3 Inexpensive Ways To Protect Your Apartment Residents

As an apartment complex owner, it's important to make sure that your residents stay safe within the community while hiring security guards and building perimeter fencing with gates may be effective, the costs for these options have ongoing costs that can really add up due to service fees and maintenance requirements. Here are three less expensive options to consider implementing that are sure to help keep your apartment residents safe:

Create a Community Watch Group

Creating a community watch group is a great way to help residents learn how to rely on one another to keep each other safe. Have the community elect a program leader who is willing to manage the group and effective performance. With the help of their neighbors, the leader can manage meetings, schedule community watch rounds, and maintain records. It's important to work with the leader initially to establish some ground rules and protocols that should be followed by every member of the group. Everyone should know exactly what to do when they see something strange or need to report a crime – consider scheduling an initial training session with an expert in the industry.

Require Key Access to Common Areas

Another thing you can do to effectively protect your community is to build fencing or walls around the pool area, playground, and other activity features that are common to your residents. You can then incorporate locked doors that require keys or cards to enter. This is a less expensive option than building a fence around the entire perimeter of the community, because you'll spend less on supplies, installation, and ongoing maintenance. The key access will ensure that only residents and guests are in common areas, which will minimize the chance of theft, harassment, property damage, and child endangerment.

Incorporate Some Security Cameras

As an alternative of or in addition to hiring security officers to patrol your apartment community, consider installing security cameras throughout the grounds. Security cameras have the ability to capture real-time proof of any crimes that may be committed, and are sure to make residents feel more at ease when they're moving about the community. For a monthly fee you can have the system hooked up to a live monitoring service, or you can simply incorporate the cameras into an internal computer monitoring system that won't cost you any money to maintain.

These security options aren't intrusive, and they'll help ensure that your residents feel safe enough to renew their leases when the time comes. For more information, contact companies like Arapahoe County Security Center Inc.