What have you done to secure your premises?

[Stu]

In the first week of December I am opening my first shop with the emphasis on repairs rather than sales.

Having never run a shop and having worked from a bedroom and then a rented office for the past couple of years, I am somewhat apprehensive. I am particuarly concerned about securing the premises against break-ins and thefts. It is a very old building we will be renting on a busy high street, with front and rear access. At the moment security is practically nonexistent, just standard locks to the doors and windows.

I am in two minds as to how I should be approaching this. Part of me thinks I should keep costs to a minimum and take the cheapo DIY route, and install an alarm/CCTV system myself, afterall it can't be that hard can it? The other part thinks it might be wiser to spend the money having a system professionally installed.

How have you guys approached this issue yourselves, and what advice would you give to somebody in this situation?

If you have installed/built your own system, what equipment have you used?

Thanks

Stu

 

[soho-integration]

make sure you get the correct insurance that covers your client's hardware if you keep it in the shop overnight, etc.

I don't have a 'store', but I do have an office - I have a professional security system installed and am going to do video surveillance on my own.

Check out this interesting link: http://www.vitamindinc.com/index.php

 

[kamdroid]

You'll need to check with your insurance company as to the quality of locks need and whether you'll need a Redcare connected alarm. Also they may want additional security on the doors/windows (bars, shutters etc.)

 

[0gr3]

I haven't used either but another I have heard of and seems to have some neat features is linuxmce.com.
It has a distro that is geared towards security.

 

[ProTech Support]

In the first week of December I am opening my first shop with the emphasis on repairs rather than sales.

Having never run a shop and having worked from a bedroom and then a rented office for the past couple of years, I am somewhat apprehensive. I am particuarly concerned about securing the premises against break-ins and thefts. It is a very old building we will be renting on a busy high street, with front and rear access. At the moment security is practically nonexistent, just standard locks to the doors and windows.

I am in two minds as to how I should be approaching this. Part of me thinks I should keep costs to a minimum and take the cheapo DIY route, and install an alarm/CCTV system myself, afterall it can't be that hard can it? The other part thinks it might be wiser to spend the money having a system professionally installed.

How have you guys approached this issue yourselves, and what advice would you give to somebody in this situation?

If you have installed/built your own system, what equipment have you used?

Thanks

Stu

I had the same concern when I first got the shop. What we ended up doing was getting an alarm system professionally installed. This included a keypad, motion sensor's, door and window sensors, and another sensor that could detect the sound of glass breaking (had a big front window). All of that costs right around $1000 (including a year of the actual alarm service) and something like $50 p/y after.

Now, technically that was enough for insurance purposes. But we also installed a video surveillance for extra security. Now that I could not give you a price on, because it was something we actually had lying around (don't ask )

My point is, for insurance purposes I would go ahead with the full alarm system. If somewhere down the line you want to go with video surveillance, go ahead, but at this point I don't think it is necessary.

 

[NickCat11]

+1 on the alarm system and video surveillance. These were the first things I did when I opened up my shop. Both you can do yourself. I set up a wireless Visonic alarm system with 1 motion, 3 contacts, and a smoke detector in under 2 hours. Then just pay a company direct for monitoring. I believe I pay $12/month. For video surveillance I have 2 axis wireless ip cameras. They work great.

 

[iisjman07]

We have a CCTV system that connects to a pc hidden away in the back somewhere. It's also been setup so when movement is detected the lights come on - to try and get a better photo. We also have a burglar alarm which goes off like 30seconds after a break-in, which is linked to phone people when it goes off. In my opinion I would go for the windows/door/whatever metal shutters (as long as you slide them down during the day as to not appear strange) as they protect you from both vandalism and theft, as opposed to CCTV that can be thwarted by covering your face. A recent example of what happened to the shop where I work is that at 1:30AM this man in a hoodie came and through a brick through the door. He then climbed in nicked whatever he could carry. Unfortunately thanks to his hoodie we didn't get a good photo, although luckily, all he nicked was about 20 flash drives and a broken pc monitor (we keep all the customers computers behind a separate locked door in the back, and that would've taken too much time before the cops came). So yeah, the moral of the story is something along the lines of 'an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure', ie, if we had metal shutters that guy would've been buggered. Also if I had to choose between the CCTV and the alarm, I'd go with the alarm every time because it can be set to ring you and CCTV can be easily made useless, mind you you can always setup some high quality webcams to a pc (you'll probably have one on all day anyway) for next to nothing, and they can be used as proof if someone tries to slip something in their pocket when you're not looking. Another thing to do is get security locks/security cables for anything you have on display such as laptops and tft monitors, etc, as these really are dirt cheap and save your valuables. Another useful thing may be to get something like a lockable cabinet (you know, the ones with glass front panels that slide but with a lock in the middle) to put moderately expensive things in like I don't know - wifi modems?, as these stop people slipping stuff inside bags, etc. Another useful thing to invest in would be a cash box. We have one we keep in the back, and we just have a little money in the front. If you really wanna get intrusive you could 'watermark' your stock with UV pens, but this would be time consuming... Word of advice: Keep 'easily nickable' stuff nearer the counter (or on the counter) as this is a good deterrent for thieves.

 

[JosephLeo]

I doubt my voice should echo too far into this topic, but I want to throw my $0.02 anyway.

If it were me I would look into getting an "untappable" lock first since $5 on eBay can get you a tap-style lock picker. I would then install an alarm system with door and window protection, motion detection and breaking glass detection- but not sound protection since strange things can happen in the night...say a squirrel on the roof, or a loose shelf that falls. I'd also install a false camera or two as a distraction camera with real ones hidden at the door- the cash register- and one with a birds eye view of the store.

Finally- if need be I would even consider removing the motion detection and get a security company to drop off a dog every night if the neighborhood is really rough.

 

[Stu]

What do you guys think of going down the wireless route if I were to install a CCTV/alarm system myself? I have in the past installed a wireless alarm system in a home, which was pretty easy since there were no cables to run. And it works fairly well, doesn't seem to suffer any intereference or anything like that.

Can wireless CCTV/alarm systems be jammed? I've heard horror stories before, but not sure if they are a myth or not.

 

[NickCat11]

I believe most of the modern wireless alarm systems will notify the police if a jam is detected. My house was done by ADT (before I realized how easy it was) and that's what the installer told me.

 

[msherman]

CCTV system w/ 7 stills and a PTZ.
Card Reader for front/back door.
Alarm/motion/glass detection in each room.
and a motion laser on the roof.

A huge part of our business is security(CCTV/alarm/access control, etc).

 

[PCSupportGlasgow]

re-inforced metal doors and shutters.

Alarm system with door & window contacts, motion detection activation, which also sends text to mobile and calls police if triggered.

CCTV system - IP cameras which automatically FTP uploads the video offsite when movement detected.

cast iron cage with multiple locks for holding any client equipment overnight.

All internal doors are firedoors and have locks on them

Add to the fact any would be thief would have to scale a 12ft metal fence to get into our yard in the first place and would trigger the spotlights if they did.

So all in all it probably more hassle than it worth for any would be thief especially as we hold as little as possible at our workshop and office.