Securing Your Home

© Gareth Gardner For many business owners and employees the office, store, or factory where they spend their days working is like a second home. The security and protection of the property and the people working there is very important, reminds Insight Security, and a variety of different circumstances and factors will come into play when choosing and implementing a commercial security system. Just as home security systems are geared toward protecting the family and personal property, commercial security systems are designed to keep employees safe from outside aggressors as well as protecting the company’s property from criminals as well as dishonest employees.

What are commercial security systems?

Generally, commercial security systems are any security systems used to protect commercial interests including factories, warehouses, stores, office buildings, and offices themselves. A commercial security system protects a business from outside theft and vandalism as well as protecting and securing the company from the inside as well. Commercial security systems may be overseen by a security company, connected directly to local authorities such as the police department, or may function as an unmonitored deterrent to crime.

The components of commercial security systems will vary depending on the business, and today’s systems can be designed to fit virtually any and all security needs. Some of the more common components of today’s systems include a variety of motion and sound detection devices that may be calibrated to detect even the slightest movement or unusual sound. Some innovative sound detectors can even differentiate the sound of glass being broken from that of other normal environmental sounds. Intruders can also be detected by infrared systems, the natural heat emanating from their bodies standing out among the other standard heat signatures of the property. Motion detectors, as their name implies, are also used in many systems to detect movement in a business after hours. While false alarms can occur with any of these detectors, most can be adjusted based on the normal levels of activity in the area where the detectors are positioned.

Many businesses want video surveillance included in their commercial security systems; when this is the case cameras are usually mounted in strategic areas inside the building including entranceways, facing elevators and stairwells, and in rooms where valuable items are kept. Cameras may also be mounted on the exterior of a building as well as in parking garages or outside parking lots. Some cameras are set up to record footage, saving it to video tape, CD, or on a computer hard drive, while others are wired to closed circuit television systems and require live security personnel to monitor them constantly.

Finally, commercial security systems usually utilize communications elements. Audible alarms of some kind are the standard type of communication component requested, and are ideal if the desire is to scare intruders away. Silent alarms, on the other hand, are used to alert the authorities without alarming the intruders, increasing the chances that the intruders will be apprehended when the police arrive.

Access controls

Controlling and denying access to specific areas within a commercial building or property is another important way to protect the business. A wide variety of innovative access control systems are utilized in commercial security systems including magnetic card readers, fingerprint and retinal scanners, and voice-recognition software. These types of access controls allow the owners of a company or building managers to control the level of employee or individual access on a case-by-case basis, restricting and/or denying access to equipment storage areas or offices where important, valuable, or proprietary materials or information may be stored.

Terry from www.prestigedoors.co.uk said: “In a society where crime is evident, home security is a priority for all property owners. It’s also important that your doors, windows, locks and other security devices are regularly maintained, ensuring they will always protect against would-be thieves and burglars.”

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