There has been a recent surge in the theft of large quantities of product and equipment from business premises by armed robbers, and Guarding South Africa is sharing the advice we are giving our clients on how to foil such attacks.
This is especially important information for those of you who for budget reasons are needing to maintain the fewest possible number of physical guards on your site.
Here are the common features of the current wave of attacks:
- They are taking place from early evening onwards and even during daylight on weekends.
- Armed gangs of up to 15 have been reported, this makes it possible for them to load and remove significant amounts of goods at speed, often in numerous trucks.
- Your guard will be intimidated and incapacitated. In addition to the imminent threat to life, they may be warned of attacks on their homes and families or when using public transport in the event of non-cooperation.
- If your armed response service arrives at the site either the guard (at gunpoint) or one of the gang members who has put on the guard’s uniform and is now impersonating them will assure the responders that there had been a false alarm.
Where attempted attacks on our sites have been successfully foiled, it’s been because of the holistic approach taken to site security, with a simple range of practices and solutions in place to reduce the risk of reliance on one or a few guards. Learning from these successes, we would like to make three recommendations:
- Ensure that your existing measures are working effectively: Test alarm systems, perimeter beams and panic buttons and ensure your onsite CCTV system is serviced. Alarm batteries must be in good order and a UPS in place so that your alarm and CCTV system will operate even if the electricity is sabotaged. Ensure that all access points and beams are correctly labelled on your alarm system.
- If your armed response service arrives at the site either the guard (at gunpoint) or one of the gang members who has put on the guard’s uniform and is now impersonating them will assure the responders that there had been a false alarm.
- Invest in the affordable technology that is available to complement your physical guarding service. Simple solutions include ensuring your guard has access to a panic alarm and putting in place a guard patrol monitoring system that sends an SMS to the guard supervisor if a scheduled inspection route is not completed. The supervisor will proceed to the site immediately if unable to establish contact with the guard. Give serious consideration to our cost-effective offsite CCTV monitoring service, which is the best method available to detect wrongdoing in action and despatch your armed response and SAPS – especially given the increase in intimidation of onsite staff.
Please could you share this information as widely as needed and call us if we can provide you with any related advice, support and services. We welcome an opportunity to discuss your site security risks with you and with your related providers where necessary.
As we are treating this crime surge as a heightened threat to our clients, we are positioning ourselves to offer the shortest possible turnaround times in the undertaking of security risk assessments and implementation of guard patrol monitoring technology. We can even get your onsite CCTV linked to our offsite monitoring service in a matter of days.
Learn more about our security risk assessment, guarding services and CCTV management capacity on our website at https://www.guardingsa.co.za/.
Remember that as an ongoing Guarding South Africa client you will always be a high priority for the expert detective team at our sister company, Justicia Investigations. They will work with you to piece together the puzzle of any loss incident that you experience and together we can minimise the likelihood of reoccurrence. For more information please do not hesitate to contact your Guarding South Africa representative, call our central switchboard on +27 (0)860 000 5111 or email us on admin@guardingsa.co.za.
