Why Construction Sites are Prime Targets for Theft and Vandalism

Summary

• The temporary and often unprotected nature of construction sites make them a target for theft and vandalism.
• Tools, materials, and other equipment are often too easy to steal and resell, costing the construction company in several ways.
• Mobile surveillance units are a flexible solution for construction site security.

Overturned trucks. Mangled machinery. Broken walls. This is the stuff of a construction site’s nightmare. Unfortunately, it’s also the reality one Seattle county faced at the end of last summer.

The road construction project had lasted most of the summer with the end just a few weeks away—a few weeks away, that is, until someone with knowledge of heavy machinery used the on-site equipment to cause extensive damage to both the road project and the construction equipment.

The damage came in at up to $1.5 million for equipment and an additional $1.5 million in construction costs. As for the new timeline, they couldn’t even guess how long it would take—but the new materials wouldn’t come in for at least a week and a half and the repairs would be extensive.

Construction sites are an appealing target for vandals and thieves, making construction site security that much more important.

Construction Sites: Dangerously Tempting Targets

Unlike most traditional businesses, the construction industry is comprised of short-term sites with valuable equipment that is easily movable. It’s easy to see the appeal of the sites to wrongdoers, especially when traditional security measures are difficult and costly to implement.

The very nature of the sites makes for a tempting target for thieves and vandals alike:

• Short-term sites: Construction sites come and go as they are needed, whether for road improvements or new building construction. The short-term nature of these projects makes them difficult to secure since permanent security solutions are a costly and unlikely option.
• Irregular hours: Crews come and go as materials arrive and new phases of the project begins. This makes sense from a building standpoint, but makes the sites easy targets for theft and vandalism with no regular workers there in between phases. Teenagers may see the empty project as a playground for mayhem while even casual thieves might pick up small tools as they pass by.
• Valuable equipment: Tools and heavy machinery are mobile (by necessity of the job) and all too easy to resell. Equipment theft is an easy payday for thieves as many tools are quite expensive.
• Valuable materials: Like tools, raw materials are difficult to track and easy to resell. Some construction pieces, such as wires, have valuable components like copper that make for another quick payout.

While they are already difficult to secure, construction sites have the added problem of each theft impacting a company’s bottom line in more ways than one. The true cost of each act of theft or vandalism includes:

• The cost of the item that was stolen or damaged
• The cost of installation materials needed for repairs and replacements
• The extra time it takes to order in replacements and install them
• The labor to undo the damage and then replace what was taken or damaged (and this can be a more difficult job at later stages in the project than it was initially)
• The cost of delays at other sites because your equipment and workers have to go back to redo work that had been previously finished

The Construction Site Security Solution

With the temporary nature of most construction sites, permanent cameras and fences can be costly and impractical. Security guards are expensive and don’t have the ability to see everywhere at once, especially when it comes to larger construction sites. Measures like adequate lighting and parking heavy machinery so that it’s difficult for a single driver to move can make a difference, but it may not stop theft or vandalism from still occurring.

So what can be done for construction site security? The answer lies in something as flexible as the construction sites themselves have to be: Mobile security units.

Mobile security units like the LVT® Unit are uniquely situated to be the perfect construction site security solution.

Mobile surveillance units are flexible.

These units are—as their name implies—mobile. LVT Units are completely autonomous with solar panels and backup batteries for power, cellular connections for remote monitoring, and a pole mount for cameras and lights. The units can be deployed within minutes and can be repositioned quickly, adjusting with you as your project progresses.

Their flexibility means cameras can travel to any jobsite (no pre-existing infrastructure needed) and move on to the next project when you do.

Mobile surveillance units offer situational awareness.

Remote monitoring capabilities mean you can check in on your site at any time from any place with an internet connection. Having multiple cameras around your property allows for big-picture situational awareness that a single person at the scene can’t achieve alone. This is helpful when checking on safety concerns and when dealing with security threats.

Mobile surveillance units deter problems.

A big part of the success of any security system comes from a strong deterrence factor. People are much less likely to steal or damage things if they know there’s a good chance they’ll be caught.

Mobile surveillance units give an immediate response.

Advanced detection allows you to spot potential security risks before they escalate. Alerts notify you instantly if something isn’t as it should be or someone has come to your site after hours, allowing you to respond as needed. Your unit can even be programmed to instantly react to intruders with lights and a prerecorded message to scare them off.

Interested in trying a mobile security unit for your construction site? Contact LVT for more information today!

‍