Copper Security Critical as Price Reaches New High
The importance of implementing a security solution to protect your copper assets, such as wiring or tubing, has been a hot topic in recent years. Recent soaring prices have made this absolutely essential for any businesses that have copper on their sites.
This was made more apparent earlier this week when the price of copper jumped to its highest price in three months, up 3.7 per cent on Tuesday (June 5). The in-demand metal reached $3.25 a pound or $7,165 a ton, eclipsing last month’s high of $3.14 per pound.
Copper has been steadily increasing in price since 2016, and criminals now know that this is a lucrative material to target. Copper theft is a growing problem in North America.
Whether you have any amount of copper at your construction site, on your compound or warehouse or simply in your vacant building, you’re vulnerable to copper theft.
Demand for copper is high, making it an easy material for criminals to dispose of. Criminals are turning to any piece of copper they can get their hands on, including tearing out pipes and plumbing from walls, taking apart air conditioners and breaking into construction sites.
What’s the best way to stop copper theft?
At Sonitrol Security of Delaware Valley, we recommend that you use SonaVision to protect your business from copper crime. The SonaVision security solution uses verified video and audio detection technology and is monitored 24/7 at Sonitrol’s central monitoring system. Each alarm is verified by a security specialist and reported to the local police as a crime in progress, and due to our success in helping apprehend 175,000 criminals combined with our low false alarm rate, we are trusted by the police.
The simple and cost-effective solution is significantly more effective than a conventional CCTV system, which has a a high false alarm rate. The advanced heat and motion detection system of SonaVision means the alarm can be verified and police can be dispatched within seconds of capturing the criminals. Believe it or not, the average police response time to Sonitrol alarms is just 3.5 minutes.
How else can I protect my copper?
Verified alarms are the best way to prevent criminal making off with your copper, but there are also various other methods you can implement to add further protection:
- Keep your landscaping minimal to limit hiding places for criminals on your property.
- Secure all access points to your building, doors, windows, roof access.
- Secure all metals and equipment in a locked compound or a well-lit exterior area with at least a 6 foot wire fence (Local regulations vary) with locked gates.
- Pull together an inventory list of all your bulk metal and equipment, to provide to your insurer and local authorities in the event of a theft.
- Remove anything that could be climbed to access a roof, from materials, to trees to scaffolds.
- Don’t overstock to reduce potential theft.
With the price of copper surging in recent months and unlikely to slow down any time soon, it’s important your business implement a security strategy to protect your copper from theft. This will prevent criminal damage and increased costs from the loss of materials.
Give us a call today to schedule your no-obligation security audit.
For more information, contact Joe Allen, Sonitrol Security of Delaware Valley at (302) 652-3060 or jallen@sonitrolde.com