How to Protect Your Business From Crime

Practical Strategies to Prevent Theft, Shoplifting, Burglary, Robbery, Property Crime and Violence Against Employees

Every business faces some level of security risk. Retail stores may deal with shoplifting and robbery. Offices may be concerned about unauthorized access or workplace violence. Warehouses and industrial facilities must protect inventory, equipment, employees, and restricted areas. Businesses that handle large amounts of cash or valuable merchandise can face even greater risks.

There is no single product or service that can completely protect a business from crime.

A camera cannot secure an unlocked door. A strong lock cannot protect an employee from an aggressive customer. A metal detector provides little value if someone can bypass it through an uncontrolled entrance. A security guard cannot compensate for every weakness in a poorly designed security program.

Effective business security requires multiple layers working together.

This guide examines practical steps businesses can take to reduce opportunities for crime, protect employees and customers, secure valuable property, and prepare for emergencies.

1. Start With the Perimeter

Business security should begin at the outermost boundary of the property.

Inspect fencing, walls, gates, doors, windows, loading areas, parking areas, exterior storage areas, and other potential access points. Look at the property from the perspective of someone attempting to gain unauthorized access.

Fencing should be regularly inspected for cuts, gaps, damaged sections, loose hardware, areas that can be lifted, and objects nearby that make climbing easier. After construction or maintenance work, the fence line should be double-checked to ensure temporary openings were properly secured.

Gates require the same attention. Inspect locks, hinges, electronic controls, closing mechanisms, and access credentials.

The objective is not to make unauthorized entry impossible. It is to make the property more difficult to enter without detection and easier to control and monitor.

2. Secure Doors, Windows and Other Openings

Every exterior door should be treated as a potential access point.

Businesses should regularly inspect locks, frames, hinges, strike plates, closers, roll-up doors, loading doors, and emergency exits. A high-quality lock provides limited protection when attached to a damaged door or weak frame.

Windows should also be evaluated, particularly ground-level windows and glass near doors or valuable merchandise.

Depending on the risk, additional protection may include security film, laminated or reinforced glass, shutters, security bars, or ballistic-resistant glazing.

Businesses such as firearm retailers, jewelry stores, pawn shops, coin shops, and other high-value operations may require substantially more physical protection than a typical office.

Security bars and similar physical barriers must always comply with applicable fire, building, accessibility, and emergency-egress requirements.

3. Limit and Control Normal Entrances

When the property design and applicable codes allow, businesses should consider directing normal customer and visitor traffic through one primary controlled entrance and exit.

Multiple uncontrolled entrances make it harder to know who is entering and leaving the property.

Other exterior doors should remain secured against unauthorized entry rather than becoming unofficial entrances for employees, vendors, or customers.

Emergency exits should remain immediately available for lawful emergency egress while being secured against unauthorized entry from outside. Businesses should regularly inspect panic hardware, alarms, locks, frames, and closing mechanisms and ensure employees are not propping emergency exits open.

The basic principle is:

Easy to exit during an emergency. Difficult to enter without authorization.

4. Consider Controlled Entry for Higher-Risk Businesses

Some businesses should consider whether unrestricted public access is appropriate at all.

Liquor stores, pawn shops, firearm retailers, jewelry stores, check-cashing businesses, and other higher-risk operations may benefit from locked-entry systems requiring employees or security personnel to authorize entry.

A controlled entrance may incorporate cameras, an intercom, electronic locks, and visual verification so employees can evaluate a visitor before providing access.

Depending on the environment, controlled exit systems may also be appropriate, provided all applicable emergency-egress and life-safety requirements are maintained.

The business, rather than the visitor, should determine when and how access is granted.

5. Take Access Control Seriously

Access control involves much more than installing a card reader.

Businesses should maintain visitor and guest lists when practical. Visitors, vendors, contractors, and delivery personnel can be preauthorized, verified upon arrival, issued temporary credentials, and limited to the areas they legitimately need to access.

Employee key cards, badges, keys, PIN codes, and other credentials should also be regularly audited.

