Best Practices for Apartment Building Surveillance

When apartment building residents are safe, they have peace of mind and building managers have happy tenants. This is why safety should always be a top priority at your residential building. Good thing that safeguarding properties has become easier and more cost-effective for New York buildings. In fact, more and more of them are installing and upgrading security technology and New York City burglaries even decreased by 6.1% in 2018.

So where do you begin in securing your complex? An effective residential security strategy integrates several systems to actively protect the building, one of which is a surveillance system. To get the most from surveillance, you must understand what it can do for you and how you can best utilize it.

What are the benefits and best practices of apartment surveillance?

Benefit: Security staff support

Having onsite security guards can help protect your building, but there are of course concerns in employing a live security staff. Guards can be costly, especially if you need them for overnight shifts. There is also the risk of physical altercations, which can lead to liability issues down the line.

Surveillance can give security guards oversight into site activities and can even be enhanced with remote monitoring services to supplement guards or replace them altogether.

Best practice: Proactive monitoring

With remote video monitoring, you can take surveillance from a reactive solution to a proactive one. The services uses camera analytics to detect activity based on preset standards, while agents are available 24/7 to monitor that activity in real-time.

This means that when people are where they shouldn’t be or loitering at a time they shouldn’t be, remote video monitoring will pick up on it and alert remote agents. After viewing live surveillance video to analyze the situation, agents can notify your onsite security staff. They can also alert authorities or give verbal warnings through built-in speaker systems.

Benefit: Deters crime

It’s no secret that criminals are less likely to act when strong security measures are in place. Think about it—in choosing a target for vandalism, theft or another crime, they would be less likely to target a building with multiple security cameras installed than one without.

Surveillance can deter crime with its presence alone. To take deterrence a step further, the remote video monitoring service mentioned above can deter crime as it’s happening. When agents trigger alarms or give verbal warnings, criminals are likely to flee the scene.

Best practice: Be strategic

By working with a knowledgeable security partner, you can strategically install cameras for maximum visibility and deterrence. Cameras must be set up to avoid blind spots, especially at entrances, exits, common areas and stairwells.

To deter crime, they must be visible enough for people to see but high enough to be out of reach. And if you choose to use a remote monitoring service, be sure to work closely with the monitoring firm to determine the best course of action for different events.

Benefit: Evidence

Even with cameras strategically set up throughout your building, you can never be 100% sure that a criminal won’t act. You can however, be 100% sure that you will have the footage you need afterwards.

Not only will security tapes protect you as a building owner, but they will also assist law enforcement in dealing with the aftermath of a crime on your property.

Best practice: Manage and maintain

Whether it’s a break-in, a robbery or an assault, it’s critical to have footage of serious incidents that occur at your site. You might need to see faces, license plates or other specific elements to best respond and identify a culprit.

If your system doesn’t have high-resolution video, it might be time for an upgrade. You must also make sure camera angles are correct, timing is perfect and you have enough storage to hold recordings for long periods of time. You can check all of this by properly managing your security system on an ongoing basis.

Surveillance systems in New York and New Jersey

Surveillance can offer several other benefits for apartment buildings, such as appealing to potential tenants and raising rent prices. To learn more about your options for apartment complex surveillance systems, contact us today. We will help you keep occupants safe and protect your building for years to come. Call us for inquiries or browse our website for more services.