Surveillance cameras help you feel secure that your business is safe and protected at all times. If anything happens on the premises, you can look at the footage and find the problem. But while having the cameras and footage provides you with security, it can feel tedious to have to sort through hours or even days of footage to find a specific incident.
Fortunately, there is a much easier way. Learn more about how you can better review your surveillance footage and video surveillance to keep your store protected and safe.
LOOK FOR THE TELLTALE SIGNS
You don’t want to miss anything while skimming through your video surveillance footage, so it’s important to know what to look for so you can spot it quickly. Some telltale signs can help you identify potential moments of crime. Remember, these are potential signs, so they do not guarantee that something suspicious or criminal is happening.
- Loitering – For each business, there is a different amount of time that is reasonable for customers to stay around before it becomes suspicious. Anyone who is hanging in or around your business with no apparent reason should be considered suspicious.
- Attempts to Conceal Identity – Excessive headwear, sunglasses at night, sticking to shadows, avoiding eye contact with your cameras, and avoiding being seen by any employees can be signs to keep an eye out for when you are reviewing your surveillance footage.
- Multiple People – A majority of criminals don’t work alone, but they work as a team. If a group of people comes in together and exhibits some of the other telltale signs, it could be a red flag you’ll want to keep your eye on.
Criminals come in all shapes and sizes, and you should never prioritize or ignore someone based on their age, race, or gender.
TIME STAMPS
Having accurate time stamps on all surveillance footage lets you narrow down your review to a specific date and time.
Not only are time stamps effective tools in reducing the hours you have to spend looking through footage, but if anything does happen, they make the footage admissible in court. Footage without accurate timestamps that include the date and time may become inadmissible in a court of law.
CAN CUSTOMERS REQUEST SURVEILLANCE FOOTAGE?
You might start to have customers requesting footage. Legally, there is no obligation for a business to provide any security footage to a customer. You can ignore the request as long as it is only a customer requesting the footage. As soon as there is a warrant or subpoena involved issued by the government, you are legally obligated to hand over the surveillance footage.
Some customers might have this law confused with public entities. It is possible to obtain video footage from public entities under the freedom of information act. However, private entities, like small privately-owned businesses, are not subject to that law.
WHO CAN WATCH SURVEILLANCE FOOTAGE?
There are no laws of who can watch surveillance footage. Anyone can watch, view, or review the surveillance footage from your business.
Check out ACS Security business services to help secure your small business today.