Business security measures can impact insurance premiums by reducing risk, deterring fraud, and enhancing safety.
Summary:
If a sprinkler head fell from the ceiling of your office and narrowly avoided hitting you, it seems unlikely that your first reaction would be to look around to make sure no one was watching, pick up the sprinkler head, and smack yourself in the face with it.
But that’s exactly what one Florida woman did.
Why? Two words: workers’ compensation.
Designed to help employees who become sick or injured as a direct result of something that happened while on the job, workers’ compensation is a type of insurance that protects employees. But in some cases, businesses need just as much protection from their employees. Workers’ compensation fraud, such as in the case of the sprinkler-wielding woman, is only one type of insurance fraud businesses may face.
When it comes to preventing fraud, deterring crime, and reducing insurance premiums, you’d be hard-pressed to find better protection than business security cameras.
Businesses use insurance to protect themselves from a variety of potential financial risks. Typical policy options include, but are not limited to:
While the types of business insurance are quite standard, no two businesses are exactly alike, and insurance premiums and coverage are as varied as the businesses themselves.
There are a number of factors insurance companies consider when deciding on insurance rates for a business, including the type of business, the location, the claims history, and the annual revenue, but all these factors boil down to one word: risk. At the end of the day, insurance companies are trying to assess how likely it is that they’ll have to pay out and what the risk is that your business will cost them more than you’ve paid in.
Commercial security cameras can make all the difference when it comes to protecting businesses, and this can even extend to insurance costs.
It seems entirely likely that the Florida woman who bashed her own head with the sprinkler would have gotten away with fraud. (Because seriously, who would have seen that coming?) But she didn’t because of one key thing: business security camera footage. She may have checked to ensure there weren’t any people around to witness her crime, but she forgot to check for cameras.
Security cameras can provide crucial evidence when it comes to accidents (or pretend accidents) and crimes that occur on business property. This evidence can speed up the claims process because it becomes much easier to verify what actually happened and who is at fault.
The fraud prevention offered by security cameras protects both the business and the insurance company.
What’s the best way to avoid paying your deductible? To not have to submit a claim in the first place.
If bad actors know someone is watching, they typically won’t go through with whatever it is they were planning. Most of the time, a large part of the appeal of a crime is to get away with doing something and avoid any negative consequences. Business security cameras act as an unquestionable witness. (If that woman had noticed the security camera, she wouldn’t have tried to pull off her fraudulent scheme.)
Crime deterrence is one of the most powerful benefits offered by security cameras as stopping the crime before it happens protects people, property, and businesses, and it prevents the insurance company from having to pay for any of the damages. By avoiding the crime and the need for the insurance payout, you’re also avoiding a rate increase. (One of the factors insurance companies use to determine your deductible is your claims history. The fewer claims you have, the better your rates will be.)
When equipped with remote monitoring capabilities and advanced motion detection, business security cameras can alert you to when things aren’t as they should be, enabling an immediate response to the problem. Sending law enforcement or security officers to the scene of the crime-in-progress—or even just blasting a message over a loudspeaker—has the potential to significantly reduce the damage from a crime.
Insurance companies recognize this, making them more likely to reduce premiums if you have live remote monitoring in place.
In the unfortunate event of an accident or a crime, security cameras are an unbiased witness, providing essential evidence. This evidence can verify accident claims (or disprove them). It can also potentially help investigators find perpetrators of a crime to help pay for damages or recover stolen goods, reducing the financial burden placed on insurance companies.
Because of their ability to deter or interrupt crimes and prevent fraud, security cameras make businesses less of a risk all around. This is attractive to insurance companies and can result in a reduction of overall costs when factoring premiums.
While security cameras can definitely have a positive impact on your insurance situation (such as the deterrence factor often helping you avoid the need to claim something in the first place), their presence doesn’t guarantee a lower premium.
A lowered insurance premium because of security cameras depends on several factors:
1. The Insurance Company
Some insurance companies do not offer rate reductions just because security cameras are in place. This is largely in part because of the rise of fake security cameras (which can serve as deterrents, but aren’t as effective as actual cameras since their use is limited). It’s difficult for an insurance company to confirm if cameras are real and active.
2. Security Camera Features
For those insurance companies that do consider rate reductions for business security cameras, these cameras often have to have advanced features such as:
3. Live Monitoring Services
Real-time monitoring and alerts make a big difference when it comes to response times (and those response times help mitigate loss, which decreases risk for the insurance company). Those response times are improved even more when alerts are monitored by a dedicated team such as a third-party monitoring service, and insurance companies know it. Some of them will only provide a discount for security cameras if live monitoring services are currently in use.
4. Camera Placement and Visibility
In order to be considered effective deterrents by insurance companies, cameras need to be visible from the outside of the business. There are perhaps no better examples of this than mobile security units, such as the LVT Unit®, which is a very visible trailer equipped with towering camera mounts and flashing lights. While the LVT Unit doesn’t take up more space than a parking spot, there’s no mistaking what it’s there for.
Interested in trying the crime-deterring capabilities of a mobile security unit for your business? Contact LiveView Technologies® for a demonstration today!