Home Owner Association Security & Surveillance

One of the most popular types of communities in the United States is the gated home owner association community, also known as an HOA.

This is where people can live in peace because their entire community is surrounded by a wall, with a gate at the front entrance and also sometimes as rear gated entrance as well. Some have security guards at the front of these communities, while others do not.

HOA Professional Grade Security & Surveillance

These areas are not perfect and sometimes there is a need for home owner associations to invest in surveillance systems to ensure that everyone is kept safe while they live in their gated community. To accomplish this, homeowner associations will implement several measure including security cameras, DVRs and even remote viewing.

The clubhouse of the gated community is where you will find most of the tools and items that are needed to keep the community looking great. These range from riding lawnmowers to simple items like tools. However, because they are a depository of tools and high-cost items, they can often become the victim of theft, even from people in the community.

To prevent this from happening, it is important to have security surveillance systems in place.

Through putting security cameras in clubhouses, you are able to monitor and prevent theft in the community clubhouse. These can either be security cameras that people know about, or security cameras that are hidden. Either way, they accomplish the same task of preventing theft, and ensuring those who are to blame are caught after stealing from the clubhouse. For the relatively low-cost of security cameras, and a surveillance DVR, a home owner association can literally save thousands of dollars on stolen items from their clubhouse. For many, this is a price they are willing to bear in order to give their residents some peace of mind and safety.

As most people know gated communities often have security guards out front to keep those who do not belong in the community, out of the community. However, security guards cost home owner associations a lot of money. Through the cost of having to pay their hourly salary, along with the cost of insurance, benefits and more, it can be unfeasible for many homeowner associations to have this. As a result, many are not as safe as they could be. Thankfully, with the use of surveillance systems, home owner associations can get that security, but without the need for high-priced security guards.

By setting up security cameras, DVRs and remote viewing capabilities in the surveillance system, home owner associations get a ‘virtual security guard’. With the security cameras, those who want to try and sneak into the community will be prevented the ability to do so because of the ‘eye in the sky’. As well, through remote viewing, the members of the gated community can keep an eye on the front in their spare time, turning the entire community into a ‘remote viewing neighborhood watch’. This is worth its weight in gold because it gets the community together for a common goal and it helps keep everyone safe, without the costs of a security guard.

Why skimp on security just because you can’t afford a security guard? Pay the costs for a professional grade security surveillance system and keep everyone safe and happy.

Most gated communities will also have recreation areas that people like to hang out at. However, at night, this can also be where some people hang out with trouble on their mind. This does not even have to be an outsider coming into the gate community. It can even be someone who lives there. Teenagers, those in the drug trade, all can live in a gated community. Where these people often congregate is communal areas like basketball courts and tennis courts. When they get together in one area, trouble can happen, from fights to petty vandalism.

While the gated community can pay the cost of having a security guard wandering around, it makes much more sense to have a security surveillance system set up to ensure that there is constant vigilance, without the need for someone being there. The cameras will be able to watch over the recreation areas, and the DVRs will give home owner associations the ability to watch what happened the night before in case of vandalism. It really is an all-encompassing security system that gated communities must have.

The gated community can be a safe place, but it is only as safe as what the home owner association makes it. People can jump walls, people can get in and when they do you want to make sure you have the right surveillance equipment to ensure that they are caught and sent to jail. There are few better deterrents than security surveillance systems, so give them a try with your own home owner association’s gated community.

Here at Texas Surveillance & Security, we offer professional grade security camera systems and installation services. Call us today at 281-326-0790 for a free consultation with one of our technical sales representatives for more information on how to get started with your security CCTV camera projects. We offer free site surveys and estimates.

How we scope a system

Every project starts with a walk of the property, because coverage cannot be designed from an aerial photo. We identify what you are protecting and what you are trying to prove, then work outward from there. A business worried about inventory shrink needs a fundamentally different camera layout than one worried about liability claims in the parking lot, even in an identical building.

We map the approach routes first. Most losses do not begin at the point of theft; they begin at the fence line, the loading dock, or the unlit corner of the lot where someone waited. Cameras placed only at the obvious targets tell you something was taken but never who took it or how they got in. Coverage that follows the path in and the path out is what produces an identification.

Then we check the lighting, at the hours that matter rather than at midday. A camera that renders beautifully at 2pm and uselessly at 2am has failed at the only job it had, and the overwhelming majority of commercial incidents happen after dark. We measure the actual conditions and specify sensors, infrared or low-light colour accordingly.

Finally we size storage against how long it realistically takes you to notice a problem. Businesses regularly discover a loss weeks later, at a quarterly count or when a claim is filed. A recorder holding fourteen days has already erased the evidence. Retention is a design decision, not a default setting.

Why Houston businesses choose Texas Surveillance

We have been a family-operated Texas company since 1993 — 33 years, Texas license B04080401. Over that time we have designed, installed and maintained commercial and industrial surveillance systems for the Houston Rockets, NRG Stadium, the George R. Brown Convention Center, the Houston Police Department, several municipal governments and fire departments, and many hundreds of warehouses, plants, dealerships, restaurants and storefronts across the region.

Two things set a commercial install apart from what you can buy in a box. The first is specification: cameras chosen and positioned against your actual sightlines, lighting and risk, rather than a package applied uniformly to every building. The second is service. Security contractors in this market appear and vanish constantly, and a system with nobody behind it becomes a liability the moment it fails. A large share of our work is maintaining and expanding systems we installed years — in some cases decades — ago.

What every system includes

Commercial-grade, weather-sealed hardware specified for Gulf Coast heat, humidity and storm season. Secure remote viewing from phone, tablet or desktop. Storage sized to the retention your risk actually requires rather than the minimum the recorder ships with. Full handover training so your people can find and export footage without calling us. And a free on-site survey before any of it — because a quote produced without walking the property is a guess.

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