Why Is Student Accommodation Security Important?

Students are often at risk to many security threats such as anti-social behaviour and thieves, so it is extremely important to have good student accommodation security. Student accommodation security is a great way to secure student halls and it can make help students feel safer.

1. What Crimes Affect Student Accommodation?
2. How Do Burglars Get Into Student Accommodation?
3. Are Student Guards a Good Idea?
4. How To Prevent Anti-Social Behaviour At University?
5. Hiring a Security Guard For Student Accommodation

What Crimes Affect Student Accommodation?

Due to the lifestyle of students, it may come as no surprise that they sadly become prime targets for criminals and thieves with around 1/3 of students falling victim to crime while a university. Most students have their own mobile phone along with some form of laptop, PC or tablet which means for thieves and burglars that students are targets with an almost guaranteed high reward.

How Do Burglars Get Into Student Accommodation?

Aside from the contents of student accommodation, it is also often empty; during holiday time around 70% of student accommodation is empty, as well as hours where pupils are in lectures or on a night out with friends. Some burglars even watch student accommodation to make note of any large groups heading out from one apartment, therefore leaving it empty. It is believed that locks on the front doors of student accommodation buildings are often enough to keep out unwanted visitors, however, it is more often than not the case that they will just follow another student into the building who will unlock the door and hold it open for them.

Are Student Guards a Good Idea?

Some universities employ ‘student guards’ who patrol student accommodation buildings in an attempt to prevent crimes and anti-social behaviour. Although, these ‘guards’ that patrol halls are not licensed, experienced, or properly trained, and may be putting themselves in danger. Other students are more likely to listen to a guard than to another student and would not be able to coerce a guard into letting them off so lightly. Their lack of real experience and knowledge in the field would also be a significant disadvantage as they could miss a lot of red flags that a trained professional would notice. Students who are put in charge of security are potentially putting themselves at risk and on top of this are going to be far less effective than a security guard.

How To Prevent Anti-Social Behaviour At University

Student accommodation and the areas that surround it can often fall victim to anti-social behaviour, particularly overnight. Having guards patrolling the buildings and perhaps even the streets surrounding the building can drastically improve this problem for students and residents alike. Having people of authority to control a situation before it gets out of hand can be the key factor to preventing anti-social behaviour at your student accommodation. At first glance, the presence alone of a security guard in the area can help to prevent such behaviour from happening in the first place as they should be clearly uniformed and easy to identify.

Also, guards can often deal with situations before they get out of hand. For example, for something as simple as a noise complaint from nearby residents against students, a security guard can give students warnings if they are getting too loud, and to quieten down before things get out of hand or before they need to be issued with formal warnings from the council over noise complaints from residents.

If students are to receive warnings from the council and choose to ignore them, it can lead to them having their equipment seized, being excluded from the university, or even being prosecuted. All such things can be prevented if a guard is present to warn them before things take a step too far and this goes further than just preventing noisy behaviour.

If incidents happen to occur, security guards are a good, professional and trustworthy witness to have at the scene, as they will carry no bias and can gather evidence of any such anti-social behaviour to present to campus bosses.

This information alone is often enough to ward students off being involved in any such behaviour as it is highly unlikely that they will want to put their place at university at risk.

Many crimes witnessed by students can also go unreported which allows criminals to continue their behaviour at student accommodation sites with the attitude that students are easy targets that pose a low risk to them and therefore less chance of consequences.

Hiring A Security Guard For Student Accommodation

If you would like more information about services that we could offer for your student accommodation buildings, then do not hesitate to find out more and contact us using the buttons below. If, however, you are a student and feel your university is not doing enough for the well-being of its pupils, tell them! Most universities are happy to receive suggestions from their students.

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