Lancashire Police have published helpful business crime prevention advice for business owners on their website.
Read the full article and download the guide here
Here are their top tips to reduce the risks of your business being targeted
- Keep valuables and anything that may attract a criminal to your business out of sight.
- Remove anything that might be used to commit crime – eg make sure there are no bricks or debris around or chain bins to railings so they can’t be used as climbing aids
- Security mark property, use dummy stock or consider smoke and dye systems (larger businesses) to reduce the gains for criminals
- Make it difficult for a criminal to gain entry to your business – if you are installing security doors or windows consider PAS 24:2012 standards as well as laminated glazing and security grilles or shutters for vulnerable openings
- Security bollards, access control panels , car park barriers and lockable gates all prevent out of hours access to your business
- CCTV, intruder alarms, sharing data via a business watch scheme (ie FleetWatch), cutting back hedges around the property or outside lights all make it more likely criminals will be seen.
- For offices, ensure employees wear ID cards and visitors sign in at reception.
- Report suspicious activity – many people think that ‘nothing happens’ when they report a crime via 101. This is not the case as all incidents are logged. With organised gangs behind much crime, reporting something in Fleet may mean that someone is stopped in another part of the country. Reporting is essential to ensure that the police have the information they need to detect and prevent crime.
- Welcome visitors to your business – making eye contact and acknowledging someone who enters a shop, handing people a basket or saying hello to an unfamiliar face in an office environment all alert criminals to the fact they have been noticed.
- Download the full guide here.
