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By Brett Beatty
I was a police officer for over 15 years and dealt with a lot of tenant and property manager complaints at various apartment complexes throughout my city. Most of my dealings was with the tenants, because I worked the midnight shift and none of the property managers were up working at that time. So we became the complaint solvers. Complaints came in regularly at some of the same apartment complexes which become troublesome. I would always ask myself what is being done on these properties to prevent criminal activity from occurring and why are the complaints coming from repeated complainants. Well the answer I found was "Nothing."
Most if not all the complaints were based on a reactive response. A tenant would have their car broken into and would call the police to file a complaint, because that is what they were told to do by management. I would ask the complainant/tenant if there was security on the property and their answer was either " I don't know", or "No we don't". Almost always there was no chance of us( The Police) catching any suspects who committed the crime because it was always after the incident had occurred. On some rare occasions we would receive a call from a tenant who was witnessing a criminal act in progress on the property. But because our police resources weren't always abundant by the time we arrived on site to catch the suspect(s) in action they were long gone. Yes we would take the report, lift fingerprints, and conduct a canvass, but honestly that was to make the tenant reporting the incident happy. The report would be filed with Detective Division and be stacked away with the other hundreds of reports that were investigating, never pulling the report to investigate the incident unless it became a crime epidemic on the property.
So as you see from the information listed above the property manager's level of security on their property is to call the police when an incident occurs. This is what they tell their tenants when they lease out an apartment. This is obviously classified as a reactive approach to security. What I'm about to tell you is how to take a proactive approach to security in your business or on your property.
Now I know a lot of property manager's are going to say that they don't have a budget for security and that is what the police are for. But remember this, the police are under staffed, unfortunately taking care of higher priority calls, and almost always responding to the complaint after the incident has occurred. And what I found out which is frightening is that the only way property managers would provide security on their property is if a critical incident happened such as a homicide, rape, home invasion, or car jacking. It seems that security is the last item in everyone's budget but the most important in my mind.
Property manager's first need to see what issues they have on their properties and put them in classifications. Next they need to contact a professional security company to provide them with a security site assessment or free security consultation of their property based on the issues and challenges that are happening. Remember this process doesn't happen over night, it takes weeks, and sometimes months, before a solution is found. But remember to be patient during this process. A good security company will pull records of all the criminal incidents that have occurred in a certain mile radius, time that they occurred, and the type of incidents occurring. They will see if there were any arrests made recently that can be tracked back to their property.
The next part in the process is customizing a security plan to meet their needs. One of the best security services and the best deterrent out there is called the roving patrol. This type of security provides randomized patrols on the property from a highly marked and visible security vehicle with flashing LED lights. The vehicle enters the property at different times during the night documenting what they see and hear. Some companies provide real time reporting, which allows the officer to write his reports on a computer which is inside the vehicle while he is on the property. These reports are then uploaded instantly to a program which the client can log in and see what is going on their property. And since were in the technology age, GPS tracked security vehicles provide accountability to the client allowing them to justify the time that the security company is on their property.
I can sum up my whole article by saying this- It is required by all registered motor vehicle owners to have their vehicle's insured in case of accident. They pay a premium which varies based on their driver history and the amount of tickets or accidents they have had in the past. Or what risk level they are. You pay this insurance premium as long as you have a registered car on the road. You may never need it but know that if a accident happens you do have it. This can be applied to security. Management companies own properties that require apartments to be leased by tenants. If you provide security on the property you may never need it but if a threat or criminal incident does occur you know you have security on your property to address the issue. Remember being proactive is the best security approach, don't wait for the worst to occur on your property to make that decision.
Brett Beatty President and managing officer of Signal 88 Security of New Britain welcomes you to educate yourself by going to http://www.signal88.com and finding out why it is so important to find the best security service on your property before the criminal activity or incidents start to occur.
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