Shared passcodes should be changed periodically and whenever compromise is suspected. Individual employee credentials are generally preferable because they provide accountability and can be independently deactivated.

Whenever possible, employee access systems should be integrated with onboarding and termination procedures. When employment ends, unnecessary electronic access should be immediately or automatically deactivated.

Employees must also understand tailgating and piggybacking.

Employees should not hold controlled doors open for unidentified individuals, loan badges to coworkers, share passcodes, or allow someone to bypass established visitor procedures simply because the person appears familiar.

If employees routinely bypass the system, the organization does not truly have access control—it has expensive locks that people routinely circumvent.

6. Use Weapons Screening Where Appropriate

Some environments may require another access-control layer: controlling not only who enters, but what enters with them.

Depending on the threat assessment, facilities such as sensitive data centers, bars and nightclubs, entertainment venues, major events, high-risk workplaces, and other sensitive locations may consider walk-through metal detectors, handheld detection equipment, authorized bag screening, or other weapons-screening procedures.

Screening procedures should be supported by clear policies defining prohibited items, screening responsibilities, refusals, and when security or law enforcement becomes involved.

The screening point must also be designed so it cannot simply be bypassed through another uncontrolled entrance.

7. Install and Maintain Security Cameras

Security cameras can deter criminal activity, provide situational awareness, document incidents, and preserve valuable evidence.

However, cameras should not simply be installed and forgotten.

Businesses should periodically inspect coverage and identify blind spots. Entrances, exits, registers, high-value merchandise, parking areas, loading docks, gates, employee-only areas, and other vulnerable locations should be considered when designing coverage.

Cameras should be mounted and protected to make them as tamper-resistant as reasonably practical. Recording equipment, network components, and wiring should also be protected against unauthorized access or intentional damage.

Every camera should be periodically checked to confirm it is powered, recording, properly aimed, displaying accurate time information, and producing usable footage.

The goal is not simply to record that something happened. Footage should be useful enough to help establish what happened, where it occurred, and when it occurred.

8. Use Alarms, Panic Buttons and Security Technology

Camera systems should be supported by other security technology where appropriate.

Businesses may utilize intrusion alarms, door contacts, glass-break sensors, motion detection, monitored alarms, and panic or duress buttons.

Panic alarms can be particularly valuable for employees working at cash registers, reception areas, customer-service counters, and other locations where robberies or violent confrontations are reasonably foreseeable.

Security systems should be tested regularly. Discovering during a burglary that a door sensor stopped functioning months earlier defeats the purpose of having the system.

9. Improve Lighting and Visibility

Good lighting can improve both deterrence and detection.

Entrances, exits, parking areas, loading docks, walkways, alleys, exterior storage areas, and other vulnerable locations should have adequate lighting appropriate to the environment.

Landscaping, shelving, displays, dumpsters, equipment, and other objects should also be evaluated for unnecessary concealment or blocked sightlines.

Lighting should complement camera placement. A camera overlooking a poorly illuminated parking lot may provide little useful information when an incident occurs at night.

10. Secure High-Value Inventory

High-value merchandise should be physically protected whenever practical.

Liquor stores, coin shops, pawn shops, jewelry stores, firearm retailers, electronics retailers, and other businesses carrying valuable or easily resold products should consider locked display cases, secured counters, restricted storage rooms, safes, vaults, and employee-controlled access.

Businesses should also consider the relationship between merchandise and exits. Valuable inventory should not be positioned so an offender can grab thousands of dollars in merchandise and reach an exit within seconds.

Particularly valuable inventory may require more secure storage after closing.

Controlled Entry + Camera Coverage + Locked Displays + Restricted Inventory Access + Secure After-Hours Storage

The objective is to make theft more difficult rather than relying entirely on catching someone afterward.

11. Secure Cash and Consider Time-Delay Safes

Cash-intensive businesses should minimize the amount of money immediately accessible to employees or offenders.

Businesses can establish maximum register amounts, perform regular cash drops, restrict safe access, conduct cash counting away from public view, and establish secure deposit procedures.

Businesses handling substantial cash should consider time-delay or time-lock safes where appropriate.

