Just a couple of days ago, the Boys and Girls Club of Indianapolis was hit by vandals. Its something that is all too common, tens of thousands of dollars in damage so someone can walk away with a couple of hundred dollars in scrap copper. Copper theft has become the single most prevalent theft problem in urban areas.
The crime happened around 2:30 p.m. on Aug. 12. Video shows air conditioning copper coils thrown from the roof to the ground; a person is then seen removing the pieces. According to investigators with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, the thief ripped apart two of the large HVAC units on the roof.
The damage in these situations is not limited to the replacement of the HVAC units alone, there is the cost of operation, the rise in insurance rates and most importantly, the cost associated with the disruption of service caused when an organization like the Boys and Girls Club has to stop operating, or at the very least, limit their services. The replacement of the HVAC unit that was damaged is estimated at roughly $40,000. That in itself is bad enough, but the boys and girls club has to have fans running and is now diverting their attention to the comfort level of the people in the building instead of the quality of the services they offer, which is why they are such an asset to our community. The cost of a few pieces of copper turns out to be quite large.
“It’s a real inconvenience to the club and it’s a real inconvenience to the children and it’s money now that we have to spend to protect our equipment that could be going to programs for our kids,” said Rick Whitten, executive director of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Indianapolis.
The real problem with this story is that the Boys and Girls Club of Indianapolis had taken the normal security steps. They had decent security cameras (though likely not enough of them), they had gates, they had lighting. The problem with the security strategy isn’t with the Boys and Girls Club, its with the perception that passive security is enough. This is unfortunately the problem with most security companies, they are happy to sell a product, and while something is better than nothing, its hardly enough. In today’s world where the selfish will take without regard for the overwhelming harm they cause others, passive prevention is not enough. The cameras worked, but simply knowing that it happened at 2:30 in the morning doesn’t help keep the building cool, it doesn’t save them $40k in repairs or keep their insurance rates from going up, and it doesn’t help the kids who the Boys and Girls Club serve every day. Worst of all, it didn’t put the bad guy(s) in jail.
Whitten said the organization plans to invest in cages to protect all of its air conditioning units.
The Boys and Girls Club will be putting cages around their new HVAC units, but this is just another prevention measure against one specific thing, copper theft. Now they have evidence of what happened, and something to help deter the damage, or possibly increase the damage when someone wants to tear that out as well, but what they don’t have is active security. They d0n’t have something that will get police there to stop it and put the bad guy in cuffs. This is all standard practice for most security companies, most electronic security is designed for 50% prevention and 50% evidenciary purposes. The problem is that after budgets and constraints fall into place, they provide neither because thieves know that nobody is watching the cameras, and they are very familiar with the old grainy pictures you see of every convenience store robbery ever. So whats the answer? ACTIVE SECURITY! What we want is 100% apprehension, we already know the HVAC was destroyed, but who did it and why wasn’t something done to to stop them?
Active Security doesn’t mean you need to pay a guard to stand on your property and take a nap, it means a process that allows for the interruption of crime and the apprehension of criminals. It means a call to police dispatch as a crime in progress, not just an alarm call. With SITEWATCH, this can all be accomplished for less than the cost of a guard for one month and automated in perpetuity for less than the cost of hiring a guard for one day. Outdoor Motions Sensors with cameras built in will transmit live video of a crime in progress (or a false alarm) to our operators, who then dispatch accordingly, and the numbers dont lie. We’ve seen SITEWATCH deliver, from siren to cuffs in 6 minutes flat.
Hoosier Security has reached out to the Boys and Girls Club of Indianapolis to offer our SITEWATCH services to help ensure they do not become a victim of copper theft or any other act of trespass again.
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Original Article Quoted: http://fox59.com/2013/08/20/surveillance-cameras-capture-copper-theft-at-boys-girls-club/#ixzz2d5odcFoA[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
