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What You Need To Know About Intruder Alarms And Business Surveillance Systems

Business Surveillance Systems

Making your business safer for staff and customers is always important. The hard part is figuring out the best options.

Many businesses use intruder alarms and/or business surveillance systems. However, it’s crucial to understand what type of protection these options provide.

In some cases, you may need more security than what one, the other or both offer.

Pros And Cons Of Intruder Alarms

Intruder alarms are one of the most popular options for businesses. In fact, the alarm system market has grown by 3.5% annually since 2012. What makes them so effective is businesses typically have a sign in place that states an intruder alarm system is installed. This does help repel many would-be criminals.

The systems also sound either an audible or silent alarm and usually send a notification to a specific manager and/or local authorities. The sound alone may make criminals run away.

However, intruder alarms only alert your business about an intruder. In some cases, it may even be a false alarm, especially with motion sensor alarms. By the time the alarm sounds and someone arrives on the scene, the criminal may have already taken what they wanted and be gone.

Another issue is intruder alarms have to be set. If an employee leaves and forgets to set the system, you’re left without any security.

Pros And Cons Of Surveillance Systems

Surveillance systems are typically used in conjunction with intruder alarms. After all, it’s a good idea to have cameras in place to see who the intruder might be. Sadly, police only catch 10% of burglars, so a surveillance footage could give police the helping hand they need.

The real benefits depend on how your business uses the surveillance system and what type you have. If you’re using higher quality cameras, it will cost significantly more, but you’ll have clearer video. If no one’s monitoring the cameras, then you won’t know anything’s happened until after the fact.

When used along with an intruder alarm, you have a system that allows the security company or business owner to quickly check the cameras to see if the alarm is real or false and also tell authorities what to expect.

Surveillance systems are typically used to highlight specific areas, such as entryways, registers and parking lots. They can’t see everything at once. Those blind spots could give criminals the advantage they’re looking for.

Making The Most Of Both

If you want to optimize security in your business, take security a step further. Use a three-way combination of an intruder alarm, surveillance system and security guards. It might sound like overkill, but consider all the flaws in the two most common security measures.

Both systems leave your business unprotected from actual security incidents. They’re ideal for alerting you, but not so great at stopping an in-progress incident. They may also leave your business vulnerable during working hours.

Having on-site security guards means someone is always around to handle security incidents. For instance, if someone tries to force their way in during business hours, you’d be left on your own to deal with this person until law enforcement arrives. A guard is trained in how to deal with this situation immediately.

Even if you don’t have on-site guards, you can hire guards to monitor your surveillance system to watch for potential problems. Instead of waiting until it’s already happened or in progress, the guard notifies law enforcement and has someone on-site before things get out of control.

There’s only so much protection that intruder alarms and business surveillance systems provide. You need more than, especially during business hours. Guards are able to monitor the blind spots from security cameras, walk staff to their cars at night and much more. Just think of them as an extra employee who just wants to keep everyone safer.

Contact BOS Security

Are you ready to provide optimum security for your business? Contact BOS Security by phone at 404-793-6965.

Curious how security guards could help your business? Try our free Security Needs Assessment to better understand your security needs.

Image: Theo Thomaidis

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