We are just coming into summer and the main holiday period is ahead of us again. Those hot balmy days at the camping ground, soaking up the sun and having fun times with the children. The thoughts of going back to work are far away. Then the last day of the holiday finally arrives and we head home to unpack and chill out before heading back to work. We come up the drive and see that the garage door is open or the side window on the house is ajar. Into the house we go and the reality hits. We have been burgled. All of our hard earned possessions are gone. You feel gutted.
I see the latest statistics tells us there are around 200 house burglaries across NZ on a daily basis. Tradesmen’s vehicles are also a prime target. Nothing is sacred now days. Well, a lot of this heartache could have been avoided if you had a CCTV system installed. Every year I hear the sad stories. It’s either the electrical contractor themselves or one of their customers. They have been burgled and they now want to get a CCTV system installed. What I can’t understand is why wait until it has happened. It’s not like burglaries are decreasing and those rotten scoundrels have gone out and got a real job. And who wants some unknown person going through their personal space when we are not around? You feel so violated.
People will say that an alarm system will suffice but these do not record faces or number plates. And how many people have dummy outside sirens and cameras. Give the burglar some credit. They would not have the opportunities if we did not make life easy for them.
So where do we start. Well by watching Police Ten/7 or similar programs. You will see that not all camera systems are equal. Basically you get what you pay for. With the cheap low end systems you see the images on the monitor in the shop. It looks OK. You record the images. When something goes wrong you play the recording back and the images are all grainy. You can’t tell if the person is red, white, or blue. That was a great system you were sold eh. But hey it was cheap. In the end do you want to have a camera system for show, or do you want a decent system to actually capture the offenders?
One of the great features available now days (on the best camera systems) is Intelligent Video Surveillance (IVS). You can set up tripwire or intrusion zones and get a notification to your smartphone APP when a zone is triggered. Imagine being able to put a tripwire zone on your driveway, or an intrusion zone around your diesel tank. As soon as someone triggers that zone your camera view will come up. And if is an un-invited visitor, you can call the authorities straight away. The unwanted visitor won’t even know they have been spotted. You could also set up an alarm output off the NVR to set off a siren to scare the unwanted visitor away.
So, what is in it for the Electrical Contractor? They should be upselling camera systems every day of the week. Until we secure ourselves properly, the scum of society will have no reason to go and get a real job. For all the best advice call into your local Powerbase Branch and speak to someone about the options available.
P.S. The question gets asked from time to time about the need to have a security license. If people want to know about these please visit the Ministry of Justice web site for more information – www.justice.govt.nz