Ensure the Security of Your Premises with Mobile Surveillance for Business and Construction Sites
All business leaders, no matter their industry, want to prevent crime and protect their workers. From organized retail crime and employee theft to insurance fraud and workplace violence, comprehensive security solutions offer a powerful defense to deter criminals, reduce risks, and safeguard your business.
This blog post outlines how mobile business security systems’ innovative features, including surveillance cameras, motion sensors, and alarm systems, can significantly reduce the likelihood of criminal activities and ensure the security of your premises.
Like food trucks and travel trailers, mobile surveillance security systems can be placed—and relocated as necessary—where they are needed most. Advances in technology provide portability, which means complete flexibility for companies’ needs, as this type of enterprise surveillance system does not require extensive installation logistics. For example, they don’t need anchored network cables.
Consider these units universal and weather resistant, as they are often solar-powered or contain battery backups, which is especially useful during power outages. By not depending on the power grid, mobile surveillance security systems can provide full coverage for temporary needs, like construction and work sites, parks, festivals, and event parking lots, where foot and driver traffic patterns change every day.
Mobile surveillance systems typically offer features like Wi-Fi capability, cellular connections, compatibility with third-party devices, and remote device operations that allow users to monitor their businesses offsite. These integrated features make mobile surveillance systems more adaptable than other types of video surveillance.
In the Colorado Springs, Colorado, area construction companies lost $1.04 million from building site thefts in 2021.
“They obviously keep an eye on our sites and when a fresh batch arrives they seem to know when and where,” Managing Director of Vanguard Homes, Mark Long told KOAA News last year. “The cost of it, the value of it has made [construction materials] a greater target.”
It’s the same story for Noah’s Animal Hospitals in Indianapolis, Indiana. Its grand opening was delayed by months because it became a frequent stop for thieves. The rooftop HVAC unit has been stolen twice, as was the construction foreman’s truck.
Thieves range from people who commit small-time, spur-of-the-moment thefts to organized crews who hit multiple construction sites, leave town, and scout other locations in another state. And there’s quite a shopping list, from power tools and lumber to heavy equipment and different types of metal. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that businesses lose more than $1 billion annually to thefts of metal, mostly copper piping and wire. While copper theft is nothing new to worksites, the costs compound exponentially for businesses because the metal’s price increased by more than 30% in 2021. Pinching copper provides lucrative returns on a thief’s time investment.
And according to the National Equipment Register, a national database of stolen heavy equipment, $400 million worth of backhoes, jackhammers, trucks, and other construction equipment turns up missing from jobsites every year. The actual number is likely much higher, as this only accounts for the thefts reported to the police or insurers.
Major home improvement store loss prevention departments are combatting surges in power tool and rented equipment thefts. While other retailers are also facing increases in theft, organized retail crime syndicates value tools and spools of wire over jewelry and electronics.
“They do a lot of research about what is profitable,” Raul Aguilar, who oversees international organized crime cases for Homeland Security Investigations, the primary investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, told ABC News. “They have shopping lists.”
Mobile business security systems can significantly reduce the likelihood that criminals can conduct their illicit business on your site. Effective operations are proactive, complete with integrated layers of video surveillance capabilities including 360-degree remote monitoring, motion sensors, lights, thermal imaging, alarm systems, and robust video analytics.
This layered technology provides two sets of eyes, with both human and machine intelligence, to work in tandem to identify potential problems before they happen. Trained security monitoring operators can help spot intruders and take immediate action. From issuing a warning using the on-site speaker system to tracking the suspected thief’s movements in real-time for law enforcement, a comprehensive mobile video security system provides a clear advantage to combat crime.
Not only does it help in the moment, but offsite mobile security systems, either for parking lot surveillance or other security measures, also can serve as a deterrent for potential criminals. According to a University of North Carolina at Charlotte, comparison of deliberate and impulsive burglars, more than 80% look for visible security measures, like an alarm or video surveillance cameras before breaking in.
While thieves’ techniques are more sophisticated, the threat of going to jail remains a key deterrent in fighting theft. Mobile security units can provide the verbal warnings that stop suspects in their tracks, the technological equivalent of the Boomers’ tried-and-true “get off my lawn.”
And when the system doesn’t deter a criminal, it continues to record their actions. This up-to-the-minute detail of the crime in progress can help first responders establish a safer environment to enter than when they respond to a 911 call.
Los Angeles Police Department Detective Joe Chavez of the LAPD train division task force told ABC7 that a mobile police video surveillance security system tailored to combat rail theft helped officers best deploy resources to recover $22 million in merchandise and arrest 22 people.
“It makes the whole system more efficient,” he said. “We weren’t chasing just people running across the track, because there are people that just cross the tracks to get to home or wherever. We were able to see actual suspects climbing onto the trains, actually busting open the containers and removing product.”
There are many reasons to invest in mobile surveillance security systems, including:
When it’s time to reconsider conventional surveillance cameras and conduct a threat assessment, explore the many options mobile surveillance security systems offer.
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