Warehouse protection.
Almost all commercial enterprises have something tangible — goods, products — what they actually sell. Accordingly, there is a warehouse where a significant part of the company's property is stored. Protecting such a warehouse is an important task. A very popular task (everyone wants to protect it), but also a very difficult one. What are the features of warehouses that make them a very difficult object of protection?
Let's start with security.
At first glance, everything is simple: the warehouse is deliberately built in such a way that it has 1-2 entrances, almost always locked, there are usually no visitors inside, you just need to make sure that visitors do not pass from the loading/unloading area to the warehouse itself, and the storekeeper is responsible for receiving and issuing goods.
On the other hand, a warehouse is a huge room filled (if not piled high) with various boxes, and only a few people, and often just one person, work in this room.
If a criminal enters the warehouse, it will be difficult to find him there.
In addition, the variety of goods stored, their constant movement means that if a theft occurs, it will most likely not be discovered until several days (or even months) later, when the stolen goods are needed for shipment.
Or even later — when the accounting department requires an inventory (and this may not happen for several years).
Thus, although during working hours it is enough to simply protect the warehouse from unauthorized entry, this must be done extremely carefully. Obviously, the entire perimeter of the warehouse (windows, spare doors) must be guarded.
The main entrance must be closed by an access control system so that after the storekeeper arrives at work, the door is locked.
Moreover, in large warehouses with a small flow of goods, it makes sense to keep the entire warehouse under guard using volumetric sensors even during working hours.
Disarm only individual areas and only while the storekeeper is passing through them, even if they are not fenced off from the rest of the warehouse.
For this purpose, an access control system can be used, installing readers in the passages so that, when moving to the next section, the storekeeper can quickly disarm it, and when leaving from there, re-arm it.
Of course, all kinds of automatic arming are useful if no one moves for more than 30 minutes, or if the storekeeper entered his storeroom, then all the sections that he forgot to arm when leaving must be armed.
Additionally, you can automatically turn off the lights — this will be a great sign of disarming (the storekeeper will not forget to disarm), and will also lead to considerable savings: several kilowatts of lighting are usually constantly on, despite the fact that both storekeepers sit with the security guard in the duty room 99% of the time and wait for the next car to arrive.
Like any strict measures, the constant state of «under guard» will lead to more frequent cases of false alarms.
The storekeeper forgot to disarm and ran into another area. Or he was lost in thought (dozed off on a stack of carpets), and then the system automatically went into guard.
What can you do, either the storekeeper sleeps comfortably, or the goods are reliably protected. So, the working day is over, the entire warehouse is completely guarded. The guard is on duty with a Berdan rifle.
Can we calm down?
No way. Many warehouses are located in remote industrial areas, on one side there is a wasteland, on the other — a huge factory territory, where there is nothing to steal and there is no security there.
For criminals — free rein, they can leisurely open the warehouse like a tin can.
Conclusion: even if the warehouse is not made of aluminum panels, assume that criminals will literally pass through the wall.
Fortunately, the wall can be protected with a simple breakaway sensor — any wire laid under the plaster or at least an alarm loop cable laid at the height of the expected break-in solves the problem.
In addition, of course, volumetric sensors are needed. And which ones? The most popular are passive infrared. But where to put them?
They need direct visibility, but where can they get it in a cluttered warehouse? There is an option to install regular wide-angle sensors on the ceiling so that they look down with their wide horizontal angle along the passage between the racks.
There are also special ones, but they are designed for ceilings 3-4 m high. In a hangar, a 30 m ceiling is not uncommon.
That is why I suggest regular wall sensors, their range is usually sufficient for installation on any ceiling.
Microwave sensors, or combined IR-microwave sensors, switched on in the «OR» mode, can also help the matter, for them many bales and boxes are not an obstacle, no matter how much goods are piled up, the sensors will continue to work.
But microwave sensors are not without problems.
If the hangar walls are made of thin sheet metal, these sensors can react to deformation of the walls from the wind. If, on the contrary, the walls are brick, these sensors will be triggered by the passage of a KamAZ truck behind the wall.
And it is not advisable to install many such sensors in one room — they will interfere with each other.
Now, finally, is everything okay?
No, now the worst begins. Literally. It is not enough to detect theft, it must be counteracted. A warehouse with goods is a very attractive target for serious criminals.
A bunch of brand new equipment or boxes of vodka, neatly packed for easy loading. What more could you want?
Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to seriously consider the option of armed robbery by people who know that there are guards in the warehouse.
Risk is part of the security guard's profession. You should not sleep on duty or leave the front door unlocked.
However, the owners of the facility are not worried about the lives of the guards, but about the safety of the property. However, there are usually no contradictions — either both can be saved, or everything is lost.
What are the possible scenarios of armed robberies?
Criminals may plan to quietly break into the back gate and take away the property.
But they are ready to use force to suppress (destroy) the guards if the guards notice the theft.
Criminals may immediately plan to capture the guards so that they can later load everything from the warehouse without interference.
