How to Prevent Vandalism at Car Dealerships

For most typical businesses, leaving millions of dollars of company assets sitting in the parking lot would seem crazy, but that's the nature of business for car dealerships.

However, like any other business, this makes protecting those assets from theft and vandalism extremely important in order to protect your finances. 

From scratched cars and smashed windows to denting exteriors of vehicles and arson, vandalism can range in its severity, but unfortunately all tend to leave you with a hefty bill. 

Why do Criminals Target Car Dealerships For Vandalism?

Many will understand the reasoning behind targeting car dealerships for vehicle theft, however, you may be asking, why are they targeted for vandalism?

There’s a number of reasons your car dealership may be targeted for vandalism:

• High-value assets - You’ll be surprised to know that criminals will not always seek to steal high-value assets, but actually devalue them, especially during times of economic distress. 
• Vast, open access - Some opportunistic criminals will simply walk past a car dealership and utilize that moment to cause damage for no exact reason besides creating disruption. 
• Protests - Protests generally tend to build tension and this can escalate into car dealerships facing crimes like vandalism. Also, in some instances, protests may be targeted towards a business for a specific reason, leading to on-site vehicle damage as part of this.
• Localized tension - Every neighbourhood faces differing challenges, however, for some this can impact businesses, including car dealerships. Depending on the cause for unrest, individuals may seek to take their anger out towards your business. 
• Disgruntled employees - In some rare cases, disgruntled employees will seek revenge on ex-employers and for car dealerships this could be to vandalise cars on-site.
• Insurance fraud - Again, less likely, but some owners will initiate crime against their own business in order for the insurance payout that could come as a result of this. 

Although this may seem unlikely to happen to you, there are thousands of vandalism cases across the US every year. 

That's why so many businesses are turning to surveillance systems as a way of protecting against these types of crimes. 

Specializing in parking lot surveillance for over 20-years now, we understand the challenges faced by car dealerships and witnessed first-hand the benefits and support that mobile surveillance solutions provide to them. 

Generally, from our experience, we have found car dealerships are protected best by mobile surveillance units, but there are other steps that dealerships can take to prevent vandalism at their business.

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Below, we outline some of the proven ways of reducing crime at car dealerships. 

Car Dealership Prevention Tools Against Vandalism 

There are numerous measures that can be taken in addition to mobile surveillance that’ll help to prevent vandalism at your car dealership. 

As a business, you should always aim to implement various prevention methods alongside one another in order to specifically target each challenge you’re faced with and maintain a strong defense:

Complete Risk Assessment and Identify Hazards

The first step towards crime prevention at your car dealership is to complete a risk assessment of your property and lot. 

Through this you can identify any access weak points, blindspots, and high-risks areas that require specific security support. 

When carrying out a risk assessment, you need to assess the layout of your dealership, entrances, exits, and property layout. 

Key questions to ask yourself when doing this include:

• Where and how could vandals gain access to the site?
• Would they be able to operate under cover of darkness? 
• Are any surveillance cameras covering the most vulnerable access point or highest value goods?  

Understanding how vulnerable your car dealership is will help you implement the correct security measures for each area of weakness and overall lot that will harden the target and deter vandals.

Many acts of vandalism occur as opportunistic crimes, therefore the more difficult you make your car dealership as a target for crime, the less likely you are to be the victim of an attack.

There are several steps you can implement to harden your security following your risk assessment and these include:

• Installing perimeter fencing, and ensuring you have locked gates at any entrance points
• Deploying surveillance camera like the LotGuard PRO Surveillance Trailers to cover your lot and any blindspots
• Installing or improving your lighting fixtures
• Ensuring any loading bays or storage areas are kept locked and secure

Increase Visible Security Measures

Increasing the visibility of your security will offer a criminal deterrent to any potential vandals that your parking lot and car dealership are being monitored. 

Even simple security measures such as installing 'Keep Out' or 'Private Property' signs can provide a huge security boost for your dealerships. 

Signage is even more impactful if they draw attention to the fact you have surveillance cameras installed, recording 24/7, and that you plan to prosecute any trespassers caught on camera. 

Implementing signage alone is often cheap, but combined with a surveillance system provides even greater security visibility that will be unmistakable for any criminals entering your car dealerships.

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Place Security at The Core of Your Car Dealership

Dealership security starts with your employees. Ensuring they are aware of all security protocols, that they understand how to spot security risks, and entrusting them to protect your assets. 

If you don't already have a security protocol in place, we have a team of security experts who can work with you to implement best practices to work alongside our security camera systems.

With a wealth of experience providing mobile surveillance units, working with organizations of all sizes, we are always on hand to offer the benefit of our experience in line with our market-leading, fully-managed security services.

General security measures we would always recommend include:

• Marking or die-stamping tools and valuable equipment
• Running regular inventory checks, and logging all goods in and out
• Locking all vehicles overnight
• Installing anti-theft devices in all vehicles
• Use locking gas and oil caps
• Only keeping a minimal amount of gas in vehicles
• Locking away keys for any vehicles on-site

Once you have a set security routine in place, make sure it is effectively communicated across your team, and that it is adjusted to cover staff vacation time and public holidays.

Finally, ensure you run background checks on your employees so you know who you have onsite and that you can trust them with your valuable assets.

Implement Security Guards to Patrol Overnight

Most crimes will occur under cover of darkness and without any security, your car dealership is even more vulnerable than during the day. 

With no occupants present, the likelihood criminals will utilize this opportunity to take advantage of this to commit vandalism is higher than during the working day when employees are there. 

To manage these risks overnight, implementing security guards will place boots on the ground and ensure there are individuals occupying your car dealership at all times. 

This security presence can be intimidating to opportunistic criminals of any kind from entering your lot, in turn preventing crime. 

Although security guards provide a strong line of defense, there is a risk for human error due to tiredness or concentration loss. 

Therefore, we’d recommend having them in line with a surveillance system to boost the visible presence of security, rather than as your sole form of vandalism prevention. 

Install a Mobile Surveillance Unit

There are many reasons why so many dealerships love utilizing our parking lot security cameras.

They can be deployed regardless of your mains power availability - they are customizable and can adapt to any location, whether you have mounting poles with electricity, or need a more mobile solar solution.  

The units operate using cellular connectivity, making them completely autonomous.

Their Trailer-based design makes them easily relocatable and allows them to be adjusted to your dealership’s security needs.

The built-in video analytics and remote monitoring services backup helps to automatically detect unwanted intruders, triggering the customizable escalation process by our monitoring partners. 

From here, they can respond using live voice-down audio challenge, sirens, and in necessary cases contact Law Enforcement to attend your car dealership.

By using our surveillance systems, you can be provided with the following enhancements:

• License plate recognition (LPR) cameras
• Thermal security cameras
• Audio voice-down and sirens

Additionally, the evidence captured by LotGuard can also be used to assist with any vehicular accidents/hit and runs that may occur on your premises - helping reduce liability claims and improving your businesses reputation.

Proven Parking Lot Vandalism Prevention

Most crime, particularly when it comes to vandalism at car dealerships, begin in the external areas of the property, most likely your parking lot. 

Therefore, leaving this completely vulnerable to crime is a recipe for disaster with your business and will simply create financial loss you could avoid. 

Having supported businesses like Lithia Motors to boost their car dealership security, we understand first-hand how to proactively protect your assets and the best approach towards this. 

So if you’re struggling with vandalism or want to get ahead of this issue at your dealership, speak with one of our LotGuard experts today and discover how we can support you.

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