A time-delay system can prevent an employee from immediately opening a safe on demand during a robbery. Appropriate signage may also communicate that employees cannot provide immediate access to secured cash.

Most importantly, employees should understand that their safety is more important than cash or merchandise.

12. Control and Monitor Parking Areas

Security does not stop at the front door.

Parking lots and garages can expose employees, customers, vehicles, and property to theft, vandalism, robbery, assault, and other criminal activity.

Where practical, parking areas can incorporate controlled vehicle access, gates, permits, lighting, camera coverage, designated employee areas, foot patrols, or vehicle patrols.

Businesses should regularly evaluate parking areas for poor lighting, blind spots, damaged gates, unauthorized vehicles, loitering, vehicle break-ins, and unsafe pedestrian routes.

Employee escorts may also be appropriate for late-night operations, workplace-violence concerns, threats, or other elevated risks.

13. Establish Shoplifting and Theft Procedures

Employees need to know what to do when they suspect theft.

Written policies should define what employees should observe, who should be notified, when security should become involved, and what employees are prohibited from doing.

Businesses should carefully consider policies involving physical intervention, detention, following suspects, or chasing someone from the property. Applicable laws, employee training, company policy, and the value of the property involved must all be considered.

A basic principle should remain:

People come first. Property comes second.

No piece of merchandise is worth unnecessarily exposing an employee or customer to serious injury.

14. Protect Employees From Violence

Businesses should prepare for more than property crime.

Employees may encounter aggressive customers, robbery, fights, threatening individuals, workplace violence, domestic violence that reaches the workplace, or other violent situations.

Employees should know how to summon assistance, create distance, disengage when appropriate, notify security, and call 911 during an immediate emergency.

De-escalation training can provide employees with additional tools for communicating with upset or aggressive individuals.

However:

De-escalation is a tool, not an excuse for inaction when someone is in immediate danger.

15. Encourage Situational Awareness

Employees are often the first people to notice that something is wrong.

Businesses should encourage a “See Something, Say Something” culture focused on observable behavior and circumstances rather than assumptions about someone’s appearance or background.

Employees should report concerns such as propped-open doors, damaged security equipment, attempts to enter restricted areas, suspicious activity around vehicles, threats, unusual surveillance of sensitive areas, or attempts to bypass security procedures.

Employees should know whether the appropriate response is to notify management, security personnel, or emergency services.

Management must also take credible reports seriously. Employees will eventually stop reporting concerns if they believe nobody is listening.

16. Train Employees for Security and Emergencies

Employees should receive security training appropriate to their responsibilities.

That may include de-escalation, situational awareness, access-control procedures, robbery response, emergency communications, and recognizing workplace-violence warning signs.

Businesses should also consider providing employees with recognized first aid, CPR, and AED training.

Where appropriate, employers may offer voluntary self-defense or personal-safety classes at no cost to employees. The purpose should not be to turn employees into security officers or encourage physical intervention over property.

Personal-safety training should instead reinforce awareness, avoidance, maintaining distance, escape, and basic defensive concepts for circumstances in which avoidance is no longer possible.

17. Develop Written Security Policies

Security expectations should not exist only as verbal instructions.

Businesses should develop written policies covering key areas such as access control, visitors, shoplifting, robbery, cash handling, trespassing, workplace violence, opening and closing, employee escorts, suspicious activity, incident reporting, and emergency notifications.

Employees should know what they are authorized to do—and equally important, what they are not authorized to do.

Written procedures create consistency and reduce the likelihood that an employee will have to invent a response in the middle of a serious incident.

18. Develop Emergency Plans—and Practice Them

Businesses should prepare written emergency plans for foreseeable incidents.

Depending on the operation, plans may address fires, robberies, medical emergencies, workplace violence, active shooter or other active-threat situations, evacuations, and other significant emergencies.

But having a plan sitting in a binder is not enough.

Businesses should conduct appropriate drills, tabletop exercises, and training so employees understand their responsibilities.

