Gated communities are gated for a reason: to keep unwanted, uninvited and undesirable people out of the community. The surrounding fence or wall or natural barriers of a “gated” community are the old world village timber fence, or the strategic city wall (think Troy) or the castle ramparts.
Gated communities need certain security considerations. For one thing there are many people, families, couples, individuals of the community who need to be guarded from all manner and strategies of intrusions. In this case there is not just one individual or family. But a small village full of families or couples requiring top level protection.
Here are some key areas that we focus on for securing gated communities.
- Make sure the entries to the community are fully secure. No entry point is overlooked for us. Very skilled burglars can gain entry through electronically controlled gates. So, a security officer and a station should be established at every entry point.
- Make sure that the security detail has a direct access to each resident of the community. This is both for the security personnel to reach the residents, but also, of course, for the residents to reach the security officers on duty. There can also be a security representative who is available to respond to member’s concerns.
- Gate communities are targeted by burglars to determine if there are any security openings to use. One of these can be a temporary absence of a security officer at a station. This should be part of a top quality security guard company’s M.O. – making sure stations are always manned.
- Making sure that gated community residents are educated as to the security protocols that are in place from our team. Certainly helpful is a community that understands the importance of security and the security officer team that is performing this function, and is wanting to cooperate with and be pro-active in overall security practices.
- Keeping complete and accurate visitor logs, including guests to community members, is a vital facet of best practices security for a gated community.