10 Tips to Protect Your Business from Break-Ins in Vancouver

Business owners in Metro Vancouver always need to be on the lookout for break-ins. Whether you operate a restaurant, an office building, a hotel or a storefront, protecting your inventory, your bottom line and, most importantly, your sense of security for you and your employees should always be top of mind.
Even if you have insurance to protect you, responding to break-ins and business robberies in Vancouver is still—at best—a hassle, and more often than not represents a serious threat to the success and integrity of your company, not to mention your employees’ safety.
And if you think crime isn’t a serious issue anymore, think again. In the past couple of years, national crime rates increased for the first time compared to any point in the previous decade, and the blame is squarely Western Canada’s. All ten of Canada’s most crime-ridden cities are west of Manitoba, with five of them in B.C. and four B.C. cities in the top five nationwide for break-and-enter crimes.

And if you think crime isn’t a serious issue anymore, think again. In the past couple of years, national crime rates increased for the first time compared to any point in the previous decade, and the blame is squarely Western Canada’s. All ten of Canada’s most crime-ridden cities are west of Manitoba, with five of them in B.C. and four B.C. cities in the top five nationwide for break-and-enter crimes.

Metro Vancouver, in particular, is not immune from this alarming trend. For example, Burnaby’s break-and-enter rates relative to population size regularly hover at 70% above the national average, and Vancouver witnessed a recent year-to-year increase of over 9% in break-and-enters specifically for commercial properties. Recent data shows that some areas in Vancouver are particularly vulnerable. This map of just a four-week period shows that Downtown Vancouver, the Downtown Eastside and Burrard St. near W. 4th Ave., W. Broadway Ave. and W. 12th Ave. experience significant amounts of break-and-enters to businesses.

The map above, from Vancouver Police Department’s interactive tool GeoDash, shows that Downtown Vancouver, the Downtown Eastside and Burrard St. near W. 4th Ave., W. Broadway Ave. and W. 12th Ave. experience significant amounts of break-and-enters to businesses.

Check out these top ten tips for protecting your Vancouver business from robberies and break-ins:

1. In a High-Risk Location? Consider a Guard Response Service

In one of the aforementioned high-risk areas for businesses or another dangerous neighborhood? On-site security guards are often prohibitively expensive, but Arpel Security Systems offers the perfect alternative: guards who can respond at a moment’s notice from an alarm breach to enter and inspect the premises at a low monthly fee.

2. Optimize Your Safe and How You Use It

Many businesses keep safes on-site, but if a thief can break into a locked building, they more than likely have the skills to breach a tiny lock-box. Either bolt safes to the ground, keep them in rooms near streetlights and, as always, keep stored cash and valuables in the safe to a minimum (burglars can’t steal what isn’t there!).

3. Excellent Customer Service Can Actually Dissuade Thieves

Studies show a strong correlation between high rates of disgruntled customers and high rates of vandalism and break-and-enters to business properties.

4. Be Diligent With Inventory Tracking

Some thieves are excellent at covering their tracks and making it look like they never breached your office in the first place. Missing inventory is often the first clue to a break-and-enter under such circumstances.

5. Install Gratings, Grilles and Heavy-Duty Windows

It’s all too easy for someone to throw a heavy rock through a restaurant window for quick and easy access to numerous bottles of expensive scotch visible from the bar. Heavy-duty windows, window grates or retractable window grilles are an easy preemptive solution.

6. Turn Up the Lights to Scare Away Burglars

For storefronts, keep a minimal amount of lights on inside overnight, and be sure to have lots of exterior lights around the whole of the building either on 24/7 or motion-sensing to deter burglars.

7. Outfit Your Vancouver Business with CCTV Cameras

Security cameras for your Metro Vancouver business from Arpel Security Systems both help catch thieves after the fact and discourage potential thieves from breaking-and-entering in the first place.

8. Business-Security Signs

When thieves see a “Protected by Arpel Security” sign on your business or storefront window in Metro Vancouver, they’ll know you’re guarded by 24/7 monitoring services.

9. Access Control to Protect Internal Areas and Monitor Activity

Easily monitor and protect access to key rooms within your company’s premises with access control from Arpel Security Systems. This security feature minimizes what thieves can take and enter into once they’re inside the main part of the building and also eliminate administrating keys, reducing both long-run costs and the hassle of employees forgetting to lock-up areas of your business at night.

10. Install a High-Quality Alarm System

An obvious fact overlooked by too many businesses in Metro Vancouver is that installing a professional-grade alarm system is your best line of defense against break-and-enters. With over four decades of security experience in Metro Vancouver, you can trust Arpel Security to implement an alarm system to protect your business. Contact us today for a free estimate!