, which can cause devastating damage to a business: the burglars that do this break-in violently, causing serious damages to breach into the business inside. Just the repairs for these can cost in the thousands of euro, let alone the products stolen.
Lastly, the third type of burglary is the planned, sophisticated one: burglars take their time and invest in tools of their own to bypass the business defences. Usually, they aim to take high-value items and leave everything else untouched. These burglaries are quite rare.
What you need to guard against are the first two types, which are frequent and thus a real threat.
How to prevent a burglary
Primarily, burglary is a crime of opportunity. And opportunity means that the burglar tends to act only if they estimate that the risk of being caught or being unsuccessful is low. That’s why you must ensure that they don’t think that about your business premises by following the prevention tactics below:
1. Control access
Most burglars will be tempted if they find a back door or window that is open or they feel they can easily open. Make sure that unwanted or unlawful entry to your business premises is hard.
This can be achieved simply by securing doors and windows, especially rear ones where traffic or visibility of activity is lower. Better yet, install access control systems that monitor entry and will deter anyone wishing to break in.
2. Put your inventory away
Make sure that items that are easy to grab are away from doors and windows. During closed hours, ensure that all countertops and other surfaces are clean of items from your inventory. Cash tills should be cleared out and open if they are visible from the street, to indicate that there is no cash to be had.
This will discourage a burglar from taking the risk to break in.
3. Keep expensive items in hidden safes
Expensive items from your inventory should be out of sight and into safes. Because burglars are aware that safes contain items worth stealing, make sure that your business’ safes are hidden and not easy to discover. Don’t opt for safes that are easy to remove from the premises.
4. Keep the premises well-lit
Make sure that your business premises are well lit during working and closed hours, inside and out. Good lighting dissuades burglars that can’t easily find hiding spots and thus risk being spotted by patrolling police or passersby.
5. Install a robust alarm system
A reliable, up-to-date, and well-maintained alarm system is your best defence from burglars. Make sure that your alarm system includes CCTV for indoors and outdoors premises, proper window and door sensors, including specialized sensors for glass breaking or other types of forced entry.
Krypto specializes in custom-made, state-of-the-art alarm systems that will offer full and reliable coverage of all your business premises. Our remote Control Center’s round-the-clock monitoring further ensures that burglars will be actively discouraged even if they initially consider your business.
6. Let burglars know you’re not worth it
Put up signs warning that your business is monitored 24-7 by your alarm system’s provider remote control center. Warn of the existence of CCTV. Inform that there is no cash on the premises.
All of these notices essentially let burglars know that breaking into your business involves high risk for very little gain. As such, they will be unlikely to pick your business as a target.
In general, avoiding being targeted for a burglary is a simple process: what you need to do is to make your business an unattractive target for would-be burglars while ensuring those who do attempt to break in are swiftly dissuaded or apprehended. And all it takes to do that is common sense, a good security routine, and an excellent security system.