If you own a business in British Columbia, then new data released by police in Vancouver collected during the COVID-19 pandemic should be a shocking realization that you may need to revisit your company’s security solution.
Despite Vancouver police noting that their calls for service across the city have been down overall, as reported by CTV News, there has been a whopping 99 percent increase in commercial break and enters in the last eight weeks when compared with the same time period in 2019.
“We have reallocated resources to target these individuals,” said Sgt. Aaron Roed with Vancouver police. “We have target teams as well as surveillance teams who are trying to get people before they even break into the businesses to go after those numbers and lower them and put them into jail.”
Despite police allocating more resources to stop commercial break and enters in the city, revisiting your company’s security solution will not only help prevent your company from falling prey to crime - it will also help the police do their job.
Is your current security solution effective at preventing break and enters?
The large majority of businesses across Western Canada are still using conventional CCTV systems. Unfortunately, these systems are not fit for the purpose and will not protect your business from break and enters.
In fact, conventional CCTV cameras merely record what’s happening. By the time your alarm goes off and you make it into your commercial business, the thief has already entered your business, taken off with your assets and made it far away. All you will have to show for it is a grainy recording that doesn’t even identify the suspect.
The result? Police won’t be able to identify the suspect, your organization will have to go through lengthy insurance claims and the criminal will get away scot-free.
To make matters even worse, police are typically hesitant to dispatch officers to conventional CCTV alarms. That’s because the majority of these alarms are actually false alarms. They are set off by animals, low batteries and employees who forget to turn them off - resulting in a waste of police time and resources.
If you are using these outdated security measures and practices, then it’s time for you to revisit the security you have in place at your business. That’s where a verified security solution can help.
What is verified security?
Verified video and audio surveillance gives your organization the operational management and recording benefits of a conventional CCTV surveillance system, but adds once crucial feature that improves police response times and protects your business from criminal activity - alarm verification.
Verified security solutions send live video and audio feeds of a crime to a security professional located in a central monitoring station. This outsourced security specialist is then able to verify whether what is being seen or heard is a real crime in action.
Once a crime is verified by a security expert, immediate live updates are sent directly to the police. Since police know that the activity is verified as a real crime and not a false alarm, they typically respond within just 3.5 minutes - compared to the 45 minutes or longer it takes for them to respond to a non-verified alarm (if they even respond at all).
It’s for this reason that Sonitrol Western Canada’s verified alarms have been responsible for the apprehension of more than 175,000 criminals since 1977. In fact, our brand is so well known that experienced criminals now avoid businesses that use our technology.
Are you looking for more information about preventing commercial break and enters at your Vancouver-based business? Contact our team of security experts today. We would love to answer any questions that you may have.
