Tailgating is one of the most common threats to building security today. Despite popular opinion, that thieves only operate in well-organised gangs. It is now more widely understood that the majority of burglaries to business are a result of opportunists, who identify blindspots in building management. Striking at peak times of heavy footfall, such as at the start or end of a working day.
Opem Security’s control room reports that intruders are dressing to impress, often sporting business attire, to blend in with a busy crowd. In most instances the perpetrator will approach an access door or entrance point, whilst on a phone call and with a briefcase in hand, hoping to coax an unsuspecting bystander into holding open a door and granting them access. This common act of courtesy can lead to detrimental effects resulting in damage, theft, financial loss, violence to tenants, and compromising the reputation of the business.
Continue reading to learn about ways of preventing tailgating and discover how implementing a smart CCTV and remote monitoring strategy can improve building safety.
How to prevent tailgating and improve building security
- Educate building users on the potential risks that can result from tailgating
- Create a safety policy and guideline, highlighting best practice for how to deal with potential tailgaters and actions to take if they suspect an intruder
- Introduce a safety officer to building users and encourage them to report any suspicious behaviour
- Create a culture of diligence that encourages the user to think about building security and safeguarding the people around them
- Challenge unauthorised visitors
- Close any doors that might not have closed properly or have been propped or left open
- Never hold a door open for anyone that you don’t recognise
By adopting simple behaviours and adhering to the safety guidelines, you can dramatically improve building security and the safety of others. As well as staff and tenants doing their part, it’s also important for business to implement security measures such as to safeguard both people and assets.
Smart security solutions designed to deter intruders
When evaluating building security, it is advised to instruct a security professional, to survey your property and generate a risk assessment plan. It is important to identify vulnerable areas that might be susceptible to tailgating or forced entry. These are likely to be all final entrance and exit points including fire exits, lift lobbies, and stairwells. By pinpointing access weaknesses, you can begin to implement a CCTV and remote monitoring strategy designed to deter intruders in the first instance, but also to capture and report any break-ins. Visual verification offers the highest level of police response so it is important to strategically place your CCTV cameras to offer optimum detection. If your property has previously been a target for thieves, installing security assets such as CCTV and access control can help to reduce attacks and crime not only in your building but also within your community.
Opem Security offers a full site survey and audit which can be arranged here.
Out of hours challenges for operators
When designing intuitive security systems for commercial properties, Opem Security, understands the intricacies and risks posed to building security, when catering to the needs of a diverse community. The growing demand for unlimited building accessibility is changing the landscape for security and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to identify legitimate employees from unwanted intruders.
To facilitate out of hours requirements, many flexible office providers and commercial real estate companies have turned to using manned guards. However, this can often result in excessively high fees, ineffective monitoring, and missed break-ins, due to human error caused by over-familiarity with the environment and guards sleeping on the job.
Points to consider when instruction a control room or Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC) for remote monitoring
Remote monitoring for CCTV is a reliable and cost-effective method for deterring, detecting, reporting and reducing break-ins. This is why it has become the flexible office operations, security method of choice, and increasingly replacing manned guarding.
Third parties
When reviewing security companies for remote monitoring it is crucial to understand their experience and capabilities and their understanding of your industry and space requirements. The majority of security companies will offer a control room or Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC) package, however, these are often managed by third parties. This can result in a disconnect, and grey areas if there’s any crossover with responsibility and chain of command in the event of an incident.
Methods of monitoring
Most ARC’s will offer a remotely monitored service using cameras that alarm on motion. However, if the commercial property offers 24/7 access, how can you spot an intruder and raise a meaningful alarm? With emergency services inundated with high volumes of false alarms, it has become common practice for the police to ignore alarms unless there is visual verification, to save valuable resources and police time.
Opem Security do things differently
Having specialised in delivering flexible security solutions to the flex space sector, Opem Security has adapted the way that we design security systems to allow for effective monitoring.
Opem, offers an in-house control room facility, pairing state of the art technology, with a highly trained, agile, and revolving workforce, designed to eliminate remote monitoring has empowered the user to effectively improve overall building security. Our pioneering methods for remote door monitoring have allowed us to cut through the noise and reduce the number of false alarms so that we can focus on the detection and capture a break-in.
See below the examples of Opem’s monitoring methods below:
Our ultimate goal is to provide security that prevents crime and keeps people safe.
As part of our service offering, we provide a free site survey and security audit conducted by one of our specialists.
To find out how the Opem team can help you protect your commercial space, get in touch today.
