Man Versus Machine or a Site for Sore Eyes

• Content
• Security, Fire & Contingency Planning
• Man Versus Machine or a Site for Sore Eyes

18 July 2014 | Updated 01 January 1970

VPS, a specialist in protecting vacant properties, has published a special construction edition to its Guards versus Technology document issued last year.

There were two main reasons for the publication as explained by Simon Alderson, Development Director for VPS and the elected Chairman of the Vacant Property Protection Group of the BSIA, the British Security Industry Association. “Firstly, the data on plant and equipment theft from construction sites is staggering. One in five sites experience vandalism weekly, at least £400 million of plant and equipment get stolen annually, and because a pitifully small percentage of that is ever recovered. such thefts are seen as a ‘low-risk’ gamble.”

The second reason is that VPS believes it has tracked across the whole range of security options, so it could compare the pros and cons of the use of the more traditional security methods, such as guards, with the increasingly sophisticated technologies available today.

 “Guards are the right choice in certain contexts, but lower cost, highly capable technological options are fast chasing that market, Mr Alderson stated. “A SmartTower CCTV, for example, is a protection and monitoring system that can be installed in any location, no matter how remote or challenging, and can be moved, added to or reduced in capacity according to the dynamics of an ever changing construction site.”

He argued that sometimes the best-fit answer combined fewer manned security guards with more specialist technologies. “Better, more dynamic security strategies for building sites are required,” he concluded.

Pictured: Which to choose, the conventional security guard or a more sophisticated CCTV system, such as this from VPS? Perhaps a mixture of both, argues a ‘white paper’ from the security specialist

Article written by Mike Gannon | Published 18 July 2014

Share

Related Articles