Sounds of security

Apr 1, 2000 12:00 PM, Randy Southerland

Staples, the Office Superstore, has become a familiar retail chain in Canada. The office supply chain has more than 150 colorful stores spread throughout Canada. Protecting each store's supplies, merchandise, computers and office equipment from an increasingly resourceful generation of break-in artists is a challenge for security personnel.

"With conventional alarms, typically the alarm would be set off depending on how entry was gained," says Greg Switzer, director of loss prevention for Staples Canada. "With entry through the roof, there's often no detection at all."

The typical Staples/Business Depot store is a 26,000-square-foot box. Once an independent chain, the company was purchased by Staples USA, and the stores have now taken on the look of their American parent.

Switzer notes that burglars tend to favor cutting their way through roofs or walls of adjoining buildings to avoid conventional alarms with motion detectors and door alarms. Instead of the alarm sounding as the intruders force their way into the building, it might only go off as they leave with the goods - or perhaps not at all.

To deal with such of break-ins, Staples has turned to a different kind of alarm system - one that actively listens rather than passively watches.

To improve security, Switzer and his team selected an audio listening device marketed by Sonitrol, Mississauga, Ontario.

"Conventional alarm systems typically are monitoring sales floor areas with ceiling-mounted 360-degree motion detectors," says Switzer. "We were looking for a system that would give us a pre-warning as opposed to at-the-time warning."

Sonitrol's listening device is a small, oblong gray box smaller than a pack of cigarettes, but packed with a sensitive listening and transmission device providing coverage over a large area. This ultra-sensitive ear can pick up sounds within a 5,000 radius. To cover one of the stores with its numerous rooms and audio barriers requires installation of an average of 16 audio sensors.

"We listen for non-ambient sounds," says Joe Wilson, Sonitrol's vice president for Canadian Operations. "When we hear something that shouldn't be there, it dials through to one of our monitoring stations. At that point we listen and determine if it is a threatening sound or a non-threatening sound. It's a real simple thing to do. If it sounds threatening, we dispatch the police. If it sounds non-threatening, we reset the alarm."

The device's ability to pick up sounds of burglars attempting to break into a store has led Switzer to switch from a conventional alarm system to the audio device at 30 of his stores in Ontario.

"Break-ins through the roof are really a challenge for conventional alarms," said Switzer. "We tested a couple of stores and we're really happy with the Sonitrol coverage, which is basically 100 percent 'inside of the box.' With wall break-in and roof break-ins, we had limited conventional alarm coverage."

Switzer noted that while the device provided ample coverage to detect break-ins, "the odd break-out" by someone hiding inside the building until it closes could still be a problem if the thieves were able to remain quiet enough.

"We teach it (the device) the ambient sound using a computer calibrator so it takes impact frequencies, ratios and timings and says to ignore these things," says Wilson. "When it hears something it doesn't recognize, it dials through to one of our stations, and there we have a person who is actually listening. That person determines whether it is threatening or non-threatening."

The device contains a buffer that stores the first 5.2 seconds of the transmission. Personnel at one of Sonitrol's 150 monitoring stations in North America can listen to the noise that prompted the device to send the alarm, as well as any other sounds that are currently being emitted at the location.

"We have to keep our stores as quiet as possible, so you don't want fax machines or telephones ringing all night long," said Switzer. "That's the real key. The quieter the building is, the better the system can work for you. In fact, you'll hear vehicles outside the building. You certainly have no trouble hearing reverse gear signals from larger vehicles."

The sounds of someone chipping away at the exterior of a building will come through loud and clear, he notes.

"When we were first testing the system, we took a small cordless electric drill and drilled in to the door frame of one of our stores outside the building," he recalls.

"We were recording all the activity at that store at the Sonitrol station, and you could certainly hear that drill. That's the sort of thing that would get their attention."

In the stores in which the listening devices have replaced conventional alarm systems, Switzer doesn't currently use either video monitoring or motion detectors.

The company uses conventional alarm systems in 120 locations, and the Sonitrol system in the rest. As the service becomes available in more areas, Switzer anticipates the company will use it more.

"I would certainly like to get them into our major metropolitan areas," he says.

The shift to these high-tech devices is part of a continuing effort by Staples/Business Depot to make the stores less vulnerable to theft or break-ins.

"When I first came to work here, the company had endured a huge rash of commercial break-ins during the early to mid-'90s," he says. "It looked like we might be about to go through that again in '97. So we decided to get serious about physical and electronic security and not be a victim again. We chose to start firming up our stores. There wasn't just any one thing that we did, but we became a less lucrative target compared to others. Part of that program was putting Sonitrol systems into our stores versus conventional (alarms)."

He favors the system over conventional alarms because it provides broader coverage at lower cost.

Another reason for choosing the system is its low rate of false alarms. Sonitrol claims its system has about a 3 percent rate compared to a 90 to 95 percent rate for conventional systems. High false alarm rates have raised the ire of local police who must respond to them. In addition, they typically bring fines if authorities are dispatched for no reason.

Switzer admitted that he had just paid a $300 fine for one store with a conventional alarm system that had been set off, after police could find no evidence of a break-in. The 30 stores with audio alarms so far have not received any fines.

"Our alarms are set off all the time," says Wilson. "The difference is we listen and do an analysis to determine if it's threatening. At some of our accounts, the alarm may be tripped two or three times a night for different reasons. We'll call the client if we hear something that's not threatening, but we think he might be concerned about - like a bearing going in an overhead heater. We'll dial the client and let him listen. We tell him we don't think this is threatening, but feel it is something he should know about. When we hear something that's threatening, we go straight into the dispatch center and talk to the police before calling the client."

Because the incident is being verified by monitoring personnel, police typically assign a higher level of priority to the call.

Switzer thinks audio detection works well for box-like stores such as Staples.

"Those are ideal conditions," he says. "I'm not so sure it would have an application in all retail situations or in home monitoring."

In addition, the Staples chain has adopted some decidedly low-tech means of protecting their merchandise. Most stores have steel posts buried in concrete to protect the large glass doors that form front entrances. In Canada, thieves will frequently drive a stolen car through the plate glass to gain entrance. Nicknamed "ram raids," these attacks often result in greater losses through property damage than to actual theft of merchandise.

Switzer believes that this system of audio listening devices gives Staples the edge in dealing with burglars and break-ins through a few extra minutes of warning. In addition, the company is building a better relationship with local authorities by reducing the number of false alarms.

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