This winter turn up the heat on your Condo physical security program

Maximize your Building’s Security Patrols.

Does your physical security program enhance your building’s emergency preparedness? This winter turn up the heat on your physical security program - Make routine security checks a part of your building’s emergency management program.  Ensure your security officer conducting patrols within your building is tasked with identifying unusually cold rooms during routine patrols.  Identifying these rooms in late fall, more than often allows property managers an opportunity to address frozen pipes, false alarms, temperature complaints, and HVAC concerns in advance of these issues becoming an emergency.

An example of these rooms includes sprinkler rooms, electrical rooms, generator rooms, fuel storage rooms, and mechanical rooms and parking garages.  These patrols, once documented provide for tangible benefits to insurance claims, occupant complaints, and further provides benefits to your Physical Security and risk management program.

More and more buiuldings are using technology to assist and support them in their hourly, daily, weekly, monthly inspections and checks, complete with photograpghic and NFC technology, to physically prove staff were there - and completed the inspection. Secure technology can be deployed at your building for as little as 100.00 per month from Safe Buildings. The reality is, building Owners are required to “prove” compliance under almost every code in Ontario, and your front line security team, does almost 50 percent of those inspections.

Slips, trips & falls – Best practices for reducing incidents with detailed documentation.

Your building’s physical security program should be an active component to your workplace safety program.  Physical security patrols should provide a _constant_ "return on investment", providing for more than just “Security”.

Slips, trips and falls are the leading injury claim faced by property managers and Ontario workplaces alike.  For 2024, we need to ensure that security personnel are having a positive impact on this trend.  Security personnel conducting routine patrols should be directed by the Property Manager to include the perimeter of the building, including any walkways and access routes to the property.

With these areas included, security personnel may document the surface conditions as dry, wet and / or iced and slippery.  This not only identifies potential concerns, it allows for very detailed documented due diligence - so that you can refer to this data - and effectively respond to a claim.

In addition, security should have direction on actions to take depending on the findings of surface conditions during patrols.  The early detection of ice on a walkway,  and the quick application of salt will often lead to eliminating a hazard.  In addition, it will provide both the manager and the Corporation with proof of an implemented safety program.

As a property manager, you should expect that your security officer will identify potential hazards that will negatively impact your building.   A keen security guard pointing out that while on patrol this morning they noticed pooling water near one of the resident walkways.  Upon closer investigation, the pooling water is found to be caused by leave buildup on storm drains around the building.  A professional security guard will also communicate to the building superintendent that the cause appeared to be the buildup of leaves.  In turn, the Superintendent removes the leaves from all street level storm drains - avoiding potential flooding, icing, ponding and other negative incidents.

Building Specific Training for front line Security personnel

In response to the past several winter seasons, a best practices remains for building security personnel in being trained on how to manually start building emergency generators, as well as manually start any building smoke control and exhaust fans.  These are systems often used to respond to building emergencies, and as such, your supervisory staff should know how to use them.  These systems are not difficult to use, and each security representative at your building should be familiar with these controls.

Suspicious Incidents & Front Line Security

Security leaders responsible for protecting critical infrastructure, public spaces, and mass assembly facilities have to look beyond the limitations of technology and human resources, and find innovative ways to engage all members of their organizations.  Security staff must be objective in their view of suspicious incidents, and remain vigilant at all times. Furthermore, they should educate and encourage others to be aware of their surroundings, and to remain alert to potential risks in their environments.

Suspicious incidents are unusual circumstances that present a real or perceived safety, or security risk, and exhibit indicators of departure from the norm. The indicators of suspicious incidents range from obscure to obvious, and the severity of their consequences from innocuous to potentially deadly; they all can have an impact on your building’s operations, and even reputation.

Every organization with a comprehensive security and risk management program should have a policy respecting suspicious incidents, and every member of the organization should be familiar with this policy, and how to report incidents.

Front-line staff should be cognizant of suspicious incidents that may provide indicators of a potential security (or safety) risk.  All reports of suspicious incidents should be thoroughly investigated to mitigate any potential risk, and to ensure that the organization meets the appropriate standard of care.

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www.nationallifesafetygroup.ca