New Premises Security Checklist – What to Consider When Moving to a New Location

When moving your business to a new location, there is a lot to consider. Managing an entire building or set of buildings and their surrounding grounds can seem daunting, but by choosing a professional security company to fulfil your security needs, you can rest assured that your premises is protected from trespassers, thieves or other criminals.

Based on our security systems experience across Cambridgeshire and the surrounding areas, we’ve put together a list of recommended measures to take to help deter intruders and protect your staff and premises from unauthorised visitors. These measures are always subject to change, and priorities can alter as a result of current events or new technologies. Considering this, here is our New Premises Security Checklist:

External Risk Assessment

Each business premises is subject to varying levels of risk based on location, the nature of your business, and numerous other factors. With this in mind, it is important to consider which of these factors could affect your business, using the following questions as a guide:

• Is your building accessible to the general public?
• Does your location have a high local crime rate?
• Does the location of your premises increase the chances of unlawful entry?
• Do the surrounding grounds of your property offer intruders places to hide?
• Do the surrounding areas of your property have sufficient lighting?
• What are the total number of access points to your property, and are they secure?
• Which areas of your property are surveyed by cameras and which areas are not? Why is this?
•  Are your main access points alarmed?
• Are windows and other unconventional entry points alarmed (roof entry, tradesman entrance)?

Internal Security

Protecting your premises from intruders is only half of the task, as internal security can be just as important. Ensuring that unauthorised personnel are unable to access valuable assets or data within your property is likely to deter potential intruders, highlighting the importance of access control such as keypad entry and multi door access control systems.

• Are there controlled perimeters to rooms/areas with sensitive or valuable assets?
• Are your staff briefed on what to do in the case of a break-in?
• Do you have a view of which staff are on site at any time?
• Is there video surveillance in public areas?
• Are internal doors alarmed?

Out-of-Hours Security

From our experience, a large percentage of break-ins occur out of hours when the premises is left unoccupied. Instead of contacting professional security system installers after an incident, use the below questions to protect your new property against thieves from the get-go:

• Do you have additional precautions to protect your premises at night?
• Is your premises regularly visited by staff or third parties out of hours (cleaning staff, night shift etc)?
• Does your property have motion-sensor lighting?
• Are your doors, windows and any other access points alarmed 24/7?
• Do your alarms automatically alert the police or send a notification to your phone/PC?
• Do you have a physical security presence at your premises (guards)?
• If you have security cameras, do they have night vision or a low-light setting?

Using the above checklist, you should be able to highlight the weaker areas of security at your property, and implement security measures such as access control, CCTV and security alarms to help protect your new premises 24/7.

BDi Advance provides advice and security systems to businesses across Cambridgeshire and East Anglia, with local engineers based in Huntingdon. To arrange a free site survey or to get a quote, complete our contact form today.