Need Advice!

[Security]

Hi Everyone.

As I already mentioned in my introduction posting, I work as a security officer in a large shopping center. Well, recently, one of our stores has been robbed not once, but twice in only a week time period. Currently, we only patrol the center from 8 AM - 10 PM, but because the break-ins have been happening in the middle of the night, we are switching to 24-hour survellience throughout the holiday season.

Unfortunately for us, there will only be one guard working per night shift. I am supposed to meet with our GM tomorrow to discuss but wanted to know from people here how might I protect myself if these people were to break in and rob us again while I'm on duty?

Thanks so much!

Erik

[NRM_Oz]

I will faithfully argue that your life is worth more than any materialistic things. We had an armed guard in a security company with 35 glocks in a save - when you have a 410 shotgun pointed at you - you will do whatever you are asked including making them a cup of tea. Are we talking ram raids (cars through a window) or why not add some security film to the windows or internal shutters hidden by a store design ?

[Mr. Security]

Hi Everyone.

As I already mentioned in my introduction posting, I work as a security officer in a large shopping center. Well, recently, one of our stores has been robbed not once, but twice in only a week time period. Currently, we only patrol the center from 8 AM - 10 PM, but because the break-ins have been happening in the middle of the night, we are switching to 24-hour survellience throughout the holiday season.

Unfortunately for us, there will only be one guard working per night shift. I am supposed to meet with our GM tomorrow to discuss but wanted to know from people here how might I protect myself if these people were to break in and rob us again while I'm on duty?

Thanks so much!


Erik

How did they get in? Forced entry? If so, how? Is the store(s) alarmed and monitored? What did they take? Any idea how many suspects or how long they stayed in the store?

Excuse the ??, but more information is needed to make a suggestion(s).

[Security]

Sorry, I should have mentioned this in my first post. Our shopping center is basically an outdoor mall. We have this one store that sells expensive women's clothing and handbags, and a week ago two individuals apparently forced their way in by breaking the glass door with a crowbar and stole about $10,000 worth of clothes/bags. Two nights ago, they did the same thing. There is a security camera that the store has but we are not able to view it (only the store can.) I don't believe the store is alarmed... at least not to my knowledge.

Thanks,
Erik

[bpdblue]

If your driving, or walking around the outside of the mall, and you see people breaking in, or even looking suspicious, you should back off and call the police. Remember you are NEVER justified in using deadly force to save property, so let the police handle it. Of course get as much info as possible on the suspect(s), their veh, ect., and provide that to the P.D.

If your inside the mall, you should basically do the same, except now you are in more of a deadly situation if you are spotted, so be completely aware of your surroundings. Try to find cover, not just concealment, incase they are not great with the idea that there is a witness.

As for precautions you can take to protect that store thats been broken into twice, from your description, it sounds like it's not one of your accounts, so I don't know how much of that is your problem, but maybe someone from your company could talk with them about coming aboard with your company.

[Mr. Security]

Just a couple of quick thoughts:

- A monitored alarm seems like a wise investment for the store since it has been hit twice.

- The front door should be such that a forced entry is difficult in order to delay the burglars.

- Can the police drive by more frequently? Some departments have a request form for that.

- Do you vary your patrols so that you are not predictable?

[NRM_Oz]

Where I once worked before, we had an isolated building near a sporting retailer (clothing and some equipment), a video shop that closed at midnight and 2 vacant stores. The crooks came in prepared using sledgehammers to break throught the cinder block walls. The adjoing store was NOT alarmed. I found a scrap metal place and had a 1 inche steel plate mounted 4' x 4' across the hole they made (it meant they could not come through that area again. Next attempt was to run a truck through the window but the roller grille held up (I had increased the quality of the locking hinges for some give when forced back) and the final attempt was to run a truck through a fire exit - not knowing that I had place 2 bollards inside the stair well (removed by 1st manager onsite). $25k in damage but only $1,200 was taken on all 3 attempts. I paid for a patrol service after night one and being a country area (yes they played banjoes I think) they had 30 miles between patrols sometimes.

[msofin]

Hi Everyone.