Write the Plan + Train Employees + Practice the Plan + Identify Problems + Correct Them + Practice Again

Exercises may reveal that employees cannot hear an emergency notification, evacuation routes are unclear, contact information is outdated, doors do not function correctly, or employees simply do not understand the procedure.

The worst time to learn an emergency plan is during the emergency itself.

19. Establish Safe Opening, Closing and Delivery Procedures

Opening and closing can create predictable vulnerabilities, particularly when employees are alone.

Businesses should establish procedures for exterior observations, doors, alarms, cash, parking areas, suspicious activity, and employees entering or leaving after hours.

Loading docks and receiving areas should also be controlled.

Deliveries should be verified, vendor access restricted, and loading doors secured when not actively being used. Vendors and contractors should not automatically receive unrestricted access to the facility simply because they have legitimate business on the property.

20. Address Internal Theft

Not every theft comes from a customer.

Businesses should use appropriate inventory controls, transaction audits, restricted access, key management, separation of responsibilities, and access logs to reduce opportunities for internal theft.

Employees should generally receive only the level of physical and electronic access required for their responsibilities.

Unusual inventory discrepancies, unauthorized access, or suspicious transactions should be documented and appropriately investigated.

21. Work Effectively With Law Enforcement

Businesses should know how to interact with law enforcement before an emergency occurs.

Employees and managers should understand when to call 911, when a non-emergency number is appropriate, and what information responding officers may need.

After significant incidents, businesses should be prepared to preserve relevant camera footage, incident reports, witness information, suspect descriptions, vehicle information, and other available evidence.

Private security personnel should also have procedures for communicating with responding officers during serious incidents.

Private security does not replace law enforcement. A good security program helps prevent problems when possible and supports an effective emergency response when police intervention becomes necessary.

22. Consider Professional Security

At some point, a property’s crime exposure may justify professional security personnel.

Security guards can provide a visible deterrent, access control, patrols, employee protection, monitoring, de-escalation, response to disturbances, incident documentation, and communication with management and law enforcement.

Whether armed or unarmed security is appropriate should depend on the business, environment, threat assessment, applicable law, and the responsibilities assigned to the security personnel.

Professional security should also be properly managed.

A security officer should not simply be another person standing near a door. Effective security requires defined responsibilities, site-specific post orders, appropriate training, reliable communications, incident reporting, and active supervision.

The firearm, when armed security is appropriate, is a protective tool. It is not the security plan.

23. Conduct Regular Security Audits

Security measures should evolve as the business changes.

Management should periodically walk the property and inspect the security program from the outside in.

Check the fence. Test the gates. Inspect the locks. Review camera angles. Test alarms. Audit key cards. Change compromised passcodes. Inspect lighting. Review visitor procedures. Examine incident reports. Verify emergency equipment. Practice emergency plans.

Previous incidents should also be reviewed for patterns.

If theft repeatedly occurs in one department, vehicles are repeatedly burglarized in one section of the parking lot, or unauthorized people repeatedly enter through the same door, those incidents may be identifying a weakness in the security program.

Finding the vulnerability is only useful if the organization corrects it.

Business Security Works Best in Layers

There is no single answer to business crime.

The strongest security programs combine physical security, technology, employee preparedness, procedures, and an effective response capability.

Perimeter Hardening + Controlled Entry + Access Control + Weapons Screening When Appropriate + Cameras and Alarms + Lighting + Inventory and Cash Controls + Employee Training + Professional Security + Emergency Planning + Regular Security Audits

Every organization will require a different combination.

A small office does not face the same threats as a liquor store. A data center has different vulnerabilities than a shopping center. A pawn shop should not necessarily use the same security measures as a warehouse.

Security measures should be based on the property, people, assets, operating environment, previous incidents, and credible threats facing that particular organization.

The objective is not to create a fortress or eliminate every possible risk. No security program can guarantee that a crime will never occur.

The objective is to reduce opportunities for crime, deter potential offenders, detect suspicious activity earlier, protect employees and customers, make valuable assets more difficult to steal, and provide an effective response when prevention fails.

Businesses should continuously ask three questions:

What are we trying to protect?

