Tip of the Week: 4 Key Spots Every Business Should Cover With Security Cameras

Whether you are looking to prevent theft, curb employee time-wasting, or get a handle on workplace efficiency, security cameras are a solution that prevents and protects you from a wide variety of issues.

Before you begin buying equipment, running cables, and hooking everything up, it’s important to first understand the two fundamental purposes of security cameras: investigation and deterrence.

• For cameras positioned with investigation purposes in mind, you’ll want to make sure that they’re in a spot that can capture important crime scene details.
• For cameras meant for deterrence, make sure to place them where any potential thief can see them so they’ll think twice about going through with their diabolical scheme.

In some scenarios, you’ll be able to place your cameras in spots covering both criteria, but generally speaking, the placement of your camera will favor one or the other.

Once you better understand your security goals, you’ll next want to install your cameras in the spots that best cover your security needs. To help you with this, here are four of the best places for businesses to install a CCTV or recordable security camera system.

Entrances and Exits
Maybe you can’t cover 100 percent of your floor space and every action of every person inside of your building, but you can at least cover the main doorways so you’ll know who all is inside and for how long. Doorways also make for a good angle to record people’s faces.

Pro Tip: One helpful way to capture people’s faces while they walk through the door is to place the camera near an object that catches a person’s eye, like a TV monitor. That way, when they turn their head to look at the monitor, they’re also looking straight at the camera.

Where Customers Make Transactions
For businesses with cash registers, teller stations, or kiosks, you’ll want cameras covering these points of sales, for obvious reasons. For these spots, it’s recommended that security cameras are pointed directly at where the customer stands and that the camera is installed at a height of no more than seven feet (if you go higher than that you’ll only see the tops of heads).

Pro Tip: Some POS systems allow you to integrate with your camera system so receipts can be captured digitally into the footage so you can monitor transactions.

Securing Valuable Targets
What would a thief want to carry off? Does your office have a cash drawer? A safe? A filing cabinet with sensitive information? If you’ve got something that can tempt a person with sticky fingers, then it’s best to point a camera at it.

Locations that are Out of Sight
Odds are, if someone were planning a heinous activity, they would shuffle off to a spot away from peering eyes to do it, like behind a building or a stairwell. That is, unless they know the spot is under surveillance.

After selecting ideal spots for your security cameras, your next task is to install them. This can be a complex job and if you’re tying the cameras into your company’s network, then you’re definitely going to want professional assistance with this. Otherwise, you may run the risk of bottlenecking your network with the increased bandwidth used by your new cameras, running out of data storage space from the large video files, or worse.

For technical assistance with your company’s security camera setup and installation needs, call Washington Works at 301-571-5040.