This year, Alberta RCMP are suggesting that property owners consider Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED). This includes installing fences and locked gates around the property to make it obvious when someone is trying to trespass, installing timed/motion sensor lights to keep your property bright at night and while you are away, and planning your landscaping to deter criminals. For example, keeping trees and shrubs pruned so that they do not make windows easy entry points, and even installing thorny plants that make sneaking around uncomfortable, if not impossible, for criminals.

But these protections do not just apply to residential properties. They are also a great way to keep businesses, school, churches, and other properties safe from criminal activity.

Here are 6 ways you can apply CPTED and other security best practices to protect your property.

Street Address: Make sure your address can easily be seen from the street, day and night. Police and fire services are dispatched to your address, not to the name of your company, so make sure they can easily find you by having a clearly visible address on the exterior.

Signage: It is also a good idea to place “No Trespassing” or “No Loitering” signs around your building. While they may do little to deter adamant criminals, these signs give the police probable cause to question individuals that are on the grounds of your facility.

Landscaping: Trees and shrubs give criminals cover and make it easier for people to break in through windows. Properly maintained, trees, shrubs, and other landscape features can mitigate these risks. Make sure that shrubs, especially in front of windows, are not higher than 42 inches. You will also want to make entry through the roof more difficult by trimming trees next to your building back 7 feet.

Lighting: In most situations, good lighting helps reduce crime. Light up the area around your building at night. It will deter criminals and allow passersby to easily spot suspicious activity. Keep in mind, however, that there are some situations in which light can be a disadvantage. In the case of a construction site, the darker it is, the harder it is for criminals to navigate the site, giving officers more time to respond.

Go Keyless: Eliminate keys and replace them with an electronic door locking system that can be programmed to allow authorized individuals entry to specific doors, during specified hours. This eliminates the need to rekey doors and allows for a quicker and simpler response if a key card is lost. Learn more about our Sonitrol Access Control solutions.

Dumpsters: Place all dumpsters away from doors. This will help reduce internal losses during the daytime hours. Having dumpsters too close to doors makes it easier for internal criminal activity to take place by providing an easy temporary hiding place for valuable inventory.

Security System: Consider a Sonitrol Verified Alarm with CCTV video surveillance and audio detection protection. With over 177,000 criminal captures since we started keeping track in 1979, criminals know how Police respond to Sonitrol dispatches (average response of 3.5 minutes with real-time information from our team of operators) and tend to stay away from Sonitrol protected properties. We offer customized Verified security solutions for all types of businesses. Fully integrated, scalable, and totally customized to your specific needs, our security packages will do the job of protecting your assets from theft and vandalism and more.

For more information on using CPTED and other security solutions to protect your property, contact us today.