The VPS Group suggests people to deploy extra security measure to avoid criminal activities during holidays

The fes­tive peri­od in the UK tra­di­tion­al­ly sees a sig­nif­i­cant rise in crime, with atten­tion focused on construc­tion sites dur­ing their exten­sive close­down, leav­ing high-val­ue plant, equip­ment, fuel and materi­als as unat­tend­ed, attrac­tive tar­gets. Vacant ware­hous­es, retail units, and oth­er com­mer­cial premis­es are also like­ly tar­gets for organ­is­ers of unlicenced music events – ille­gal raves – and squatters.

The Char­tered Insti­tute of Building’s research found 92% of con­struc­tion sites expe­ri­enced theft reg­u­larly, and a sur­vey by pro­tec­tion experts The VPS Group indi­cat­ed that over 1 in 5 sites expe­ri­ence theft or van­dal­ism weekly. 

Exter­nal pow­er sources

Paul Corten, Sales Direc­tor for The VPS Group, said: “Past Christ­mas’ have seen a sig­nif­i­cant spike in thefts over the sea­son­al peri­od, but the secu­ri­ty indus­try is brac­ing itself for one of the most chal­leng­ing month’s ever as the impact of the pan­dem­ic, bank­rupt­cies and a loom­ing reces­sion com­bine to fuel a record lev­el of crim­i­nal activity.”

Mobile CCTV tow­ers are also pop­u­lar because they can be rapid­ly deployed into differ­ent loca­tions

Prop­er­ties with­out secu­ri­ty are up to five times more like­ly to be affect­ed, and vacant prop­er­ties and emp­ty sites in par­tic­u­lar, are prime tar­gets for thieves and trespassers. Because con­struc­tion sites and vacant prop­er­ties may have pow­er util­i­ties switched off over the seasonal peri­od, spe­cial­ist ​‘stand-alone’ alarm and CCTV sys­tems are rec­om­mend­ed, as they do not require exter­nal pow­er sources. Mobile CCTV tow­ers are also pop­u­lar because they can be rapid­ly deployed, and eas­i­ly moved into differ­ent loca­tions to ensure good cov­er­age of the areas need­ing pro­tec­tion.

Video mon­i­tor­ing cen­tre

They can be linked wireless­ly to var­i­ous heat and move­ment detec­tors and to each oth­er to pro­vide a net­work of ​‘eyes’ that can be mon­i­tored from a remote 24⁄7 video mon­i­tor­ing cen­tre over the holidays. Sim­i­lar­ly, more sophis­ti­cat­ed intrud­er alarm sys­tems have spe­cial­ist soft­ware ana­lyt­ics that sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduce the num­ber of false alarms. 

Site and facil­i­ties man­agers should car­ry out perime­ter checks, ensure valu­able plant, met­als, or fuels are either removed or kept secured and out of sight. They could also call in an expert eye to car­ry out a secu­ri­ty risk assess­ment this week. ​“There’s still just time to assess require­ments and for the fast deploy­ment of extra secu­ri­ty mea­sures, that will save the post-hol­i­day headaches from crim­i­nal activity.” said VPS’ Paul Corten.