Protecting Residential Construction Sites With State-of-The-Art Technology

It’s estimated that, due to a lack of construction site surveillance, between $1 billion to $4 billion of tools, equipment, and materials are stolen from residential housing job sites each year in the United States. In some states, so much metal is regularly stolen from these job sites that second-hand dealers and recycling centers are required to keep records from people who sell materials over a certain amount, including drivers licenses and Social Security numbers, so they can be tracked down should the goods prove to be stolen.

Stolen Material - A Problem?

Some estimates put the average loss to theft per residential home construction job site at 5–20% of the total cost of a subdivision, adding thousands of dollars to the price tag for each home. A 2006 arrest in Canada netted over $60,000 worth of building materials, including doors, windows, and cabinets, from one location from a suspect who had intended to build his dream home free of charge. In 2005, police raided a house in Florida that was crammed with roughly $100,000 worth of construction materials stolen from three counties, almost enough to stock a home improvement store.

And it’s not just the direct losses of materials that eat into construction margins. Losing necessary materials can cause delays and downtime for construction crews, with all those attendant costs, while trying to reclaim losses from insurance companies can cause raised premiums or even canceled policies. Residential construction companies have every reason to increase job site security and fight back against theft.

The Thieves Could Be Your Own Workers

Some thieves are opportunists, happening by the job site and seeing something worth taking. Others are insiders, either on the construction company’s payroll or entering the site through a subcontractor. Both of these categories of thieves tend to be amateurs or small-scale operators; however, a rising category is the organized and professional gang of thieves, often in possession of a flatbed or large enclosed delivery van, who brazenly drive onto a residential construction site and load up tools and materials for resale or shipping overseas. In 2005 an incident of this sort in Alaska netted more than $13,000 worth of housing materials, including bathtubs, dishwashers, siding, and piping.

Increasingly, the construction site security tool of choice is video surveillance, utilizing either cameras that begin recording when triggered by motion detectors or those that transmit live video to a monitoring security service. While video cameras offer job site surveillance to protect against thieves, they can be outmaneuvered by insiders aware of their location and blinded by spray paint, and often thieves add insult to injury by stealing the expensive cameras, as well as the construction materials they originally came for.

A Solution - Affordable Video Surveillance Systems

To fill the obvious need for a comprehensive construction site surveillance solution that may not become a crime statistic itself, Affordable Video Surveillance Systems of Redding, California has combined video cameras, motion detectors, a powerful alarm system, and a microwave Internet connection onto a rugged and mobile Video Security Trailer.

The Video Security Trailer by AVSS includes four video cameras—three black and white cameras to monitor the job site in all directions, and a color PTZ camera with 27x zoom capability. The wireless Internet connection allows for remote offsite monitoring, while the outdoors motion detectors cover a full 360° circle for 180 feet plus straight down, protecting the site as well as the Video Security Trailer itself. Three 150 watt halogen floodlights provide illumination, and the 110db PA system with dual speakers alerts intruders they have entered a secured area and are being recorded, offering state-of-the-art job site security at an affordable price.

The Video Security Trailer is capable of being placed anywhere within a residential construction site, including inside tool and material storage areas, amid partially completed houses, and overlooking the company trailer to protect expensive office equipment and employee records, increasing construction site security during off hours and downtime. Security for the trailer itself can be increased merely by removing the tires and towing tongue once it’s in the desired position.

AVSS's Other Uses

However, the Video Security Trailer can also monitor subcontractors during working hours for performance and honesty. This not only encourages subcontractors’ employees to do their best work, but also discourages them from returning to the site after hours to commit acts of theft and vandalism. With their images recorded by video cameras and computers during the day, subcontractors’ employees are less likely to risk identification and subsequent arrest by preying on the client company’s job site at night.