August 24, 2020 Benefits of Professional Building Site Security

Every construction site needs effective security and there are many reasons as to why your construction site would benefit from it.

Every construction site needs effective security. This keeps you on the right side of the law (and your insurance company). It’s also an ethical requirement and hence a reputational one. Security is, however, an entirely different matter from construction. Because of this, it’s best left to the professionals. Here are some reasons why.

The law needs to be taken seriously

These days, not only does your security need to be legally-compliant, you need to be able to demonstrate that your security is legally-compliant. If you do not, then you could be looking at all kinds of trouble.

For example, the police may be forced to abandon a criminal prosecution for lack of acceptable evidence. You may be unable to progress a civil lawsuit through being unable to demonstrate your case. You may even find yourself on the receiving end of a lawsuit yourself. Depending on the circumstances, this could be criminal or civil.

Even if none of these happens, you could still find yourself facing action from regulators/compliance programs. Remember you do not necessarily have to have done anything wrong to run foul of regulators. You just have to give them the impression that you are working in an unsafe manner.

Last but not least, any legal issues could invalidate your insurance. As a minimum, you can expect your premiums to be raised, possibly significantly.

There is a close link between site security and health and safety

Managing vehicular and pedestrian traffic is one of the most important jobs on-site securities. It also plays a key role in keeping people safe. Constructions sites are generally relatively small spaces with a lot of activity happening in them. Much of this activity involves dangerous (for which read potentially lethal) machinery. Collisions between vehicles can be expensive. Collisions between vehicles and pedestrians can be fatal.

Unfortunately, there are no hard-and-fast rules on how to implement secure and safe traffic management. This is because each construction site is different and hence needs to be managed on its own terms. There are, however, lessons to be learned on each individual site which can then be applied to the next. For this reason, professional security companies tend to be highly skilled at working out what needs to happen to manage traffic securely, safely and effectively.

Professional security can help you finish your build on time and to budget

Vandals, squatters, thieves and arsonists can all push your build over time and over budget. So can genuinely accidental fires. You, therefore, need to do everything in your power to put a stop to these.

Just having professional security can go a long way to deterring opportunistic attackers. It is, however, less likely to deter more experienced criminals. Fortunately, a robust system of routine checks will generally do that very well. In simple terms, the sooner you identify that something is amiss, the sooner you can take steps to deal with it. In the case of crime, that means the more likely it is that you will catch the criminal.

Marie Tracey is the Managing Director of Heart Security, which are specialists in commercial security solutions. Services include gatehouse security, retail security, static security guards, construction site security and more.

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