But often a property manager, after working with us for a while, and becoming familiar with the fact that we know what happens on her property in a far more detailed manager than she does, comes to rely on us to help with other tasks. Instead of seeing this as a burden, or something we aren’t hired to do, we welcome the additional roles as value-added services, and another reason the property manager wants to keep us in the mix.

A property manager has to manage not just the tenants and owners of the property, but also the issues and concerns, whether it’s the city and development, or contractors and work being done. It’s a frantic job. And no one has time to make sure every little thing is done, as directed, when directed, and in a manner that satisfies the client. Especially if you’re managing a portfolio of properties not just one.

We can help.

Do you need someone to check if the contractors started work that day? Or if they’ve cleaned up their mess? Or if they’ve left the property exposed due to careless placement of equipment? Did they finish the task on Wednesday? Are they leaving screws and nails in the parking lot thus irritating tenants? Did they leave the roof access ladder or electrical panels open?

They do all of those things, regularly.

But no one is there to tell you about it. Until you start getting calls from tenants, or break-ins. Or if contractors feel they have a free hand at a property and no one’s watching, it makes it doubly easy for them to return, under cover of still working, and steal the equipment they just installed, or adjacent equipment. You wouldn’t believe how many times that happens. But when they know that a security patrol company has been notified of that their hours will be and when they would be there or not, they’re less likely to attempt such things, ans now they know that if they were to come back later there will be someone coming by randomly so they know there’s a higher chance of getting caught.

Your contractors can be one of your biggest sources of issues, not just in getting things done, but in making sure some things DON’T.

OK, I know you’re not supposed to end a sentence with a preposition (above). But did you know that that’s not always the case? And it’s also not always the case that you get what you pay for…….so there, I did it again.

We have folders and folders full of photos and videos of guards sleeping on posts that we visit, or go by. It’s probably not very funny to them, it’s certainly not to the people that pay them, and it shouldn’t be to us either. But sometimes you do just have to laugh. We’ve often tried to be kind and justify how boring it must be to sit at one spot all night, every night. It’s probably fairly easy to dose off. We don’t have the luxury of getting sleepy. We’re constantly on the move and going from place to place. You wouldn’t last very long sleeping at 50 miles an hour. To us, being alert isn’t just a professional courtesy, it’s life and death.

And if you did it would have something to do with lower crime. That’s certainly true, but have you ever thought how a Patrol could save you money in operating expenses?

Often, those levels of contact are very different for each client. Having a partner that is capable of tailoring their service to your preferences and needs is more than just a luxury, it’s an integral part of managing your properties the way you want them managed, not how the operations manual of some security contractor dictates the call be placed.

Roof access is a critical focus of security these days. Here is a roof access ladder that is normally locked, but tonight it's open. Fortunately we were able to secure it and send the client an email that they needed to call their electrical contractor who had been working out there and have them do a better job of closing things up.

Clearly someone has driven back behind a property, and it wasn't like this the night before. There isn't any contractor activity in this area at the moment so this is something that should attract security's attention, yet most companies wouldn't even notice it.

Copper Theft represents one of the greatest threats to commercial properties right now, and they're a very difficult situation to manage, but it takes vigilance, determination and a constant eye for the littlest of changes. Here a lock is missing from the electrical box.

This is a situation that will require close monitoring. It is back behind a building in a dirty alleyway, the area is covered in grime, and many people wouldn't even notice this, but to us it's clear that someone is trying to get on the roof.

Managing a relationship with the local police department is an exercise in tactical operations, diplomacy, politics and often just personal relationships. Too many security companies in Dallas try to act like the police force, not work with them in a cooperative manner.

When the worst happens, it's nice to have someone there on the scene who can handle things and report everything that's happening to you as it happens so you don't have to drive down there at 3AM. We're a presence and a representative acting on your behalf.

It doesn't look like much. But if the manager isn't notified that his employees are propping a rear door to smoke and then forgetting to close it, they will come in one day to find that they're missing a lot of equipment.

