Conifer Company Offers Security to Colorado School Construction Sites

By Matt Scherer

The recently completed Brighton Prairie View Middle School project finished with the loss of only one window.

Photo courtesy of Saunders Construction

For over a decade, Steve Mortenson, the Saunders Construction project superintendent on the recently completed Brighton Prairie View Middle School project, has come to expect some form of theft on every one of his construction sites.

Like others in the industry, Saunders has depended on having private security firms and local police patrols to protect the construction company's resources. Still, even with those security efforts, the Colorado general contractor has lost, on average, about $30,000 to $50,000 in materials or stolen tools during school projects.

At a previous construction jobsite, vandals stole more than $100,000 in materials and caused a two-month delay awaiting new materials.

“When a construction site builds a project, there are often specialty items stolen, and it can sometimes take several months to get a replacement,” said Bill Phillips, director of operations for Silent Solutions.

Thanks to some recently introduced security innovations, Silent Solutions, a Conifer-based security firm that specializes in construction site security, Saunders completed the multi-million project with the loss of only one window.

“A couple of high school students broke a window at four in the morning, and our security system caught them right away,” Phillips said.

Instead of using traditional security methods, Silent Solutions deployed a wireless solution that featured software developed by HBMG Inc.’s ArmidaWare.

“Until recently, the only security solution for construction sites was to rely upon private security or increased police patrols,” Sloan Foster, the vice president of HBMG said. “Now, our wireless software solution is starting to prove itself as a more effective way to help construction companies protect their materials, heavy equipment and tools.”

According to the National Equipment Register, an insurance-supported nonprofit that monitors the theft of heavy equipment from construction sites, over $1 billion in trucks, earth-moving equipment and other vehicles are reportedly stolen from construction sites.

While there are no published reports to annually monitor the loss of materials such as copper, Phillips said he estimates that construction sites typically lose more than $2 billion to $3 billion.

With copper prices hovering at over $4 per lb, and demand for the bronze material increasing after the recent Chinese earthquake and the cyclones in Myanmar, Phillips said he believes that thefts will increase on unprotected job sites.

Phillips used the HBMG ArmidaWare system and the Exacq video technology as the backbone for protecting the Prairie View project from theft.

The HBMG ArmidaWare solution allowed Phillips to use both sensors and cameras to detect an intruder without using coax or IP-based wiring to connect either security sensors or cameras. Until five years ago, security professionals used the same wiring as the type used to hook up a TV to a signal from a cable company. Then, the industry, according to Phillips, moved towards the deployment of coax 5 or 6 wiring to install security devices.

Conifer-based Silent Solutions installed wireless equipment with sensors and cameras that detected intruders.

Photo courtesy of Saunders Construction

“The problem with those types of wiring is that it was easy for a delivery truck or construction crew to break it,” Phillips said. “With the wireless solution, the 802.11b signal can transmit a signal to a monitoring system.”

The ArmidaWare solution allows security professionals like Phillips to forgo wiring and to mount their security cameras within the wireless multi-channel communication protocol.

At Silent Solutions, Phillips and his staff set up the Prairie View security system to move within the framework of the construction project. Phillips said his team first placed the cameras on the outside of the building after Saunders completed the foundation. As the construction company and its subcontracting teams moved to the inside phase of the construction project, Silent Solutions moved the cameras to new locations within the jobsite to provide updated protection.

“When the construction team started to work indoors, we moved cameras and sensors there to monitor the work,” Phillips said.

Phillips also demonstrated to the local police force how the software works. If an alarm was activated, the Brighton police knew that they could contact Phillips or other Silent Solution employees to get information on the location of an intruder.

Buoyed by the success of the Prairie View project, Silent Solutions is expanding its operations to other school sites. In one community, the local police chief has asked Phillips to add the video monitoring solution to each of his patrol car's laptops.

“The police like this because they can monitor the location of people trying to break into a building as they respond to an alarm,” he said.

While Phillips’ firm has found success with school projects in Colorado, he said his firm could provide similar services to residential and commercial builders.

“I went to one meeting where the builder had lost his copper plumbing pipes to thieves who had pulled it out of the drywall twice in one week,” Phillips said. “The construction owner wished he had known about my wireless security options before those losses.”