Construction site security is a major challenge for project managers across the UK.
Construction sites can easily become chaotic and unorganised, no matter how professional and well planned the project is, and ensuring that you have an effective security plan in place is essential.
Construction sites are popular targets for vandals, thieves, and trespassers due to the large quantities of valuable materials, vehicles, and tools found on the premises.
It is crucial that you keep your staff well away from intruders and take steps to ensure that it is extremely difficult to access your site without permission.
Here are a few of the most useful tips to help dramatically improve your construction site security:
Have a Plan
The very first step in creating a safe and secure site is to have an effective security plan in place.
By identifying potentially vulnerable areas of your site on a map, you will be able to work out exactly where your security needs to be tightest.
Once you have noted the weak points on your site, usually near gates, doors, and other entry points, it is time to create your strategy to increase security levels in those areas.
If you are not experienced in creating security plans, it can be difficult to know exactly where your weak points are, and given that getting this wrong could have disastrous consequences, it might be worth having a professional security company conduct this survey for you.
They will have many years of experience dealing with building site security and will know exactly where you are most likely to be targeted after a single visit to your site.
They will also be able to recommend the most effective security measures to put in place to mitigate your risk based on the nature of your site, giving you peace of mind that nothing has been overlooked.
Concentrate on the perimeter
The very best way to reduce the risk of thieves and vandals costing you thousands of pounds in stolen goods or damaged equipment, is to stop them from entering your site at all.
Creating a strong perimeter will protect all the equipment and supplies on site and let your staff get on with what they do best without worrying about intruders.
Having a high fence at least 2m tall around your entire site will discourage trespassing, and even if someone still attempts to access the property by climbing over, the fence gives your security staff or passers-by a much better chance of seeing them and raising the alarm.
CCTV
Construction sites are often extremely large plots and keeping an eye across the entire site can be a challenge.
Installing a CCTV surveillance system on site will allow you and your security team to do this with ease and if an unauthorised individual does breach your perimeter, CCTV will ensure that they are quickly identified before harm is done.
Early detection allows you to take immediate action by contacting the authorities and capturing footage of a crime taking place will give the police a much better chance of catching the culprit and retrieving any stolen goods.
In order to ensure your cameras are of the highest quality and installed in the most effective areas of the site, it is recommended that you use a professional security firm to install and monitor your CCTV cameras.
Prime Secure are leading suppliers of mobile CCTV towers in the UK, meaning that even if your site has no mains electricity access, we will still be able to provide you with top quality video surveillance.
Security Guards
Despite dramatic advances in security technology in recent years, nothing has yet replaced the effectiveness of having experienced boots on the ground in the form of construction site security guards.
Security guards will make sure no-one enters your site without authorisation, detain trespassers and thieves until the police arrive, and monitor your surveillance system to identify suspicious behaviour.
As leading providers of both CCTV and security staff, all Prime Secure’s construction security guards are fully trained to work alongside CCTV and other security technology to identify threats and be on location in a matter of seconds.
Organise Deliveries Effectively
Easier said than done on a busy construction site, but effective planning is one of the best ways to reduce the risk of security lapses.
Scheduling deliveries for example, so that materials are quickly used on site, or stored away in secure locations and are not left lying around on site for days on end will make the chances of theft significantly lower.
Many construction companies look to have materials on site several days before they are used, but this is just asking for trouble and the less time that expensive materials are left out in the open, the higher the risk of being the victim of crime.