Answer:

The Risk in this case is top left. How do we know? This is an instance where not having a turnover of employees, or low wage uninterested employees makes a difference. We know this individual from the area. His name is Charles G. And we’ve had him arrested on numerous occasions. He’s a mentally unstable violent offender who needs constant attention and management. He lives nearby and we must keep a constant pressure on him to stay off the property or he would hang out there all the time. He’s attacked innocent people, and even police officers. He’s famous with Dallas PD for taking on 12 officers with a 2X4 one night.

In this instance he’s trying to lay down to sleep in a spot about 40yds from where there are 4 women working overnight in a tenant’s suite. We had him removed by DPD, who sent 3 squads to handle him securely………and the ladies working in the nearby office never knew he was there, or we’d been there, or had him removed. Commercial Property Managers in Dallas have a whole range of things to manage at their properties, and establishing good faith as someone doing the best they can to manage the risks is a good start.

But even the most mundane areas take on an entirely different character at night, and usually the people who inhabit them during the day wouldn’t believe their eyes if they saw some of the things that go on at their properties when no one is around to watch.

In this series we have a full range of activities. In the top left we have an employee of the company who has been out drinking and somehow found his way to the workplace and passed out. In the bottom left we a couple who have pulled in to the parking lot and were having sex in the car, with all the van doors open. In the bottom right we have a woman who says her car has broken down, but in fact her boyfriend is a copper thief trying to steal copper from a nearby property and they didn’t think the car would be noticed in the spot they picked. And in the top right……….I have no idea. Seriously, I don’t even think I want to know. But he/she/whatever needed to move on to somewhere else.

Dallas commercial properties are active 24 hours a day, sometimes that’s good, and at times it’s a surprise to the owners. Thieves rely on that to remain hidden in plain sight. Most commercial properties have cars that come and go, and employees that work late or leave cars on property. These cars often change on a regular basis. But if you pay attention, you can learn the patterns on every property. And a professional security officer can arrive on property and see 15 cars scattered among 7 buildings and spot a problem in less than 5 seconds. It’s about patterns. Thieves rely on casual observers, not people who know every car and every tenant, and who works when and leaves what where. They can’t account for that. So when they park their car on property innocently in a parking space they believe it will not attract attention.

But it will.

The top right truck is parked in an unusual spot, but it’s been seen regularly at this property for months. The bottom right van is parked in a normal area and time for the cleaning crew. The two cars on the left are parked in areas where there has not been a car parked for months, and neither car has been seen here regularly. The white car was stolen and had been parked on our property by the thieves who were done with it, we spotted it immediately and called Dallas Police after looking inside and seeing that it had a broken steering column. It was parked less than 6 spaces from three other cars that attracted no attention. The top left car attracted our attention because no car had ever been parked in that spot at this time of night. We looked inside and there were tools and blankets. We suspected a thief was in the area. So we made a tremendous amount of noise investigating it, turned all our lights on, stickered the car with a warning that we knew what they were doing, and looked around. There was no visible damage. We left and returned in 10 minutes. The car was now gone. The thieves had obviously gotten the message.

Answer:

The Perp in this case is bottom left. How did we know something was wrong? They were pulling out in this shot as we were pulling in to one of our commercial properties in Dallas. There were two older men in a grey Hyundai sedan. They said they’d been checking the dumpster for anything useful. It seems innocent enough, but we’d seen them from the other side of the property while we were still on the road and they weren’t standing next to the dumpster.

The photo in the lineup was taken a month before the photo of the arrest. The night of the arrest the man was walking along the property and we alerted on him, the Dallas Police came out and talked with him, he had warrants, and there had just been a break-in on a neighboring property. We recognized him from a month ago, and told Dallas PD to look for his partner who would be driving a grey Hyundai. They found him 4 blocks away waiting, with stolen goods in the car.

Answer:

The Perp in this case is top right.  How did we know something was wrong?  Well, you can tell people who just pull in to sleep because they’re not three or four turns deep in a parking lot, they don’t have pry tools in their truck, drug paraphernalia in the floorboards, and probably didn’t fall dead asleep this soundly when the text messages visible on the phone were being sent less than two minutes before the officer pulled in.  When you know the property intimately you know where people end up pulling in, whether it’s to talk on the phone or sleep one off.  So when you see someone in an unusual spot it catches your attention right away, and from there everything else becomes possible.  But it’s the account awareness that triggers everything.