As a business owner, taking care of vandalism is more than just cleaning up mess. Cleaning up vandalism itself takes up manpower and resources that could’ve been allocated somewhere more beneficial to the business. Furthermore, vandalism can also act as a deterrent to customers. This is why it is imperative to be proactive when it comes to preventing vandalism.
Steps to Prevent Vandalism in Your Business
If your overall plan for vandalism is simply to clean and repair after it happens, you might find yourself doing it more often than you’d like. Instead of waiting for that time to come, there are steps business owners can take to actually help reduce and prevent vandalism from occurring.
Here are some of the steps you can take to do so.
Assessment
Before anything else, the easiest thing you can do as a business owner is to simply take a walk around the premises of your business. A simple walk around can actually give you a perspective of the areas that need more security than others.
Are there areas that are weak when it comes to security? Can they be exploited? After you’ve taken a walk around the premises, take another walk at night. The security of the premises of your business can be vastly different depending on the time of day. Especially with the surrounding light sources, shadows cast during the night can be weak points in your security.
You can take multiple walks on different days just to have different perspectives of your surroundings. When you’ve properly assessed your own surroundings, it is time to decide what measures to take.
Increase Security
The first and most obvious step to take as a precaution against vandalism is to increase security. These security measures include security cameras that have night vision capabilities and motion detection.
If you already have security measures in place, are they enough? If you’ve experienced vandalism with these security measures, then it’s time to upgrade them. The worst scenario is have the vandals caught on camera and still not have them identified because of the resolution of your security cameras.
When it comes to increasing security, businesses often hire security guards as well to protect the property and people. Having the presence of a security guard can be a deterrent to criminals who know that it will be a more challenging barrier to carry out their crime.
Use Vegetation
Vegetation such as planted shrubs and trees can really make a difference in the aesthetics of your business. However, did you know that you can also use vegetation to effectively add to your security?
If you have windows around the building that are accessible from the ground, planting shrubs against the walls can help deter people from reaching those places. This will be especially effective if you choose highly deterrent plants such as those with woody thorns.
People also add trees when they landscape their businesses. While they are wonderful additions, make sure that these trees do not serve as access points to vandals. Make sure trees are far enough from the walls and windows so that vandals can’t climb up trees and use them to get to higher floors.
Be Prepared
While there are steps you can take to prevent vandalism from occurring in the first place, there are also ways you can prepare yourself when someone attempts to try vandalizing your business.
The first way is to replace all the glass panels you have (e.g., windows, doors, etc.), with unbreakable glass. These security glass panels are specifically designed to shatter during an impact, but do not fall apart. The simple replacement of this type of glass can mean the difference between a brick cracking a window, and a brick breaking through a window and hitting more valuable items.
One common form of vandalism is graffiti. Fortunately, anti-graffiti paint has been developed to specifically combat this. Anti-graffiti paint aims to apply a coating that prevents paint from adhering to the wall surface.
Since vandalism is a big issue in major cities, these cities have also begun to be more proactive with their anti-vandalism programs with the use of anti-graffiti paint.
Conclusion
As a business owner, dealing with vandalism is one of the last things you want to worry about. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to reduce the risk of vandalism. Aside from the ways listed above, you can also consult security agencies for advice on how to secure your premises more effectively.