Safe and sound

With recent figures showing that 62% of burglaries take place at night, security is likely to become a top priority throughout the winter months. For commercial building owners, it is particularly important to ward off potential burglars and stop thieves from gaining access to the site in order to protect expensive equipment or confidential information that may be stored inside.

During the day when the building is likely to be in use, the threat of break-ins is usually quite low. However, when everyone leaves to go home, the risk of burglaries increases as the building becomes empty and potentially vulnerable to intruders. Fortunately, there are a number of products that can be recommended and installed by tradespeople to help property owners secure their premises overnight.

Securing outside
Most burglars will look for an opportunity to break into a property when it is dark so they are less likely to be spotted whilst committing their crime. For this reason, it’s important to shine some light on the outside of the building and monitor any activity that may be occurring on the grounds. Installing lighting or improving any existing lighting on and around the building will help to increase the chance of burglars being seen. It may also assist in deterring offenders from actually trying to enter the premises, as they no longer have protection from the dark night. In addition, installing lighting is a fairly inexpensive method of protection, so it should definitely be a top consideration when improving security measures.

Protecting entrances
It is likely that if someone is looking to gain access to the building, they will try to do so through one of the main entrance points, such as the doors and windows. For this reason, such areas require the highest levels of security and need to be able to withstand any attacks from someone who may be trying to force entry.
To secure the door entrance points, the most effective way would be to install a heavy duty locking system that only grants access to those who are authorised. There are lots of entrance control kits on the market, which can ensure that only those people who know the code will be able to get into the building. For example, the Codelock CL5010 is ideal for busy buildings as it offers up to 80 user codes, on-door programming and comes with a heavy duty mortice tubular latch bolt. It is particularly suitable for large organisations, such as hospitals, schools and commercial buildings, as there is the option of setting up one-time user codes.

The CL5010 also has two alarm release terminals – one allows the lock to be opened from a reception desk or answer phone while the other can be linked to an alarm system, which will release the door for 30 minutes, allowing emergency personnel to enter a room.

Alarming intruders
To protect the inside of the building and everything that is stored within, the most effective recommendation would be an alarm system. It is often the case that company premises will contain a large variety of expensive equipment, such as computers and machinery, along with sensitive information and documents, and perhaps even money. As a result, business owners will be looking for products which offer the highest levels of security. The most effective alarms on the market are those that automatically contact telephone numbers of people who are stored on the system – so this may be the property owner and also the police. By notifying the registered contacts as soon as a burglary occurs, someone can arrive at the site quickly and take any necessary action, such as re-securing the building. When the alarm is activated, it may even deter the burglar from entering the property any further and as a result it could help to protect the valuables inside.

After Hackney Play Area, a children’s charity in North London, suffered from a number of recent burglaries, IronmongeryDirect donated one of its Yale Easy Fit Telecommunicating Alarms to help prevent break-ins occurring in the future. This alarm rings when it is triggered by unauthorised access and is pre-linked to contact the three numbers stored on the system in a specified sequence. It also uses 868 Mhz technology for a more secure alarm system, and its rolling codes function virtually eliminates the possibility of codes being copied. As a result, when recommending suitable products to clients, the Yale alarm is an effective solution to consider.

Burglaries can have very costly and detrimental effects, especially if important documents or equipment is stolen in the process. Recommending products to clients will depend on the levels of protection required and also the budget that is available. There are a range of quality products available on the security market to suit any brief, all of which will help to protect against break-ins and possibly act as a deterrent.