Commercial building owners and business managers take security very seriously. There are many items or pieces of information that a burglar would want to steal from an office building, bank, or similar site, such as laptops, cash, financial reports, and more. Sometimes, these intruders are business competitors who are looking for an under-handed way to get an advantage over their competitors, and may break in to photograph or steal documents. Other times, a building may suffer a break-in when burglars want to steal cash or valuable items such as jewelry, handguns, or even antiques. Retailers, banks, office buildings, and more should have airtight security, but sometimes, alarm systems may set off a false alarm, and this can waste time and money. What might other business security solutions look like? A fine alarm system may be sound-based verified alarms, for example. Such sound-based verified alarms can be used to filter out false alarms, and catch a burglar even if that criminal manages to avoid motion sensors or visual cameras. Video surveillance may have blind spots, but sound-based verified alarms can help detect intruders who have the skills to evade other forms of security. It’s an arms race of sorts, and sound-based verified alarms aim to win.
Security Today
No security system is 100% foolproof, but they are always being updated and re-designed to detect intruders and burglars right away and send an alert to nearby police stations. What are some general trends of security and burglary that a business owner may want to keep in mind? For one, the last two weeks of the year, during Christmas and New Year’s, are a common time for burglaries, so security measures may have to be extra tight during that time of year. And as of 2013, the numbers were added up to see how much was lost to burglars across many American businesses. In that year, victims of burglary lost a total of nearly $4.5 billion in property losses of all kinds, and many of these burglaries were in residential buildings. Back to the business aspect of theft and alarms, it should be noted that shoplifting accounts for a lot of lost inventory, and employee theft makes up a third of inventory loss. Security may be needed to watch for dishonest store patrons and employees as well as full-blown burglars who break in. Theft does not have to involve a crow bar and ski masks; a manager’s own employee may be the problem. For these problems and more, sound-based verified alarms can do a lot of good, especially in conjunction with other security measures.
Solid Security
A lone security camera does not constitute great security for a building. Rather, security can involve a number of systems and hardware, as well as security officers present. These officers may be in-house employees, or come from a hired security agency whose members are often ex-military. Video cameras can have their feeds monitored for visuals of a crime in progress, and the recordings can be used as evidence in a court of law against the criminal (especially if the criminal’s face or other distinctive features are seen). Motion sensors are also common for detecting burglars, but it should be noted that motion sensors often register false alarms. To augment them, sound-based verified alarms can be put in place.
Sound-based verified alarms do just that: detect unusual sounds and transmit them to security personnel who can monitor the sounds and verify a crime. Such sensors may activate when unexpected sounds are made in or near the premises, and they can be programmed to ignore mundane, harmless sounds such as raccoons foraging in a Dumpster or the air conditioning turning on. Human judgment plays a role here, and sounds delivered to a monitoring agent can be studied to have their origin determined. If the security personnel determine that the sounds are that of a criminal, an alarm can be sent to nearby police stations, and the criminal may soon be apprehended.
Business owners may note that the mere presence of security often deters crime. Nearly 83% of interviewed convicted burglars said that they would check for security systems before even attempting a break-in at a site.