How to Deter Burglars From Your Business

Burglaries are often considered crimes of opportunity, leaving businesses struggling to recover in the aftermath. Although there is no all-powerful solution to protect your business, you can implement various preventative measures that bolster your security efforts. Here are 5 actions you can take to help deter burglars from casing and breaking into your business.

1. Limit access

Access control seems like an inherent focus for any business, but it often requires more effort and attention than anticipated. Business owners should always limit access to areas with expensive inventory or high-value items to essential personnel. Additionally, owners should reassess their company’s access permissions whenever an employee leaves the business, regardless of whether the departure is amicable or contentious.

Whether this is achieved with keys, biometrics, or personal codes in an access control system, establishing and maintaining specific access controls is crucial to keeping any business secure. Even though it may not entirely prevent break-in attempts, implementing these measures will help prevent burglars from accessing your company’s most valuable assets if they successfully break into your building.

2. Secure points of entry

Installing and using simple locks on a building’s doors and windows is only sometimes enough to prevent break-ins from occurring, so it is crucial to implement as many efforts as possible to increase the difficulty of achieving a successful break-in. Consider installing these materials in place of standard fixtures to increase the effort a potential burglar would need to exert to enter your business:

• Laminated windows and doors
• Tempered glass
• Security bars
• Smart locks
• Folding security gates
• Window security film
• Deadbolt locks

Even though it can become easy to neglect, business owners and personnel must secure every entry point when leaving a business. Ensure you and your employees check each lock on every window and door when leaving your building daily. If there is an issue with a lock on any point of entry, remedy the issue as quickly as possible.

3. Keep inventory secure

Although proudly displaying your best-selling inventory in your storefront windows is a great way to attract customers, it can also attract burglars who perceive your business as an easy target. Unless you have additional barriers like window bars or security gates, ensure your inventory is kept a safe distance from windows to deter easy access.

If you want to store valuable items in storefront windows, consider using locked display cases made of fortified materials. If your business uses a safe, ensure that your safe is stored securely and out of view. Since some burglars can take an entire safe and break into it later, securing your safe to the floor makes it significantly more difficult to remove.

4. Increase visibility

Burglars are often depicted moving through shadows, and this portrayal holds a reasonable degree of truth. If your business has significant landscaping obstructions around its exterior, like overgrown bushes or large plant beds, burglars may perceive those obstructions as sufficient cover for their next break-in attempt. Maintain the exterior conditions of your building to minimize visibility issues.

Additionally, a lack of interior and exterior lighting can create the perfect environment for burglars to strike without being noticed. Ensure your business has adequate lighting installed throughout the property to optimize visibility when the sun is down.

5. Install a security system

Installing a comprehensive security system can help protect your business from burglaries and assess both internal and external threats, making it a go-to option for business owners who are concerned about security. The presence of an alarm system and signs that alert customers and passersby of its presence are often enough to deter those who are interested in stealing from your company.

When crafting your company’s security system, elements like CCTV and video alarm verification can be extremely helpful assets in the event that a break-in does take place. With video elements integrated into your system, monitoring companies can confirm that a crime is taking place, and camera footage can be used as evidence when necessary.

Whether your business needs a commercial security system installed, updated, or maintained, the experts at FSS Technologies are here to help. Our customers can rest easy knowing their business is in safe hands, from our thorough security assessments to our efficient system installation. Once your system is installed, our team will help you learn and follow proper maintenance protocols to ensure your system is working at all times. If an issue arises, assistance is just a quick call away.