Doors
Here are a few tips on how to make the doors in your business safer and more secure:
- Exterior doors should be heavy, solid, and not hollow
- Wooden doors should be metal-lined to resist sawing and drilling
- Glass panels should be protected against being kicked or knocked out with iron bars or a heavy-duty screen
- Side and back entrances should also have metal bars as wide as the inside of the door that can be dropped into place at closing time
- Hinge pins on doors should be installed inside so that they cannot be removed by a thief
- Avoid spring latch locks that can be opened by using a knife blade, a thin piece of metal, or a plastic strip
Windows
Window security is just as important as door security. Here are some guidelines on protecting the windows of your business:
- Use break-resistant glass, especially for display windows
- Protect rear and side windows with grillwork (iron bars) or by heavy-duty screen (No.9 gauge interior wire guards)
- Bolt grillworks and screens through the building
- Check with a good locksmith to see if the security of your windows could be enhanced by locks
- Protect skylights, ventilators, sidewalk grilles, loading docks, old coal-chute openings, and other ways a burglar might get in
Hiding Places
Some thieves don't have to break in. While your business is open, they enter and hide in a rest room, closet, or similar hiding place until after closing time. Check all potential hiding places before closing up.