Blog How To Increase Building Security Without Hiring More Guards

Security guards are expensive. They cost a few hundred thousands of dollars a year, and with emerging technologies automating security processes and bringing a new level of connectedness to building security systems, the role of the security guard is being questioned.

Yet in a recent article published by Campus Safety Magazine, Brian Armes and Guy Bliesner wrote about the “call to understand and intelligently integrate available technology with the human element.” While the article discusses the pairing of surveillance cameras and adult supervision within the context of schools, the same security mindset holds true for facilities and security teams across industries – small businesses, hotels, corporate offices, medical facilities, residential apartment complexes, warehouses. The key to pairing technology with humans is to define your security goals, and “know what cameras do well, what people do well and how each can be deployed to support the other.”

Security Goals Drive Technology Application

What are your immediate security needs?

Are you hoping to increase camera coverage? Are you looking for a single access control platform across buildings to help your security team manage egress at each building from a central location?

It’s possible for technology to work as a complement to your onsite security team or as a replacement for security guards. But the best scenarios, as mentioned above, meld technology with onsite eyes.

Remote Monitoring: An Effective Force Multiplier

“Supervision by its nature is intended to be proactive,” wrote Armes and Bliesner.

The proactive component in remote video monitoring creates a bridge between remote agents and onsite guards. Remote security agents enable a higher level of safety by monitoring surveillance cameras at your facility, and alerting your onsite staff to potential intruders or threats. These remote agents are also able to communicate with the intruder via loud speakers and warn them of the impending arrival of your security team or the police.

In the case of expanded access control, remote visitor management enables an offsite agent to approve or deny access to a facility at any time of the day or night, thereby completely replacing a security guard or making up for the lack of a guard during the graveyard shift.

Both strategies rely on the onsite human element, without which any security strategy would fall short of safe.

A Safer Facility Through Proactive Management

If you’re looking at revising your current security policy or assessing your security needs with the help of a professional security company, don’t lose sight of the human side in your facility’s current security plan– and definitely never eliminate it without weighing the pros and cons.

While cost is a primary factor for choosing any remote security management package, solving your immediate and future security needs should supersede all other criteria for improving or choosing a new solution to increase building security.

Learn how to increase the strength of your building’s security by watching our webinar, Managed Security Services: Removing The Hardware below, where we discuss the benefits of pairing technology with managed security services in pursuit of a safer facility. 

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