Protecting Your Business in Winter Weather
Winter storms and weather hazards wreak havoc on buildings, people, and infrastructure. Every winter, snow, ice, wind, hail, and other winter weather causes destruction and difficulties for many. This is true for businesses and business security as well. Protecting your business during winter storms comes with its own set of unique challenges.
Here are some tips for securing your business during the winter.
Test Everything
Before the winter weather arrives, it’s important that you test all of your business security tools to make sure that they are working as they should. Winter weather can damage security tools, so you’ll want to make sure that they’re working in tip-top shape before the winter arrives. This will give them the best chance of making it through the winter intact.
Understand Difficulties
Winter weather causes various difficulties and issues for security tools. For example, wind, ice, and snow can make it more difficult for security cameras to capture useable footage. It’s not uncommon to find that ice has coated a camera, leaving footage blurry, or that blowing snow has made it so that it’s nearly impossible to see anything and therefore record anything useful. Alarm systems could malfunction in very low temperatures as well. Even when they do work correctly, police and other authorities may be busier than usual during winter storms, which can mean that it may take longer for them to arrive at the scene of a crime.
Be aware of how winter weather can hamper your security tools and make adjustments when possible to improve the security at your business.
Anticipate
As mentioned, severe winter weather can cause a number of issues. While weather can certainly be unpredictable, and you never really know what it is going to do, it can help to try to anticipate winter weather and take action before it strikes. For example, if you know that your security tools are not winterized, ask your security company what you can do to protect your tools from hazardous weather conditions.
You may also want to see what you can do to improve your existing security before winter strikes, as it is often difficult to install new security tools once the temperature drops below freezing and winter weather begins.
Use Physical Security
Physical security tools are crucial for businesses. They place a highly visible barrier between criminals and your business. Not only does this make it extremely difficult for someone to gain access to your location, but gates also deter criminals from striking. Criminals know how effective security gates are and they avoid locations that have them installed.
In addition, physical security gates do not suffer from many of the winter weather issues that plague other types of security tools. Since they do not require electronics nor do they need to be able to “see” (such as video cameras) you can use security gates to protect your business no matter the weather. They also don’t rely on police response to be effective.
Physical security gates can also be incredibly useful when installed inside your business. Since these gates are completely away from the elements, so they are not hindered in any way by winter weather. However, locked cabinets and interior security gates are incredibly effective at protecting business assets and controlling access throughout a property.
