Warehouse theft leads to massive losses every year across multiple industries. Since larger companies are better prepared for such attempts these days, attempts to steal from their warehouses rarely succeed. Unfortunately, that also means most thieving parties now focus on small-medium sized companies that are often lax in their security measures. Up next, we are going to discuss options on how to mitigate the chances of preventing warehouse theft by eliminating as many risk factors as possible.
Eliminating Perimeter Risks: Install Commercial-Grade Fencing
Thieves generally do not break through the door, although armed robbers can take that approach. However, both armed assailants and thieves will prefer to avoid detection and confrontation if they can help it. In other words, if a warehouse does not have commercial grade perimeter fencing, it’s much more likely to get robbed than if they did.
However, the cost of installation and the value of what you are protecting should also have some correlation. Therefore, to get a better understanding of what would work best, contact a fence company Saint Louis for installing commercial-grade high-security fencing. Just the sight of barb wired, rail spiked metallic fences alone is sufficient to discourage petty thieves, but specialized, high-security fences will be necessary to deter experienced burglars.
Eliminating Entry Risks: Sturdy Doors and Windows
Even if the perimeter is breached, the thieves must still breach the warehouse building somehow. Naturally, this provides the warehouse owner with another opportunity to add additional layers of security between potential thieves/robbers and the goods. There are a few established rules to safeguard a warehouse from an easy breach.
- The number of windows should be kept to a bare minimum, and they should be higher up than usual.
- The windows should be too small to allow human entry.
- The windows should either have steel bars or unbreakable glass on them.
- Big sliding doors/rolling shutters made from thick steel allow heavy vehicles and equipment entry, without sacrificing security.
- If the warehouse is a prefabricated building, the thin metallic walls must be reinforced for additional integrity.
- Depending on the warehouse’s location, size, cargo, and local crime rates, double or even triple doors can be considered.
Eliminating Internal Breach Risks: Strict Access Control
It is not uncommon to see warehouse theft incidents being linked to an in-house employee. They are not usually the ones to break in, but someone working at the warehouse might act as an informant and an indirect accomplice for the people planning to rob the place. The best way to prevent and counter internal duplicity is to:
- Limit the number of people who can access certain critical sections of the warehouse.
- Track access records to know exactly when and who accessed what at which time.
In case of a suspected internal breach, the owner will be able to narrow down possible suspects to only those with the right access codes. The list could be further shortened by only including the names of those that used their codes to access the restricted areas within the matching timelines. The very knowledge that it would be impossible for them to not get caught will automatically mitigate such attempts.
Eliminating Concealment: 24/7 Surveillance
24/7 surveillance acts as a deterrent for not just external thieves but they also discourage employees against being dishonest. However, surveillance would be meaningless if the footage turns out to be too grainy at night for anyone to determine anything substantial. Invest your money in high quality surveillance equipment with night vision.
Even if there’s ample lighting, thieves can short the circuit board, or they may decide to take out a few specific lights. Cameras always make thieves anxious so experienced criminals will often take out the cameras first. We can counter these common issues with a few established strategies.
- Most cameras should have powerful night vision, which is a fairly common feature to expect in commercial surveillance equipment.
- A few cameras must be carefully concealed and strategically placed to keep them recording from a lower level.
- The visible cameras must be installed strategically high enough to keep them out of any invader’s immediate reach.
- All surveillance footage must be uploaded directly to a cloud storage service and not a server PC inside the same building.
Every warehouse owner knows that a serious robbery attempt cannot be stopped indefinitely with unmanned security. However, it’s not about turning your warehouse into an impenetrable fortress. It’s about combining resistance with surveillance in a manner that it provides the alerted police officers enough time to arrive at the scene.
That being said, most thieves will give up long before it can even get to that stage. Just make sure the warehouse’s perimeter, doors, windows, and walls are durable enough to stall their efforts sufficiently. That should provide even a two-man security team enough time to activate the alarms and alert the police.