Of course, in any case, the regular duty officers, even if there are two of them, even if they are not armed with smooth-bore weapons (they are guarded by the Ministry of Internal Affairs), will not be able to offer serious resistance to an armed gang.
The maximum that can be expected is that they will be able to save their lives.
To effectively suppress criminal activity, it is necessary to involve a sufficiently large response team that provides support to several objects at once.
That is, the first condition is to notify the response team as quickly as possible. The second is to make sure that the criminals cannot do their dirty work in a few minutes.
The second task seems simple — the facility, including the security, simply should not have keys to the doors of the warehouse itself.
When arming a warehouse, all main and auxiliary doors must be bolted, locked with several locks, blocked by loading equipment with batteries removed, etc.
Unfortunately, there is a contradiction: in the event of a fire, on the contrary, it is necessary to open all doors as quickly as possible and provide firefighters with access to the warehouse.
Possible solution: spare keys are in a secret place that the security guards do not know about, but the owner can tell them the location of the keys in case of a fire.
Now about the first task.
How to ensure an urgent call to the central response team?
First of all, there must be an automatic line for transmitting messages to the central monitoring station (CMS).
In no case should you hope that the security guard himself will call on the phone «if something happens».
The security guard may be incapacitated (standing in the corner at gunpoint), may hesitate for too long to call, and finally, may simply collude with the criminals.
Secondly, for the same reasons, security guards should not be able to remove the warehouse premises from security.
Even in the event of a fire.
Let them open the warehouse, turn off the siren, the signal should still be transmitted to the central monitoring station. As the servicemen like to say: security at the facility should protect the alarm system and drive away hooligans throwing cigarette butts.
Everything else is not their job.
In case of anything, the security platoon should respond. And the decision about who can enter the facility and when should be made by the facility management.
A person came with keys, with an access card, knows the code to disarm the warehouse — that means he has the right.
If someone drunk breaks into a window, he should be punched in the face.
And if he has an AKM under his coat, no problem — raise your hands, let him break in further, now twenty angry sleep-deprived men will arrive and sort it out.
Unfortunately, criminals are not always smart and intelligent enough to understand the futility of attacking security guards.
Therefore, of course, it is necessary to protect security personnel from insane attackers as much as possible.
In particular, the more actions they can perform without getting up from a comfortable chair, the safer.
This is what a video surveillance system is for – it allows you to regularly check the approaches to the building, conduct an initial check of the alarm signal (if five men are breaking down the back door, then there is no need to blindly run there alone).
Finally, it allows you to detect danger a little earlier and call a support group, and a few minutes saved can mean saving goods worth tens of thousands of dollars.
Goods that criminals will not so much steal as spoil while they are rushing to throw them into the back of their Kamaz. In conclusion, I will remind you about the fire alarm.
Often it is installed just to get the fire inspector off your back.
Not worth it.
A warehouse is a place where everything can burn down or get damaged in the event of a fire. Even if the fire brigade arrives on time and, without thinking too much, fills your warehouse with foam, will you be happy?
Of course, if the warehouse contains bricks, then it's okay. However, bricks won't catch fire.
What if they contain televisions?
And what about sheepskin coats and Persian carpets?
Don't skimp on safety. Install not only an alarm system, but also fire extinguishing systems. Let them be the simplest ones — in the form of autonomous powder self-acting modules.
The issue of choosing an extinguishing method is not simple, although it is discussed in detail in many regulatory documents. Unfortunately, the most effective extinguishing agents — water, foam — seriously damage stored goods.
It is necessary to either use fine zoning to spoil only the goods that are already charred, or use several systems, allowing security personnel to decide on the launch of one or another installation depending on what and where is burning.
Especially if the warehouse stores canisters of oil today, fur coats tomorrow, and plastic toys the day after tomorrow.
Thus, the cleanest extinguishing option – gas – is useless if the warehouse contains textiles, which will smolder even under gas and will flare up again after ventilation.
The most reliable and one of the cheapest – sprinkler extinguishing with water – is guaranteed to spoil almost any product, even if only a few sprinklers are activated directly above the source of the fire. Increased humidity in the warehouse can lead to spoilage of many products if they are not properly packaged.
Imagine a mountain of damp bales of fabric.
Imagine what will happen to them if they are not dried within a few days. But it is still better than if the whole mountain burns down and the warehouse building itself chars and collapses.
A significant problem is that many buildings are now owned by several owners or occupied by several different tenants. Sometimes it is cheaper to pay for the equipment of neighboring premises with a fire alarm or even fire extinguishing, just to reduce the danger to your premises.
The warehouse must be protected.
However, the warehouse itself rarely catches fire. Usually, a fire starts in a neighboring room, due to faulty wiring or the carelessness of construction workers spending the night there.
And your warehouse will suffer.
Even if you are a tenant, and the owner of the building is in no hurry to equip it with a decent fire alarm system, think about whether it might be worthwhile to cooperate with your neighbors — it will be cheaper, and the result will be better.