Dealing with a Break-in at a Commercial Property

If you discover your business has been broken into, it will undoubtedly be a difficult time. There will be a substantial amount to deal with, including the police investigation and reporting the incident to your insurance company. However, you should also consider where your security measures were lacking in order to reduce the risk of it happening again.

Preventing a property being broken into is always the best option, whether this is through an alarm system or commercial security gates. It doesn’t matter how prepared you are, though, as sometimes the worst will happen. Therefore, it’s important to be prepared so that everyone within the business knows what to do if a burglary does take place.

When a Break-in Happens

Unless you have been alerted by an alarm, often a break-in is first detected when you open up the business in the morning. If you’re the first one to get to the site, it’s important that you don’t go into the building if you believe a break-in has happened. The first thing you should do is contact the police and the senior management of the business.

While you’re waiting for them to arrive, don’t touch anything that could be used as evidence. It’s important these are preserved in their positions and that your fingerprints don’t contaminate them. If you have done so before realising that you’ve been broken into, remember to tell the police exactly what you touched and anything you have moved.

You will need to wait for the police to gather details of the incident and any evidence before you can go back into the property. Once you are able to, you need to take down as much information as possible for your insurance company. This should be done before you begin tidying up. Take some photos of the damage and areas where items were stolen from. Write down a list of exactly what’s been taken or damaged and collect together any receipts or details of the items. Contact your insurance company as soon as you can so that they can begin the claims process.

Review Security Measures

Directly after a break-in is a good time to look at the security measures you had in place and why these didn’t work. You need to examine how the intruders gained access to the site and ways in which you can prevent this happening again. If they got in through the perimeter, you might want to consider enhancing your security in this area. This could include installing a higher perimeter fence or investing in strong commercial security gates.

In some circumstances, a break-in happens because of human error rather than inadequate security. Following an incident, check whether the security you had was used correctly. For example, was the alarm system turned on, or were the gates closed and locked securely? If you were lacking in these areas, it’s the same as not having any security at all.

Break-ins of any type will always be distressing. However, if you deal with them correctly and learn from your mistakes, you can reduce the risk of becoming a victim in the future.