Hiring security guards was the best way to protect your property or loved ones for a very long time, but that is no longer the case. For millennia, guards were the best option available when you needed protection but as security cameras and the recording devices (DVRs and NVRs) that they are connected to continue to improve, they have become the better choice by an ever growing margin.
The primary way that security guards help to protect these valuable things is by acting as a crime deterrent. The idea behind this is that if an individual is considering committing a criminal act and sees that the security guards are patrolling the area, they will either move on to a different location to perpetrate their nefarious deeds or reconsider committing the crime at all. Over the last decade there has been several studies that show that overtly installed security cameras also act to deter crime in the same way. The results of some of these studies show that the surveillance cameras can actually be an even more effective deterrent since there can be more of them, they can be in multiple locations all of the time, and it’s not always easy to discern the camera’s field of vision. These obvious surveillance cameras can also be supported by other cameras that are less noticeable and therefore making it more difficult to commit a crime without having video of the act taken.
The second reason that a security camera system is a more effective way to protect the items and people that are valuable to you is the costs that are involved with the surveillance equipment versus the payroll for security guards. Although it’s hard to put a price tag on this type of protection and the peace of mind it brings, many people and businesses today have limited budgets, so it’s a good idea to get as much protection as you can with the budget available to you. The price tag of security camera equipment has significantly dropped over the last few years; this is true even for much of the high quality merchandise that is currently available. Even though good quality security camera equipment still isn’t cheap, neither is hiring a team of security guards. There have been many studies that have been conducted in recent years that show that a good security camera system can be up to 30% cheaper per year than a team of security guards.
The third reason that surveillance cameras are better at protecting what you value most is the consistency of the protection offered by them versus security guards. Surveillance cameras provide a watchful eye to help provide protection around the clock, every day of the week. Unlike security guards, security cameras don’t ever take a vacation, take a break, have health related absences from work, become distracted, or fall asleep on the job. They don’t even blink. Security cameras will constantly monitor an area and provide an unbiased account of an event that usually stands up in a court of law better than a lot of eye witness testimony. It’s a well documented fact that a witness’s memory of an event can be inaccurate and it can often be clouded by the stress of the moment. There has been many crimes that have been committed where there were several witnesses who saw the same event but they still ended up giving law enforcement officials completely different accounts of the crime and descriptions of the suspects.
The fourth reason that security cameras provide superior protection is that they can provide blanket coverage where they are installed. Unlike a security guard, which can only be at one place at a time, surveillance cameras can easily be installed in such a way that they offer complete visual coverage of a property all the time. This will allow you to capture video of more than one event that is happening at the same time. You can even install the security cameras in such a way that they have overlapping fields of view, which will give you multiple angles of a particular event. The advantage of being able to see the same event from multiple angles is that it will give the viewer a more complete understanding of what happened.
The fifth reason that many people feel more comfortable trusting the safety of their loved ones or property to security camera is that the cameras take the human element of misconduct out of the equation. There have been several instances of security guards, prison guards or even law enforcement officers behaving badly on the job and getting caught in the act by security cameras. In these cases the security cameras provided an unprejudiced account of the events.
Even if the victim was in the wrong and later convicted of a crime the video of footage of this type of misconduct usually led to disciplinary action, the loss of employment, or legal consequences for these people who had been caught abusing their position of power.
Today many people who have the budget and desire to hire a team of security guards often still get a good surveillance camera system to provide an extra layer of support. This combined type of protection has proven to be very effective if the budget can support both. Because a lot of people or business simply can’t afford both these days, they are being forced to choose one or the other and they are choosing security cameras more and more often all the time.
The bottom line is that security cameras offer a better, more thorough, more reliable level of protection for the things that are most valuable to people and the general public has started to become increasingly aware of it. The fact that all of this is offered for less money than the price tag of a security guard force is another big reason why many people are going the route of security cameras more commonly all the time, making security guards the second consideration, if at all.