Where are we vulnerable?

What can we do today to reduce that vulnerability?

Answering those questions—and acting on the answers—is the foundation of an effective business security program.

1. What is the best way to protect a business from crime?

The most effective approach is layered security. Businesses should combine physical security measures such as fencing, gates, hardened doors and windows with access control, cameras, alarms, lighting, employee training, written procedures, emergency planning, and professional security when appropriate. No single security measure can address every threat.

2. How can a business prevent shoplifting and retail theft?

Businesses can reduce shoplifting by improving store visibility, camera coverage, merchandise placement, locked displays, inventory controls, employee awareness, access control, and professional security. Employees should also have clear written procedures explaining how suspected theft should be reported and what actions employees are authorized to take. Employee and customer safety should remain more important than recovering merchandise.

3. How can businesses improve access control?

Access control can include secured entrances, electronic key cards, individual credentials, visitor lists, controlled gates, employee badges, passcodes, intercom systems, and security personnel. Credentials should be regularly audited, former employees should have access promptly terminated, and employees should be trained not to allow tailgating or piggybacking through controlled entrances.

4. What security measures should high-risk businesses consider?

Businesses handling substantial cash or valuable inventory may require additional measures such as controlled entry, locked display cases, reinforced or ballistic-resistant glazing where appropriate, time-delay safes, weapons screening, panic alarms, enhanced camera coverage, and professional security personnel. Security measures should be based on an assessment of the actual risks facing the business.

5. How often should security cameras and alarm systems be checked?

Businesses should inspect security systems regularly and whenever conditions change. Cameras should be checked for blind spots, image quality, proper positioning, recording capability, accurate time settings, and tampering. Alarms, panic buttons, access-control equipment, and intrusion-detection systems should also be periodically tested to ensure they function when needed.

6. How can businesses protect employees from robbery and violent crime?

Businesses should combine physical security, employee training, situational awareness, de-escalation, panic or duress alarms, emergency communications, controlled access, and written response procedures. Employees should understand how to summon assistance, when to call 911, and when to disengage from a dangerous situation. People should take priority over protecting cash or merchandise.

7. Should businesses have written emergency and security plans?

Yes. Businesses should establish written procedures for foreseeable security and emergency situations, including robbery, theft, workplace violence, fire, medical emergencies, evacuation, and active shooter or other active-threat incidents. Employees should be trained on these procedures, and appropriate drills or tabletop exercises should be conducted periodically.

8. What security training should businesses provide employees?

Training should reflect the risks and responsibilities of the workplace. Useful topics can include situational awareness, “See Something, Say Something,” access control, de-escalation, robbery response, workplace violence, emergency procedures, first aid, CPR, and AED use. Businesses may also consider offering voluntary personal-safety or self-defense training to employees.

9. When should a business consider hiring security guards?

Professional security should be considered when a business faces risks that cannot be adequately addressed through locks, cameras, alarms, and employee procedures alone. Factors may include repeated theft, robbery, employee assaults, workplace threats, high-value inventory, substantial cash handling, late-night operations, recurring trespassing, large crowds, or elevated violence concerns. Security officers can provide deterrence, access control, patrols, employee protection, incident response, documentation, and coordination with law enforcement.

10. How often should a business conduct a security assessment?

Security should be reviewed periodically and whenever significant changes occur, such as a serious crime, new threats, remodeling, expansion, changes in operations, new access points, or repeated security incidents. Businesses should inspect physical security, cameras, alarms, lighting, credentials, emergency procedures, and incident trends. A security program should evolve as the risks facing the business change.

Hire Professional Security

Some businesses need more than cameras, alarms, and access control. PGSS provides professional armed security, patrols, access control, employee protection, and customized security services for businesses throughout Colorado.

Contact PGSS today to request a security quote.

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Disclaimer

Legal Disclaimer (PGSS LLC):
This information is provided for general educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Laws and regulations can change, and local, state, federal, and municipal requirements may vary. Always consult qualified legal counsel regarding specific legal questions. PGSS LLC assumes no liability for actions taken based on this content.