Does any of this look familiar?
Your job as an apartment manager or property owner is a challenging one. You have an obligation to provide a secure, clean place for your tenants to live. In addition to maintaining a safe community, you must also find ways to attract and retain residents, increase revenue, enhance your property’s reputation and reduce turnover. The right security solution can help achieve all of these. The wrong one can be detrimental.
Ineffective security solutions
Apartment communities often hire security guards to help protect their residents, employees and property from 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 above, our trained security operator spotted a guard walk into a closet and take a four-hour nap…while on duty. This action left the property vulnerable to potential criminal activity.
Damage to Entrances and Exits
Damage to multifamily residential properties can decrease marketability and increase operational costs. During monitoring hours, a trained security operator can watch your apartment complex in real time to spot any unusual activity. If an incident occurs during non-monitoring hours, you’ll have recorded evidence of what happened.
In the video, a woman causes property damage when she crashes her car into an access control gate. The video can be used to help combat liability claims and assist with investigation requests.
If an apartment complex can’t pinpoint who caused damage like this, it has the potential to cost them $1K-$3K per month. A loss that could lower the property’s NOI.
Parking Lots
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, more than 1 in 10 property crimes occur in parking lots or garages. That means an estimated 1,400 attacks take place in parking lots every day. Why is that number so high? One reason could be because parking lots provide many hiding spots, as well as a wealth of places to commit a crime.
The video shows a drug deal and drug use taking place in a Florida parking lot. Our monitoring team contacted police who arrived and arrested the suspects.
Parking lot break-ins are detrimental to an apartment community because they have a direct impact on the property’s reputation and tenant perception, both which can impact vacancy and rental rates.
Liabilities
Any injury or accident that occurs on your property can become a liability issue. It is the responsibility of the apartment manager to help deter injuries. This includes maintaining common areas like pools, laundry rooms and fitness centers, as well as warning residents of hidden dangers such as potholes or defective stairs.
In the video, a Stealth security operating monitor spotted a child scaling the fence around the pool. The operator activated the on-site speaker warning and the child climbed safely down.
Theft
Vehicle break-ins. Burglary. Mail theft. All issues for apartment community management. Did you know apartments are 85 percent more likely to be burglarized than single-family homes? In a community where people are constantly coming and going, it’s no wonder
As you saw in the video, we observed a woman breaking into several mailboxes at an apartment community. We called the police who arrived and arrested her.
Like with parking lots, thefts can damage a property’s reputation, as well as tenant retention and attraction rates.
Loitering/After-Hours Mischief
When suspicious people are lurking on your property, residents can feel uneasy. This, in turn, can negatively affect your net operating income since current and potential tenants may not want to rent from a place where they feel unsafe.
The video shows two individuals doing drugs in the apartment’s laundry room. This can make other residents feel unsafe and uncomfortable. Our operator contacted the police who arrived minutes later.
Loitering sends a message to potential residents that the property can’t protect itself against vagrants. This is an impediment to the overall safety of the community.
Live Video Monitoring Is A Cost-Effective Security Solution
Live video monitoring is a proven solution that can help multifamily residential properties guard against these issues and more. Security guards can be costly and as you saw in the video, can’t always be relied upon to their job. Our video monitoring solution can save up to 60 percent on your security costs when compared to guards.
Our system works in real time to catch events before or as they happen. Trained security operators work in concert with video analytics to watch for unwanted activity. The operating monitors can activate speaker warnings at trespassers and call police if the situation escalates. We can even provide footage of events that occur during non-monitoring hours to help with insurance claims and liability issues.
Multifamily residential properties across North America have benefitted from our services to help deter damage, theft and loitering. If you would like more information about our proactive multifamily residential security solutions, contact us.