As I already mentioned in my introduction posting, I work as a security officer in a large shopping center. Well, recently, one of our stores has been robbed not once, but twice in only a week time period. Currently, we only patrol the center from 8 AM - 10 PM, but because the break-ins have been happening in the middle of the night, we are switching to 24-hour survellience throughout the holiday season.

Unfortunately for us, there will only be one guard working per night shift. I am supposed to meet with our GM tomorrow to discuss but wanted to know from people here how might I protect myself if these people were to break in and rob us again while I'm on duty?

Thanks so much!

Erik

I interviewed for an SO position with IPC this past summer at a somewhat nearby mall. All of their radios had the local PD frequency programed in. The SOs were permitted to radio the police when a dispatcher wasn't on duty for emergencies, mainly for the grave yard shift. Would a set up like this, with the your local PD's permission of course, be something you would find useful to yourself in an emergency?

[CorpSec]

Not to be picky, but the stores were not "robbed", they were burglarized. There is a big difference.

Your goal should be to deter any further criminal activity from happening. Be very visible, vary your patterns, and be on the lookout for anything suspicious. These are crimes of opportunity. Once the crooks see that the window of opportunity has closed, they will go elsewhere.

[Hank1]

Ditto

Corpsec is correct on all points. Burglary and Robbery are significantly different criminal act. Stay visible at all times and as others have stated, not one of those things are worth your life. If you see suspicious activity, call the police right away and be a witness to the activity.

Be Safe,

Hank

[NRM_Oz]

CorpSec and Hank1 are correct - you need to ensure you get your terminology correct (no big deal) as it means it may be part of a task force (not sure how big your PD is). In my post the police were 40 minutes away (country area) so the idea of patrols was not so easy to arrange, but we lit the place up like a Xmas tree from the outside and joined up with the local security patrols of the neighbouring buildings for an extra $10.00 a night. Once they know you are on top of them, they will move onto other easier targets.

[ddog]

Advice??

Lol, I can hear a lone keyboard banging into the night with steady one finger pecks forming: big block paragraphs, bulleted laundry lists, and meaningless words. You are about to enter the 'training' zone. Good luck!

[Security]

Yes, I meant to say burglary, not robbery... sorry about that.

Well, I spoke to my GM today and what was decided between the store and management was that we will end up having two guards on duty. One will patrol the center the whole night and the other will stay in the store (this guard will actually be hired through a security service, he is not actually employed by us.) I took a lot of the advice here, but the only thing that seemed worthy of further consideration was to find out if the police could drive by throughout the night (so thank you to whoever it was that mentioned that!)

Only problem with this, though, (and I just found this out today) is that the burglars were in and out in only a minute and 13 seconds, so I'm not sure the police driving by every hour or so will really make much of a difference.

I wish we could just install CCTV surveillance cameras throughout the center... that way I could monitor everything from the safety of the office, but evidently it is more cost efficient to make the SO walk around all night unarmed - sigh.

Well, I just wanted to thank everyone for helping me out. I did take a lot of your advice and it will hopefully help us out in the future, but for the time being, this is where we stand... But I really appreciate all of your support. Great group of people we have here. -Erik

[Security]

One more quick question... Do you think it will be safer for our officers if we were wearing plain clothes during the night shift? After all, no one is supposed to be there to see us in uniform anyway. However, if the burglars were to come back and spot security, I am wondering if wearing plain clothes would make us less of a target?

Thanks,
Erik

[EMTGuard]

One more quick question... Do you think it will be safer for our officers if we were wearing plain clothes during the night shift?

Personally I've always been a fan of very overt security practices as a way to deter crimes such as the ones you mentioned. Like the local mall security which wears very noticable uniforms and patrols the parking lots with their roof lights flashing. They are a visable deterence to anyone casing a place.
Yes, plain clothes has it's place and I even like the idea of blending overt and covert partols but when you are using only one or 2 SOs to partol an outside mall I'd always say to make yourself known. Marked partol vehicle, spotlight scanning and vary your patrols to confuse anyone watching. Don't stay out front. Keep an eye on the rear of the place too so someone doesn't come in that way. I spent 5 hours of a 12 hour shift last night driving around my steel mill with my spotlight going back and forth in random, confusing and dizzing patrols. Anyone watching my facility would have known that the chance of being seen was almost certain.