Driving Up Security

Aug 1, 2008 12:00 PM

A dramatic rise in theft and vandalism is costing car dealerships worldwide huge amounts in damages and increased insurance premiums.

The Nick Whale BMW dealership in the U.K. was only too familiar with the problem. With a total perimeter of 885 feet, the Warwick-based business protects 100 or so luxury vehicles on its lot at any given time. In spite of the external passive sensors that were in place, the dealership was experiencing an average of five break-ins per year, with each incident involving up to five stolen cars.

Nick Whale needed a better solution, but wanted to use the existing infrastructure in order to minimize the installation costs. In 2007, the dealership's surveillance system was retrofitted with ioimage advanced tracking and intrusion detection capabilities for full coverage of the sales lot. Employees use the same alarm panel to activate and de-activate the system and required no additional training.

The ioimage system is event-driven, tracking all motion, but filtering out extraneous, environmental activity which can trigger false alarms.

When a camera detects a security breach after hours, alerts and photos are instantly transmitted to a remote video receiving center which charges a fixed annual fee to monitor the site. An operator then sounds a warning over the PA system if there is an intruder. If the trespasser is not deterred, a security patrol is immediately dispatched to the scene.

Within two months, several intruders were detected and removed from the premises.

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© 2008 Penton Media Inc.

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