How often have you seen this at your property?
As the property owner or manager of a retail center, you need to make your tenants and their customers feel safe. Otherwise, they may not return. This can be especially challenging for some properties simply based on tenant mix, location, customer demographics and foot traffic. Fortunately, the right security solution can help you deter crime, enhance your property’s reputation, lessen liability, reduce tenant turnover, and increase your NOI.
Here are just some of the risks that threaten retail property security:
Trespassing and Unwanted Activity
When suspicious people are lurking at your retail center, they can hinder business by making customers feel uneasy. In the video you saw a couple of guys using illegal drugs outside of a shopping center. There was also an incident of drug dealing taking place at another retail establishment. If this type of undesirable activity goes unchecked, it can send the wrong message to potential customers and can ruin a property’s reputation, as well as its ability to retain tenants.
Property Damage
Damage to retail and shopping centers can decrease marketability and increase operational costs. During monitoring hours, a trained security operator can watch your property in real time to spot any unusual activity.
If an incident occurs during non-monitoring hours, you can have recorded evidence of what happened. For example, in the video you saw a car flip a man, then ram into the front of a store. In another case, a truck plowed into some bushes behind the property. If a shopping center can’t pinpoint who caused damage like this, it has the potential to be very costly for them.
Security Expenses
Shopping centers often hire security guards to help deter criminal activity. However, with no federal training standards, guards could be putting you and your tenants at risk. An investigation by CNN and The Center of Investigative Reporting found that some security guards have criminal records, including domestic violence, alcohol and drug offenses.
In the video, our trained security operator saw a guard doing donuts in a golf cart instead of doing the job he was hired to do. This left the rest of the property vulnerable to potential criminal activity.
Theft
Vehicle break-ins and smash-and-grabs are just two risks that threaten shopping centers. According to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, approximately 33 percent or burglaries in 2017 occurred in non-residential buildings. This includes retail stores.
In the video above, a suspect used a chain to break a storefront window and go inside. These types of crimes not only result in loss of money and merchandise, the owners will be stuck with replacement costs and the potential loss of employees who may be too scared to return to work.
Live Video Monitoring Is A Cost-Effective Security Solution
Live video monitoring is a proven solution that can help shopping and retail centers guard against these issues and more. As you saw in the video, security guards can be ineffective and costly. A proactive solution like live monitoring can save up to 60 percent on security costs when compared to guards.
Trained security operators use analytics-based surveillance cameras to watch for unwanted activity in real time. If they see anything suspicious, they can activate speaker warnings at trespassers and call police. Our team of video analysts can even provide footage of events that occur during non-monitoring hours to help with investigations, liability issues and insurance claims.
A comprehensive security solution not only helps everyone feel safer but also it can increase the value of your property as shoppers return and retail occupancy increases.
For more information about our proactive retail and shopping center security solutions, contact us.
