With a little foresight and knowledge you have ability to make great choices that can keep your workers safe while protecting your reputation and revenue. This a highlight of 3 key factors to consider when choosing how to safeguard your precious investments. Investment protection helps you manage with ease.
Worker safety is a critical component of any safety and security plan. It is known that injuries and deaths have been reducing over the past couple of years, however, parachutecanada.org determined in a publication called, The Cost Of Injury In Canada-2015, that “by 2035 injuries will cost Canadians $75 billion and 26,390 lives. That’s an increase of 180% and over 10 thousand more lives.” What you may not be aware of is that there are some new ways to effectively bring down this number through a strategic and tactical approach, utilizing the latest in technology, in your security system design and implementation.
Listed below are 3 mining and job site security specific strategies that could help you save lives, reduce your insurance costs, prevent loss of revenue due to downtime and increase your reputation within the industry just by introducing or updating a couple of key elements of your existing security system.
#1. Choose High-Definition 1080P IP over Analog Video
Many mining areas and job sites are remote and usually shut down operations over the winter time. Without fencing, it’s hard to keep greedy hungry eyes off your valuables. In 2015, a drilling site in Tumbler Ridge lost over $500,000 in tools, heavy machinery, trailers and water pumps by not having a good system in place. It’s simply not worth it.
Many people are still relying on old analog camera systems, which were great for their time, but technology has advanced greatly. Upgrading to IP-Based systems offers many benefits and ease of management allowing you to be more productive and add layers of security through the valuable analytics some of these advanced cameras offer.
For example, you can set pre-determined rules that virtually secure an area, like a net or a border, so that when someone breaches it a video-alert is triggered and our 24/7 Operations Center is notified for immediate action. Logging into the cameras, our operators can detail to Police officials what is happening in real time while the cameras continue to collect data and track the movements of the person(s) of interest until they are out of range or apprehended. Since the incident was video-verified, Police respond to the mining or job site security call in a much higher priority (P1 status) so that you have a better chance of nabbing the suspect and saving yourself a lot of money in losses and downtime. Remember you’re in business to create revenue, not regret.
Another key feature about IP-Based systems is that it’s possible to integrate some systems to your access control and intrusion systems so that you can see your cameras through an application on any internet-fed and mobile device! This is a scalable system so you could manage multiple properties from just one platform making managing multiple projects much simpler.
#2. Introduce Year-Round Perimeter Protection
When it comes to worker’s safety on mining or any job site, it’s important to keep ill-intentioned or unqualified people away from the work areas. If a group of teenagers decides to play on the heavy equipment after hours or falls and injures themselves on your property, it’s a huge liability. This is where Perimeter Protection comes in handy!
Were you aware that it only takes a criminal 6-10 minutes to steal a piece of heavy equipment? This happens very commonly on mining or job sites where someone will present themselves as a worker arriving in a white van with a trailer, mention that he’s there to pick up copper pallets, other materials or equipment, load it up and drive off the site in the middle of the day! No license plates are obtained since it looked legitimate and very rarely are these incidents resolved nor stolen goods or equipment recovered since video wasn’t captured or it was too pixelated and blurry to serve any identification purposes. This is where investing in quality will make a huge difference and it doesn’t have to be expensive.
There are many options available to you for perimeter protection. Choose a system, like the Aerial Watch Program, that offers high quality, industry tested and leading HD 1080P video camera solutions that have built in IR’s and advanced analytics. You’ll get a higher resolution image, a large reduction in false alarms since it factors out environmental factors, significantly less image blur, great and sharp nighttime viewing so it will feel like you’re watching a HD television. With resolution like that it’s much easier to catch a license plate, make out a face as well as detail the story of what happened during an incident. This also creates admissible evidence that will help the police in an investigation and you’ll enhance your chances of locating the loot. Remember the loss you suffer not only costs you revenue by the theft alone, but also in replacing equipment and materials from the mining area or job site and the set back of your timeline on the job.
Another consideration is what if a disgruntled ex-employee showed up on site intending harm? Having a sharp perimeter surveillance system in place would be valuable in helping protect the workers, with the valuable addition of specialty detection software that could notify our Operations Center of aggression on site so that they could issue a Police response immediately for action. Again, since it’s video-verified, it greatly increases response time and this could potentially save a lot of lives or injury. Violent situations do occur more often than documented and much more frequently then we may be made aware of. Back in April of 2014, I lost my Uncle Michael Lunn to the Nanaimo Mill Shootings. A disgruntled ex-employee arrived first thing in the morning and shot my Uncle in the parking lot as he arrived at work before heading to the office and killing another man while seriously injuring two others. There are many episodes of workplace violence that happen and video evidence would be helpful in understanding what exactly happened, how situations were handled and how areas were accessed in order to prevent further incidents like this from occurring. As a result, The Red T-Shirt Foundation was established to raise awareness about workplace violence to help prevent others from suffering the unnecessary loss of lives and injuries that resulted from this horrific incident. I genuinely believe with stronger perimeter security system and higher access control choke points in place, then incidents like this could be minimized, if not prevented from happening.
#3. Remote Guard Tours
Having a physical presence on job sites certainly offers a degree of protection but there are other ways to compliment this form of security detail or replace it, depending on the setting and requirements of the site. Fact of the matter is, no-one can have eyes everywhere at once, however, cameras can be strategically placed around the property and monitored with a 24/7 Operations Center. Cameras, unlike humans, don’t require sleep or rest and are programmed to work at top efficiently the entire time they are in use. While a Security Guard or two are patrolling the site, we can complement the guards with a virtual guard tour where our trained Operations Center staff can tour the site at predetermined times by accessing your cameras. This is an especially ideal option for remotely located mining or other job sites where you have the option to check in on the property during off season, check in on shipments or productivity either through the Operations Center or manually from your own device, or to simply check in and monitor specific areas of concern that are not supposed to be accessed after hours or at certain times.
These are just a few possibilities available to you but there are many more and each site requires its own assessment and system design, as no two sites are usually the same and fit into a ‘cookie cutter’ model. The most important factor to keep in mind is making sure to partner with a security company that consistently meets your needs, where you feel heard, and one that keeps you educated on what’s new and hot so you have the opportunity to stay steps ahead of criminals, damage and any potential injuries and deaths.
The choices you make about securing your property today have the power to save and protect lives, keep revenue in your pockets and be future ready.
