While we’re not in the business of construction site security, it is top of mind for many of our customers. And it’s something we care about too. Customers occasionally bring this issue up during discussion of upcoming projects. It’s an important aspect of the process - and photography does have a role in ensuring your site is safe and secure.
Develop a Security Plan
It may seem like an obvious first step, but it’s often overlooked. To succeed in keeping your site secure, you must first create a construction site security plan. This plan should clearly lay out security policies and expectations. Security roles in the crew should be defined. Supervisors should clearly communicate the plan to all employees, subcontractors, and any other staff on site. Communicate and encourage security and safety for employees, facilities, tools, and equipment with your construction site security plan.
Inventory & Manage Your Equipment & Supplies
Create and maintain a thorough record of your inventory. This includes your photography gear. Should something go missing, this will aid in reporting the incident and with insurance claims. Ensuring that you know exactly what equipment should be present on your site is important.
- Keep an inventory of your tools, documenting the serial numbers of equipment.
- Take images of all important equipment and supplies.
- All tools and equipment should be accounted for and locked up in a secure location at the end of each shift.
Install Lighting & Camera Systems
Obviously thieves want to avoid getting caught, so they’ll avoid places that are well-lit and have clear security systems in place. Unfortunately, many construction sites lack the most basic lighting systems, making them an easy target.
Be able to capture images while the crew isn’t there - and being able to see - is important to your site security. Not only will this provide an important record of events, but it may also serve as a visual deterrent to would-be criminals or vandals.
As mentioned before, we hear from some of our construction time lapse customers that security is an important consideration. So why not use your time lapse kit for security as well? If something goes missing, gets vandalized or if an accident happens, depending on your time lapse scheduling, you may be able to narrow down when something happened - or even catch the activity on camera.
Want to take it a step further? Add an extra layer of security by incorporating motion detection to your time lapse camera system. Our X-Band Motion Sensor is an accessory forBlink orBlinkX that uses doppler detection to determine if motion has occurred by bouncing 10.5 GHz microwave signals off the objects in front of it. You canprogram "active shoot time" to avoid capturing extra footage. You’re able to choose to capture a single shot, multiple stills, or video. You can even trigger the camera between capturing regular interval time lapse images.
Site Security Guards
If an alarm goes off or your motion detection sensor triggers, who will respond to the situation? Security guards are an added layer of protection. Having someone to watch over your construction site and provide regular patrols may deter would-be wrong-doers.
We want to not only see impressive construction time lapse videos, but also see successful construction projects completed as a whole. And this means avoiding theft and vandalism. If we can aid in that effort through our product functionality, we want to help!
