This past year, we have received an overwhelming amount of thank you letters that highlight the success of our innovative, verified audio and video security technology.

 
Our clients get immediate results and see a reduction in the amount of break-ins following the installation of our technology, since criminals who are familiar with Sonitrol know not to mess with us.  

More importantly, our integrated security technology allows local police to apprehend the criminals who do attempt a break-in, quickly and safely, and in most cases, with little to no damage to your business.  

The Retail Council of Canada reports retail theft costs $4 billion a year, an average loss to retailers of $10.8 million per shopping day!

The loss of inventory because of employee theft, customer theft, organized crime, counting errors, damaged goods, or fraud is called Retail Shrinkage, and it has a big impact on a retailer's bottom line.  

If you're a retailer, you're well aware of how costly and time consuming it is to manage loss prevention. In a recent Canadian Retail Security Survey, by the Retail Council of Canada, they found that shrinkage has been increasing since 2008, and is now approximately $4 billion a year.  That's an average loss to Canadian retailers of $10.8 million per shopping day! 

Shrinkage losses are a constant battle and not only hit the bottom line, but indirectly cost retailers time and resources for loss prevention management. The survey found that retail chain stores spend on average 2% of sales dollars on loss prevention.  Every retail storeowner needs to think seriously about preventing theft from a profit and loss perspective, but more importantly, they need to understand their responsibility in providing employees with a safe work environment, especially in the case of a violent armed robbery.

Retail stores that are very vulnerable to theft, and especially armed robbery, must invest in improving their security systems. Many just have cheap CCTV systems bought off the Internet with no real security features. Retailers cannot put the lives of their store employees on the line. Your local Police are experts in handling armed robbery situations and the sooner they're aware of the crime in progress the better.

Across Western Canada there are tens of thousands of CCTV cameras protecting valuable business assets that do nothing more than record what's going on.  In some cases these cameras are watched by an expensive on-site security guard who really does try to stay awake watching a static CCTV monitor for activity.

Most CCTV security systems don’t have a human watching them live and are either naively used as a visual deterrent, or people only view the recorded CCTV footage retrospectively, and get to watch the break-in after the fact, after the criminal has gone, and the damage has been done.

I want to conclude my series of blogs about construction theft by sharing some construction industry data and facts. It's hard to put an exact figure on the total cost of construction theft to construction companies and contractors in Canada, but according to a report from Zurich Canada, we can safely say that the amount is severely under reported in the area of $46 million per year in insurance claims.

My last few blogs were about the growing problem of copper theft, some of which occurs on construction sites.  But if we put copper theft to one side, general theft on the construction site is also a serious problem and has to be solved.

The CBC recently reported that construction site theft was driving up home prices. Homebuilders for example, have estimated that new residential home vandalism and theft cost about $1,000 per home.  And if heavy equipment is stolen, the replacement cost could be in the $100,000’s of dollars.

Construction equipment theft is a heavy burden on the industry as a whole, which is largely comprised of small businesses, contractors and developers. Insurance claims don’t usually cover the full costs involved, and inevitably the extra costs gets passed on to the purchaser.

If you’re a general contractor, project manager, or construction site superintendent, the last thing you need heading into an aggressive spring construction season is the loss of valuable tools, equipment, and materials - not to mention having your trailers and storage compounds rifled through and damaged.

You might think it’s enough to have a fenced, well-lit area, with secure locked gates - but it isn’t.