Simon Faulkner, VP of Sales UK, Ireland & South Africa, Reconeyez evaluates the cost of protecting construction and remote sites.
We live through unprecedented times, making construction and remote sites even more vulnerable to attack from thieves. The cost-of-living crisis has yet to bite fully; the uncertainty about the future and the rocketing price of fuel and materials is fertile ground for criminals.
Thieves can sell all building materials relatively quickly. Still, diesel used in vehicles and generators is now a very high value target and a desirable commodity. Fuel spillages during theft cause environmental damage with all the associated clean-up costs and cause delays by the failure of machinery to start – not to mention the damage to fuel tanks. In addition to this, we’re all facing higher energy prices and obviously, this increases the cost of powering security on site.
With the increased threat posed by such new economic challenges, now is the time to evaluate the cost of security and take a fresh look at your risk assessment.
Taking the appropriate measures
Start by hiding metal cables and copper tubing from view and ideally store them in locked containers to reduce your risk. Next, make sure fuel stores are well-protected, not forgetting the fuel in vehicles. Use an effective visual monitoring system if you cannot remove vehicles from the site at the end day. Remember, places are better protected when you increase the risk to the criminal and reduce the risk to the site.
Obviously, a strong fence is a good deterrent and will delay entry; plus, consider what time of the day the site will be most at risk. Finally, the fitting of good locks, effective intruder alarms, visual verification systems to identify intruders and clear security warning signs will tell potential intruders that the owner takes the issue of security seriously – which will persuade criminals to look elsewhere.
Investing in the correct detection system is not necessarily the most expensive. Sound physical barriers will, in most cases, deter thieves or at least delay intrusions. However, you need to consider how you will detect any intruders determined to breach those deterrents.
Detection comes in two forms – firstly, there is the immediate identification requirement to alert those affected or request a response, such as calling the police and secondly, the need to identify criminals after the event. CCTV is the usual solution to monitor sites, but this requires mains power and the addition of a dedicated person to sit behind a screen and watch for any intrusion. In addition, the cost of electricity continues to rise along with wage inflation, so you need to consider other solutions to replace or complement traditional CCTV and ARCS.
For example, tower solutions that use solar panels are an excellent rapid deployment solution and go some way to alleviate the problem. Still, they can be expensive in themselves and cost-prohibitive to hire for more than a few days.
On the other hand, battery-powered visual verification systems that only trigger upon intrusion are ideal and efficient solutions if you want rapid protection on-site without a dedicated CCTV system’s expensive energy and data consumption or time delay. When specifying visual verification systems, ensure the picture quality is good enough to identify the image as a genuine intruder. In addition, make sure it has sufficient in-built AI to stop you from being plagued by false positives – in other words, the systems need to be able to only send you images it has identified as a genuine person or vehicle.
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket
Think about security in layers. Start with a perimeter fence with controlled entry points. If the intruder overcomes the first layer, think about electronic detection systems to initiate a response. Ensure you delay the intruder at each stage on the route to the most secure locations while waiting for help to arrive/respond.
For expense plant and machinery, make sure you return to a safe area at the end of the day well within the compound with additional fencing to protect it. In addition, the quicker you are informed of an intrusion, the more time it will give you to respond to identify and apprehend the criminal.
A small investment in the appropriate technology will pay great dividends in safeguarding staff, maintaining credible security and keeping safe.
Effective visual verification systems that trigger intrusion are your electronic eyes and ears on the ground. They can replace or complement on-site guards or make your mobile teams only responsive to genuine intrusions. Remember, clips of people or vehicles on-site, preferably in real time, viewed directly to your browser or mobile app, are all needed proof to initiate a police response.
Minimising false alarms
Visual verification is the direction of travel for the security industry. However, the most significant drain on time and resources remains false positives from alarm activations (falling leaves, rising sun etc.). AI or deep learning video analytics that filter out false alarms no longer need expensive network systems.
ARCs need to function efficiently and be confident alerts are genuine intrusions. The businesses that have adopted A.I. have seen false positives reduced, managed workloads better and experienced faster response times.
Reducing maintenance and visits to a site
If you’re securing a site without mains power, consider systems with long battery life (at the early stages of construction, for example) to reduce the number of times you need to visit to change batteries. Better still, those systems re-charged via solar power will potentially be maintenance-free.
Use cloud technology for remote site and device management – when specifying security solutions, look at the access to device information and management via a combination of cloud access and apps.
Effective apps and cloud technology mean that you can almost eliminate time spent on site whilst allowing you to arm and disarm remotely, receive low battery alerts and set arming schedules from anywhere. In addition, they allow you to look for systems that seamlessly integrate with your monitoring station system. Such cloud platforms should be able to monitor sites and manages systems and users.
Ask about Reconeyez as part of your security provision
Reconeyez is a new kind of rapid outdoor video security system utilising intelligent intruder detection and a secure app to reduce operating costs.
The Reconeyez visual verification solution is relatively new to the commercial security market, but our roots are in the defence industry. Our solutions result from problem-solving faced by modern day military and border protection.
Our systems use cutting-edge military-grade technology to protect difficult outdoor areas such as construction sites, vacant properties and remote assets with accurate, rugged, cost-effective and straightforward equipment. Other features include:
– No wires, no cables, no mains power
– Battery-powered devices with wireless communication
– AI to verify intrusions
– 35-metre detection range
– H.D images (2.1MP daytime/1.2MP night-time)
– Simple installation
– IP67 certification
– Cloud Platform and app
– operate in 35 countries
To find out more information, visit: www.reconeyez.com
This article was originally published in the May edition of Security Journal UK. To read your FREE digital edition, click here.