Top Tips for Construction Site Security

A recent survey conducted by the Chartered Institute of Building revealed that 92% of construction business owners had been affected by crime, with 21% stating that their construction sites were robbed on a weekly basis. 

That's 1 in 5 construction sites across the UK targeted by thieves every single week. 

Construction Site Security

The most important part of planning any security response is to carry out a risk assessment.

If you are unfamiliar with the processes involved in completing a risk assessment, we have created a free to download template to get you started. Just click on the link below, and feel free to adapt as required for your site. 

Your risk assessment should cover all the potential threats and hazards that could impact your construction site, assess their likelihood and the impact on your project should they occur.

For each of the threats you list, there is a column to list any countermeasure you intend to put in place to help mitigate against the likelihood or impact of the threat. 

Your risk assessment should continually be reviewed every time your sites changes or develops. Changes to your site can result in new vulnerabilities that your original plan did not consider.

Get Your Free Risk Assessment Template

2. Secure the Perimeter

When it comes to construction site security, preventing any criminal activities before they occur is critical. 

Surrounding your compounds with secure fencing, gates, or hoarding will prevent easy access to your sites and block opportunist thieves from seeing what is on your site.

Fencing should not be placed too close to street furniture, which may be used by a criminal to help scale the fence, and you should avoid piling waste by the side of fences for the same reason.

Have a routine in place for checking your fencing or hoarding as the site develops, ensuring the integrity of the fence line remains strong.

3. Install Temporary, Portable CCTV Systems

Having a CCTV presence across your construction site is one of the most effective ways of protecting against theft. Their effectiveness can be enhanced in many key ways, too.

Displaying signage across your site indicating the presence of CCTV cameras will help deter opportunists thieves.

WCCTV provides rapid deployment CCTV towers that feature a range of powering options, making them suitable for deployment at any construction site. 

They feature night vision technology and can be monitored by a remote team of security experts who can issue an audio challenge to any intruders on your site or request a priority police response.

The CCTV towers stand at 7m high and are painted in bright yellow, making them an obvious presence on your site - helping prevent crimes before they occur. 

Most construction site crime occurs at night-time, as thieves prefer to operate under cover of darkness.

Temporary lighting around your sites will remove the opportunity for thieves to go undetected and act as a deterrent, preventing crimes before they happen. 

When positioning your lighting, ensure it doesn't obscure your CCTV cameras' view or create 'pools' of darkened areas that thieves could use to remain out of view. 

5. Create a Culture of Security

All too frequently, the security of a site is compromised by human error or poor judgement. That's why we strongly advocate for all sites to create a culture that puts security at the top of the agenda.

This can take the form of regular security briefings, reporting any minor security breaches, holding staff and colleagues accountable, challenging people onsite who are not carrying proper identification and regularly checking the integrity of any security systems (fencing, lights, guards, CCTV etc.).

Security systems are only effective if they are correctly deployed and effectively maintained. We have seen too many incidences of sites parking large machinery in front of CCTV cameras, completely obscuring the view of the area of detection. 

Remember, this security culture has to apply to everyone on-site, including subcontractors, visitors, clients and senior management. 

6. Implement Security Rules and Checklists