Let’s face it. Nowadays you have to have a security camera system at your business. It doesn’t matter if you only have a few employees or you have a Fortune 500 company. Your business is your livelihood. Protecting it should be your first priority. Don’t be fooled by thinking that just because you may not have cash at your office, or you may not have anything really worth stealing that you don’t need cameras. Customers are not the only criminals that businesses must be aware of. If you have decided to get cameras for your business then you already know what you are trying to protect. Let’s talk about how best to protect it.
Here are a few areas that generally need to be addressed. Every business has different priorities of what is the biggest asset, so these may not be all for you or they may not all be for you.
Cash Registers
There are two parts to monitoring a cash register. The first and foremost issue is how much cash is going in, and how much is going out. All modern cash register systems and points of sale devices are capable of not only being seen by a camera, the camera can also show a readout of what is being done on screen. We need to install a camera looking at the register that also has a device attached to show what is being done. Next we need a camera to show who is at the case register. This is mainly meant for customers, being that we already know who is operating the register. This camera ideally should be a very high resolution camera pointed straight at the faces of customers when they are standing in front of the cash register. This camera comes in handy mostly when a robbery occurs, and no one want to be the business owner that can only provide a grainy face shot to the police for investigation.
Merchandise
It is next to impossible to see every piece of merchandise in a store and also see it from multiple angles. The only way to monitor your products effectively is properly placed overview cameras. These start with an overview of the entire store. If you have multiple aisles, then a camera is needed for each aisle. Cameras should also be placed crossing each pathway that connects the main walkways. This entire setup is really open due to the fact that every shop or business has different layouts and has very different items to protect. You know where people like to congregate and where you have items go missing from the most often. Those are the places that need to be protected to best. Multiple cameras from multiple directions. These cameras also need to include a high resolution camera pointed toward any entrance so we get a great face shot of whoever comes in to your business. Any storerooms or warehouse that you may have also needs to be approached to same way. All aisles need to be viewed for anyone coming or going and we also need to be able to see well enough to identify what is being done.
Outside
All entrances and exits should be covered. If you have a break-in or attempted break-in, we need to know who did what and who it was. This is best achieved by multiple cameras so we can have at least two points of view for anything going on. The parking lot should also be covered, and here general overview type shots normally will suffice. Vehicle identification is tricky, so we need to be able to get make, model, and color. Actually catching a license plate is difficult when someone is driving away very fast, so the priority is to focus actually identifying what kind of car it was. Any major entrances should have a specific camera for who is entering/exiting just in case the camera inside doesn’t get a good facial profile.
Another great area of concern here is delivery trucks. A lot of damage involves not only the delivery truck driver hitting something on his way in or his way out, but also while items are being unloaded. It is imperative that if you have a loading dock, we need to see all of the lift truck area and outside of the dock to verify who ran into the side of the building or who left the door open when some derelict walked by and grabbed a case of soda.
Employees
Keeping track of where your employees are at all times is very imperative to running an efficient business. Everywhere they have access to must be viewed by at least one camera. Here again, multiple angles of what they are doing can prevent them putting their back to the camera and sliding a few cans of cleaning supplies into their lunch box. If you have an office style business where your worries have less to do with merchandise being pilfered and more to do with what your employees do during the day, install a few cameras around the shop. We can cover all of their watering holes and hiding spots. Job performance increases tremendously when people actually have to do their jobs.
As with all security camera systems, it must meet your needs specifically. I advise you to have a professional installation company actually come to your business. Any reputable company will give you a free consultation and estimate. This should include not only a walk-through of your business, but also the time to actually sit down with you and listen to what your areas of concern are. After all, what good is a security camera if it doesn’t show something you want to see. Start by making a list of your concerns. Detail all areas that need to be covered. Decide if you care if the employees or customers even know about them, because, covert cameras are always an option. Once you have a good idea of what you need, make the call and have an expert help guide you through getting what is best for your needs.
