Looking for an Effective School Alarm System
Anyone who works in a school environment already knows about the need to protect premises against intruders. The more pressing problem is, therefore, how to provide comprehensive protection within the educational environment. After all, there are many reasons for intruders to access the premises, so a school alarm system needs to take account of all of them.
Who Do School Alarm Systems Protect Against?
Any risk assessment for schools will demonstrate the vulnerability of their ‘leaky’ perimeters. Who are the intruders, though, who wish to gain access? The 1st Choice Security Systems team has put together a list which may not be comprehensive, but reflects the security problems we’ve dealt with in schools:
- Burglars. They will normally be professionals who know how to access school building in or out of school hours. They know what they are looking for usually, and where to find it: computer equipment, sports equipment, and personal property.
- Opportunists. Normally non-professionals who are looking for goods they can monetise quickly and easily. They’ll take advantage of sloppy security at busy times of the day, or try to access the premises out of hours.
- Vandals. School grounds are attractive to all kinds of trespassers out of hours. Many are opportunists and don’t do lasting damage, but others will seek to break windows, damage outdoor furniture or create graffiti on walls.
- Arsonists. Planned arson attacks are rare, but they do happen and they’re carefully organised. They’ll normally occur after school when a fire could do the most damage.
- Drugs/Violent Crime. These occur more often in urban locations and will often require a school-wide system of checking in and checking out to deal with them.
A Systematic Response to Intruders
1st Choice creates holistic school security systems, rather than depending on one type of security device to do everything. We start by carrying out a free security audit at your school. This allows us to identify the specific vulnerabilities created by the design and geographical context of your school premises.
A school alarm system can alert building managers, head teachers, or security staff to an attempted break-in, but unless it’s integrated with other security systems the response is unlikely to be particularly effective. Here’s an example of a security system we put in place for a secondary school recently:
- Intruder Alarm. Responding to entry, movement and changes in temperature. Activation alerts are sent remotely to building manager, head teacher and police.
- School Access Control System. All doors are locked and access is denied without to anyone not registered on the system. If the intruder has been able to replicate access, their location will be logged by the system.
- CCTV. Carefully positioned CCTV in school buildings is integrated with school security gates at the main entrance. High quality images and night vision offer a good chance that the intruder can be identified by this means.
About 1st Choice Security Systems
The team at 1st Choice Security Systems installs school security systems in Beds, Bucks, Herts, Northants and North London. We have extensive experience working in educational environments so all our installers are DBS checked. We’re SafeContractor approved, and we work to the ISO2001-2015 standard. Should you need us in an emergency, we’re available 24 hours. We have high 1st time fix rates, and use a Job Management system to maximise efficiency on all projects.
In need of CAMESAFE CCTV systems?
Our CAMESAFE Installers have vast knowledge and experience to be able to offer the required security solutions and automation safety for all our security systems.
Would you like to speak to a 1st Choice security engineer about installing a school alarm system? Call us today on 0800 118 2414 or contact us online.
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