Do You Know What Happens At Your Construction Site During Off Hours?
Many construction sites deal with the same two crimes:
✓ Theft (of tools, equipment and materials)
✓ Vandalism
The Grand Strand/Myrtle Beach area is undergoing a huge surge in new construction of homes and businesses and thus there are many new construction sites popping up. Each site deals with theft and vandalism, and we do get calls and inquiries about how to prevent crime from happening.
As much as the advice is
‘Don’t leave anything of value at your construction site unattended’
that advice, in reality, isn’t very practical.
What is realistic, is that sometimes you need to leave materials, equipment and large tools at the site. The good news?
There are ways to protect these items.
Here are some ideas on how to get started.
General Crime Prevention Tips for Your Construction Site
- Identify all your assets and property at your site and index/catalogue them so they can be tracked at any time.
- Engrave tools and special tag other equipment.
- Connect with neighbors, nearby businesses and neighborhood watches so they are aware of your site.
- Bring awareness and offer training to your crew and discuss how they need to do their part (lock up)
- Do background checks on your employees.
- Utilize fencing if at all possible to deter theft and vandalism.
- Post notices around your fence that this construction area is protected and monitored.
- Secure tools and equipment in a locked shed or box when not in use.
- Secure shed and lockbox in the center of your site, not along the perimeter.
- As not all theft comes from outsiders, have a tool ‘check-in, check-out’ system in place.
- Perform a final ‘check’ at the end of each work day; a walk around your site.
- Only have the absolute necessary equipment and materials on hand. Do not use your construction site as storage.
Preventing Crime At A Construction Site Which Has Electricity
- Make use of motion-detecting flood lights and special lights.
- Set up a security alarm system that alerts a monitoring company and the authorities.
- You can add an audible siren to deter crime or go with a silent alarm that’s tripped when intruders arrive.
- Set up (remote) video surveillance for your construction site and monitor from any device, anywhere.
Preventing Crime At A Construction Site With No Electricity
- Hire a security firm with security guards to patrol your site overnight.
- Make sure to take extra care to lock up tools, equipment and materials each night and consider taking tools home.
As always, preventing crime is a much better option that reporting crime and having to replace tools, equipment or materials. The time it takes to set up and secure your site is nothing compared to the time it would take to replace stolen tools, equipment or materials or have to fix an act of vandalism.
We highly encourage you to talk to your security specialist before it is too late!
