One of my local TV news teams featured an article on the increase in crime. Leila Walsh of WOAI had a short report on how one neighborhood was going to hire a security guard to lower crime. And then there was Erik Runge, also with WOAI TV, reporting how the greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce may issue an alert to its business members on ways to lower crime in their shopping districts.
I am going to call my friend, George Garza, a leading residential and commercial security integrator, to check if he wants to call these media. A security guard is not an effective way to protect a neighborhood. And, while the chamber is trying to promote how safe things are in the city of San Antonio, it would be wise for them to have professionals like George teach business owners how to upgrade their security systems.
For example, as noted in a recent blog by Sam Pfeifle, the editor of Security Systems News, there's a growing movement to educate consumers on their choices in home protection features. And, what's often overlooked is commercial security in this ongoing marketing campaign. Property managers often add a basic feature as a selling point, but if a business owner truly understood the difference between a keypad system and a video system, they would ask their landlord to upgrade their system to that platform. Professional integrators know that if an alarm goes off with the properly configured video system that their customers can log onto their surveillance camera's IP address to see what set off the alarm.
Even better is the fact that if the business owner communicates this video capability to the local police, the responding officer can verify the location of any criminal inside a facility. It's time for professional integrators to take a proactive lead on educating their two market sectors -- residential and commercial -- on the upgrades available to them. And, when there's a crime outbreak, integrators should take the time to engage the media or hire a professional PR type to help convey their story.
