Why You Should Get a Portable Guard Shack to Secure Your Business
Safety should be the top priority of all employees that work for you. Discover why getting a portable guard shack is necessary for your business.
The importance of security cannot be understated. When a facility’s security staff are properly equipped to face potential threats, staff can get peace of mind, including security staff.
One easy way to better equip security is through portable guard shacks. These low-cost structures allow guards to secure comfortable hubs from which to operate. Today we hope to fully explain the merits of guard shacks and why you should consider them for your own facility.
Storage, Distancing, and Signaling
There are a few ways virtually any site with security staff can benefit via installing a few guard shacks at key locations. Which particular benefits most appeal will depend on the nature of the site being guarded. Whether your priority is convenience or increased security, shacks can help.
Storage & Heavy Equipment
First, storage shacks allow for the safe storage of equipment necessary for security in a given area. While many facilities will also have a central security hub, this won’t always be a viable storage solution depending on the equipment in question.
For example, if a site has a small arsenal of heavier weapons, such as rifles or shotguns, they may not keep their security equipped with those weapons except during emergencies. That said, keeping those weapons in a single central hub may increase the time it takes to equip security should the need arise. Guard shacks allow for those weapons to be stored at key locations, outside the site of staff and visitors, so that security can respond to threats much faster.
This is also a portable guard shack making good hubs for heavier equipment, like CCTV and radio setups. Ideally, security staff near cameras should have the ability to see from those same camera’s lenses rather than needing to get all relevant information relayed to them from a central security hub. Having a camera set up in a nearby guard shack allows for this.
Distancing & Coverage
Distancing is a critical part of good security. If potential threats can easily close the distance with security, then security is less safe.
Guard shacks are often used as hubs where many visitors and staff pass by, often so their identity and purpose can be verified. Operating from a shack, security staff can do a few things at once.
First, security can be fairly sure the immediate area around them is at least somewhat safe. The walls around them, combined with speaking to visitors through a window, all but prevent melee attacks while also somewhat obscuring those inside if they are attacked with longer-range weapons. This better allows security to speak safely with people approaching the shack.
Second, a shack’s placement helps to ensure a key location is more or less on constant watch. So long as someone is in the shack and performing their duties as appropriate, they can sit in comfort (the importance of which we will discuss shortly) as they watch out the shack’s windows.
Signaling
Guard shacks can also be useful for what can be called “signaling.” Many people recognize guard shacks by sight, understanding there is likely a security officer inside.
This is convenient for several reasons. The most obvious is that it will draw the attention of staff and visitors to key locations. For example, they may need to know where the entrance to a given part of the site is to be allowed in and given any necessary identification or similar security measures.
Furthermore, if there is a security issue, people know where to go. They can see the security shacks from a distance and alert security staff as needed. This is good because a security issue may need attention now, not when a person manages to locate a wandering security officer or central security hub.
A more interesting signaling element is it also shows those with ill-intent a facility may not be worth the effort. Many criticize much of security as theater, but there is evidence even theater can help deter crime. A guard shack says, “We have put money, time, and effort into defending this site.”
Focused and Comfortable
Whether you need to guard private or commercial property, security work best if they can focus, even the most professional security personnel operate better rested and comfortable. “Toughing it out” may on occasion be necessary for security during emergencies, but it should not the norm.
A site’s security measures need to account for the fact security staff are human. They’ll be more comfortable if they’re in a temperature-controlled environment in a chair rather than standing outside in the elements. They’ll need to use the restroom on occasion.
Portable guard shacks can often do all that and more. In fact, immediate access to a restroom can sharply cut down how long security coverage may be reduced for bathroom breaks. Meanwhile, temperature control may be downright necessary for safety reasons if staff is operating at a site where temperatures can reach serious highs or lows.
Comfortable security is enhanced security. Security forced to operate in tough conditions aren’t going to be “harder” or “more disciplined,” they’re just going to be distracted. You want staff in top condition.
Portable Guard Shacks: Both Useful and Affordable
In short, guard shacks are useful. It isn’t tradition; there are many practical reasons they are in common use today. They are an excellent way to protect key locations on a site.
If you’re interested in renting one, we hope you’ll get a quote from Mobile Office Deals. Our company specializes in mobile facilities of all kinds and prides itself in offering great deals to customers!