Ignorance is bliss, so the saying goes and this is particularly true when it comes to home or commercial security.
If you’ve never had your home or business premises broken into, you might give very little consideration to how secure your house, condo or office is, other than locking the door when you leave.
On the other hand, if you have had intruders breaking in and stealing treasured items, such as your TV, home-theatre, fridge, computer, money, valuables and the like, we guarantee your perspective will be somewhat different.
Some unfortunates the writer knows personally have returned home to find they’ve been stripped of every asset not nailed down and they had no home insurance to boot, so they got not one baht in compensation because, when they reported the theft to the police, they were told the police held out little hope of retrieving any of the stolen goods!
The trauma of theft
Some of you may have read the books of Carlos Castaneda, where he describes his initiation into shamanic magic. His mentor, Don Juan, an astute Yaqui Indian sorcerer, describes the emotional attachment to possessions, using the metaphor of a golf ball.
It is as if everyone has a semi-open golf ball in their solar plexuses from which the tightly coiled, interior elastic strands emerge and invisibly attach themselves to every possession one owns.
If these possessions become stolen, the strands are broken and one feels emotionally bereft. The psycho-emotional trauma which results when the shock of theft begins to set in is comparable to rape, according to some social scientists.
The silent but deadly thief
While not wishing to make you paranoid, forewarned is forearmed, especially in today’s economic climate. With money being in such short supply, particularly for the low-paid, unemployed or rabid yah-bah user, breaking and entering and the resultant theft is becoming an increasingly common phenomenon.
One of the biggest mistakes a Westerner can make is to assume they are relatively inconspicuous in Pattaya, probably the most cosmopolitan city in Thailand.
However, if you frequent the same local convenience store more than a couple of times and buy the same product, such as cigarettes or beer, on the third occasion the sales assistant will probably present you with the item as soon as you enter the shop.
Thais generally have excellent memories, after all the national animal is the elephant (not the water-buffalo, as some may think) and they can place a face or personal idiosyncrasy accurately and quickly.
This trait makes obvious sense for a shop assistant who will no doubt gain merit for customer-recognition in the eyes of the manager, but what about the seemingly innocuous individual casually propping up a lamp-post?
To you he might be virtually inconspicuous, but to him you could well be a ‘face’ who he not only recognises but knows everything about you, your daily routines, and the times you go out and return. He could well be what the Thais call a ‘scot’ i.e. a spotter who will be working in collaboration with an individual thief or a gang, just waiting for the opportunity to break into your home and ransack it.
Alternatively, you may become the prey of the opportunist thief, very often a friend of your ‘security guard’ with whom he is working in tandem, again waiting for an opportune moment.
The worst kind of thief is the opportunist who will scale the wall of a supposedly guarded gated community, armed only with a screwdriver with which he intends to jemmy open a window or a security box.
If caught in the act, he can often turn dangerous, becoming completely desperate if trapped, which is why he must always be left with an avenue of escape. He will not hesitate to use his screwdriver as a knife-substitute, so should under no circumstances be challenged.
If he is drunk or drugged-up, he will almost certainly resort to violence, even in the case of petty theft, and the safety and well-being of yourself, your family members or staff is totally incommensurate with the value of any tangible possession.
Be professionally prepared
However, there is a sure way to avoid all this trauma – be prepared. But don’t sell yourself short by buying cheap, off-the-shelf DIY products, such as intruder alarms or motion-sensitive lights, which are invariably inadequate by themselves.
Realistically speaking, domestic or commercial security is a job for the professionals, by which we mean those with years of experience in the security field, who can produce verifiable credentials and testimonials.
Here again, if you don’t follow these guidelines, you may fall prey to a rank amateur masquerading as a ‘professional’, who is committed to a single product with no consideration for location peculiarities, performance requirements, unit sensitivity, or sensor element susceptibility, because he has failed to adequately research the field of security.
In the words of one of our mentors on security matters, security consultant Andre J. A. Machielsen, the Pattaya-based owner of Master Safety Enterprises (MSE), “it is an unfortunate fact that the vast majority of internal security systems installed rely almost exclusively on movement or space detection”.
To give adequate, totally comprehensive internal protection based on motion detection, one needs space or area detectors that need to be complemented with door and window frame contacts, pressure pads, glass-break detectors, electronic field sensors, hanging-frame sensors, and break-beam detectors, according to Andre.
Incidentally, Andre’s security company, MSE, has been established in Pattaya for 23 years, with the most comprehensive, state-of-the-art equipment available, prior to which he was a safety officer, involved with preventative and precautionary logistics, with a background in photography, CCTV and electronics.
Applied to commercial premises, Andre advises, you would also need protection for skylights, like contact or shock sensors, supported by glass-break and motion detection.
If your premises were large, they would have to be divided into ‘zoned security islands’, utilising dual technology sensors and an alarm-handling system; all of which would need to be periodically upgraded to cope with progressively more innovative thieves, hence would need to be incorporated into the initial design brief. And again, you might go to a great deal of expense fitting a system composed of these components, but even so a desperate thief might still manage to break in and threaten those inside, or make off with all your valuable items or equipment.
Peripheral security systems
For Andre, peripheral security is the answer, as the first line of defence to detect intruders before they can enter the building.
He advises employing an external network of infra-red beams, or even more effective, a voltage security fencing, delivering “a momentary but extremely effective shock”, which would almost certainly deter a would-be thief from ever attempting a return visit. Andre specialises in peripheral security systems which include:
l residential and industrial security systems;
l a 24-hour alarm central monitoring station;
l intruder alarms, wired, wireless, ISP system;
l closed circuit TV, including GPS (internet viewing);
l access control, card and biometric technology;
l sliding and swing gate automation;
l secure u-PVC doors and windows, including double glazing;
l fibre-optic cabling and microwave links;
l GPS tracking systems for cars and people;
l high voltage security fencing;
l insurance consultancy.
Dog patrols
Our second security mentor is Joe Cox, the owner of Defence International Security Services, which brings the new (for Thailand) dimension of professionally trained, accredited dog handlers and high-profile dog teams into the security equation.
Joe has had 20 years of security experience gained in the Royal Military Police, and the London Underground Transport Police, as well as from running Defence Security Services (UK), which contributed to the security mix at Wembley Stadium, Elton John’s Fund Raiser, the London Marathon and Canary Wharf, as well as to the Royal Family of Dubai.
Defence Security Services provides individual, group and commercial protection, and bomb and drug search and detection, as well as defence against firearms.
Here in Thailand, Joe is providing training and dogs to the Royal Thai Police, Royal Thai Military Police and Pattaya-U-Tapao Airport, as well as providing security for the US Armed Services Cobra Gold exercises.
Defence International Security Services also uses dog teams to provide security for offices, commercial interests and residential clients, which Joe says is proving a “huge deterrent against crime”, as well as building up close personal relationships with the communities that they patrol, simultaneously bringing reassurance, and individual peace of mind to a host of satisfied customers. Ω |
