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Take a Bite Out of Job Site Crime
Did you know that vandals are more likely to hit construction sites when it’s raining or foggy? That chain-link fencing is a better deterrent than other types of fencing? Or that your area police might patrol your site if you ask them?
Theft, vandalism and arson plague home builders across the country. It’s an expensive problem that is getting worse.
“The number of products installed in homes, the cost of those products and the market for stolen items have all increased in recent years,” says Jim Spratt, director of risk management and loss control for Aurora, CO-based HBW Insurance Services. “Losses are proportionately greater than in years past.”
Job site crime drains builders’ contingency budgets, impacts production schedules, drives up insurance costs and home prices and puts the construction industry on edge. “We are all affected by this,” says Denise Emmons, special events director of the Capital Region Builders Association (CRBA) in Baton Rouge. “Someone has to pay.”
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But builders needn’t fight this problem alone. Many associations work with local and national law enforcement agencies to combat crime in their areas, and several are developing job site protection programs for their members.
What You Can Do
Here are some common-sense strategies from builders, associations and other industry pros you can use on your sites to avoid the high cost of crime:
- Be alert to crime patterns in your area. Knowing when and where crimes are more likely to occur will enable you to take more effective and timely extra precautions, if warranted. The CRBA has noticed a spike in job site crimes in the Baton Rouge area during July, August and September. In Ann Arbor, near where Earth Liberation Front (ELF) environmental extremists struck, the Home Builders Association of Washtenaw County and local authorities have noticed that thieves and vandals often hit job sites in rainy, foggy weather.
- Call on the police early. If you are starting a new subdivision, ask the police to patrol it regularly. “New subdivisions are isolated and usually have just a model and one or two houses,” says Frank Bronzetti, president of Estate Builders in Troy, MI. “Police don’t usually patrol them because there aren’t a lot of people there.” However, Bronzetti has found that when a builder asks them to patrol they have never refused.
Security professionals also recommend asking the police to do a job site crime-prevention survey and working with them on all pre-job security planning. Whether or not you consult them, invite the local fire and police chiefs as well as the deputies who work in crime prevention to your Christmas party. Good will goes far in communities.
- Fence your sites. Buy or rent chain-link fencing — chain-link fencing is the best kind for job sites because buildings and activity remain visible — and secure it with heavy-duty padlocks. Fences can be scaled or cut by determined intruders, but the barriers will slow them down or possibly convince them to pass up your site.
- Control access. The most secure job sites have just one entry. Those with two or more offer drive-through opportunities for quick-fingered thieves.
- Install security lighting. If you have a temporary pole, put a light on it. Like fencing, you can buy or rent security lighting. “The cost of overnight lighting is a public relations bargain, too, because it tells law enforcement agencies you want to help them protect your property and cut down on crime in the area,” says Doug Givans, a former police officer who’s now a security specialist for the University of Louisville. In addition, Givans points out, would-be thieves who may be casing the area can spot a good lighting system during the day.
- Consider installing cameras. Some builders use security cameras on their sites and some also install decoys that swivel and look like the real thing. If you use cameras, be sure to move them as construction progresses so the lenses aren’t obscured. “Real” cameras require good lighting to capture images.
- Be seen and heard. Signage announcing that your site is under surveillance and that trespassers will be prosecuted is an effective, low-cost deterrent. Many associations sell security signs to their members for just a few dollars apiece.
For job sites that don’t yet have power, Jeff Fisher, public affairs director of the HBA of Washtenaw County, suggests installing heat-activated alarms hooked up to cell phones. The phones can be programmed to call 911 (make sure automated calls to emergency personnel aren’t prohibited in your area) or other numbers. If you have power on your site, consider installing motion-activated devices with loud alarms.
- Protect your products. Thieves and vandals aren’t only after lumber, lights and tools. Builders have reported having appliances, plumbing fixtures, A/C units, condensers, cabinets, fireplace manifolds, windows, doors, landscaping and even staircases heisted from their sites.
If you can’t fully install a large item the day it arrives, at least do a partial installation — for a couple of reasons. “An A/C unit sitting in a box on a slab is not covered by builders risk insurance,” says Sonny Richardson, president of Richardson Home Builders in Tuscaloosa, AL. “If it’s got wires sticking out of it, even if they’re not connected yet, it is.” Partial installation will help slow down or deter thieves, too.
- Schedule deliveries wisely. “Just-in-time delivery is the most important thing you can do to prevent job site theft,” says Michael Marchetta, vice president of Marchetta Construction in Akron, OH. Don’t have materials delivered on a Friday afternoon. “Then people have two days to steal your plywood because they know you won’t be working on the weekend,” says Richardson.
Have suppliers put serial numbers on invoices to make it easier to track stolen goods. Backordered items (and their serial numbers) should be indicated on invoices, too, and should be checked off on an inventory list when they are received on site. “Some reported theft is not theft. The items never arrived in the first place,” says Spratt.
- Have an employee lock up your job site. At the end of the day, the superintendent or assistant super should make sure all exterior doors and windows (even the ones upstairs) and fences are locked. An employee should be the last one on site; don’t let a trade contractor lock up.
- Keep tabs on tools. Tools are some of the most frequently stolen items. They can be recovered more easily if you duplicate the serial number in a secret place on the tool (thieves often remove serial number plates) and/or add your own identifying marks with a hardened steel punch or etching tool.
Consider using an inventory list to check out tools to employees and check them back in at the end of the day. “Not all thefts are from the outside,” says Givans.
- Prevent inside jobs. Take the time to perform background and criminal record checks while evaluating serious job candidates. Likewise, thoroughly check out trade contractors and security guards before you hire them. Check references, call former employers and ask around town to find out what people know about them.
- Enlist the neighbors. Ask people living near your sites to help keep an eye on them. “Don’t overemphasize your concern with stopping crimes, but mention what you are doing to promote safety so that their children won’t be tempted to play in the area and get hurt,” Givans suggests. “While they may be sympathetic to your security [issues], they’re most interested in what you are doing to ensure their safety.”
If You Experience Job Site Crime…
Give the police as much information as possible: What’s missing or broken, when you think it happened, who might have been on site, etc. Give them copies of inventory sheets and serial numbers, too.
Ask your association for help. Many will pony up reward money and go to bat for you. As part of its job site protection and recovery program, the Home Builders Association of Tuscaloosa runs ads in local papers offering rewards for information about crimes on its members’ sites. The association also hires special prosecutors to assist the district attorney. “It works,” says Richardson, a former police captain who helped develop the program. “The word gets around the bad-guy circles.”
Some Insurance Issues…
Some builders don’t submit claims on their builders risk policies because the loss is less than the deductible or they’re worried about their premiums rising. But little things — and losses — do add up.
If you keep eating a couple hundred dollars here and there instead of submitting claims toward your deductible, you’re throwing away money that could be better budgeted and spent on security lighting than on replacing stolen equipment.
Luckily, builders' risk insurance (BRI) policies aren’t as sky-high or restrictive as general liability insurance policies are. However, if you take a lackadaisical approach to job site protection, your carrier could drop you. Then you’ll be up a creek when you try to get a construction loan (most banks require builders to carry BRI) or suffer a huge loss on site.
“A builder will not remain an acceptable risk to an insurer if multiple claims are made and the builder has not made substantial efforts to limit loss,” says HBW’s Spratt. “Builders need to put forth the same efforts towards this segment of risk management and loss control as they do to any other portion of their business.”
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