July/August 2011
Scrapyard security requires a never-ending cycle of assessing risk and adjusting tactics to protect the yard, its assets, and its people from ever-changing threats.
By Diana Mota
David Williams, president of DBW Metals Recycling (Anaheim, Calif.), thinks of his scrapyard as a mousetrap. The scrap is the cheese; the thieves, the mice. For a while, the trap works and keeps the mice from stealing the cheese. Every now and then, however, a mouse gets in and scurries away with the prize. His goal, he says, is to keep that from happening. Joel Squadrito, director of security for Steel Dynamics and OmniSource Corp. (Fort Wayne, Ind.), has a different metaphor: With commodities prices again reaching record highs this spring, a scrapyard is “a jewelry store surrounded by a chain-link fence,” he says. Either way, recyclers must secure their yards to keep their workers and property safe from thieves and vandals.
Security begins with the basics—fences around the yard and locks on doors—but security professionals recommend a multifaceted approach. A successful system makes it too difficult, risky, or costly for a thief to steal from you, they say. Creating such a system requires a methodical assessment of a yard’s external and internal risks; equipment, programs, and personnel to mitigate those risks; constant review and refinement; and a watchful eye, because thieves are creative. With enough forethought and time, a career thief can beat almost any system, Williams says, so you must constantly look for ways to build a better mousetrap.
Assessing the Risks
Ideally, every scrapyard would have a full-time security professional to conduct risk assessments and manage its security programs, says Greg Davis, director of security for Commercial Metals Co. Americas Division (Irving, Texas) and a retired Army military police officer. He differentiates security professionals from individuals who take on security as one of several responsibilities: The former know how criminals operate, how to mitigate risks, and how to use security equipment, he explains. Such expertise comes at a price, however, and he acknowledges that some small recyclers cannot afford it. When that’s the case, Davis recommends that scrap processors hire a security consultant to work with them to identify and mitigate the yard’s weaknesses. Another option is to work with local law enforcement, says OmniSource’s Squadrito, who also serves as a full-time Fort Wayne police officer. “Most police agencies have an officer who will do risk management.”
Security isn’t one-size-fits-all, they say. Risks differ according to location and demographics. A vulnerability or security assessment helps determine what those risks are, says Joe Bulat, director of security for Schnitzer Southeast (Atlanta). Bulat spent 24 years with the Atlanta Police Department and has worked in security for metal recyclers for more than 20 years; currently he oversees 17 facilities for Schnitzer, including one in Puerto Rico. A variety of sources can provide data for the security assessment. For example, “pull the police reports for that district,” Bulat says. “See what types of crimes are occurring.” CMC’s Davis also uses law enforcement reports to assess a yard’s risks, but he supplements them with information from Cap Index (Exton, Pa.), a service that provides crime-forecasting data for a designated geographic area based on 90 different demographic variables (excluding race, gender, and religion). Before Davis visits a site, he pulls the area’s CAP Index score, which can range from zero to 2,000, with a score of 100 considered average. A score of 2,000 would mean the site’s risk of experiencing a crime is 20 times the national average, he says. Recyclers can subscribe to the service, which updates scores annually, or purchase a report as needed.
After he obtains the score, Davis reviews a yard’s history, including the types of crimes that have occurred, if any, as well as concerns from management. He takes into account the nature of the neighborhood—residential, industrial, or a combination—and then he’ll walk inside the perimeter of the yard looking for security breaches. He takes notice of landscaping, adjoining business that could provide access, the type of fencing (if any) and its condition—including whether it meets American Society for Industrial Security (Alexandria, Va.) standards—entry points, lighting quality, and existing security equipment such as cameras, alarm systems, or motion detectors. Squadrito and Bulat also rely on shoe leather—they regularly walk the outside perimeters of their yards. “If you’ve got scrap outside the fence, there’s only a couple of ways it got there,” Squadrito says. “Somebody threw it over the fence, or somebody dropped it on the way out the door.” Bulat suggests walking the perimeter twice a day—morning and evening.
To assess his company’s security risks, Bulat uses SWOT analysis, a strategic planning technique that looks at strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. He assesses whether the yard’s existing features and location provide opportunities to mitigate threats or put the yard at risk. For example, landscaping could provide cover for thieves—a potential weakness—but thorny bushes placed in concrete planters could deter a thief as well as prohibit a vehicle from crashing the fence. “This isn’t rocket science,” Bulat says. “This is common sense.” Recyclers also should identify their most valuable assets, Davis says. “What would a thief want to steal?” Think broadly, beyond material and cash to equipment and even proprietary information. For high-value scrap material, look at how it’s stored—inside or outside—as well as who has access to buildings and equipment that thieves could use to access it or move it.
Assessment is an ongoing process, these security professionals say. “We do random security checks and penetration tests to find weak links,” Squadrito says. Sometimes he even hires off-duty detectives who work scrap theft cases to “break into” his facilities. He also suggests scrutinizing previous occurrences to predict future ones and find trends and patterns. “If we have a similar facility with a similar setup, you can expect it’s going to get hit in the same fashion,” he says.
When possible, OmniSource even conducts post-arrest interviews with scrap thieves, Squadrito says. “If thieves are willing to talk, we will debrief them to find out how they break in and what keeps them out.” In one instance, the company learned that a thief chose to break in on Friday or Saturday nights, five minutes after the last employee left for the day, because that’s when workers are preoccupied with weekend plans and more likely to be careless about locking up. The thief also said he would take big-ticket items on Sunday so he could sell them quickly the next morning.
One easily overlooked area for review is the yard’s policies and procedures, Bulat says, but such things can help minimize risks. Once a recycler has policies defining who sets up and manages the yard’s security, for example, or how it will secure and limit access to high-value materials, it’s easier to see where weaknesses remain. OmniSource’s Squadrito gives a good example of a weakness the company discovered in its procedures: When a crew of scrap thieves told him how they pilfered small amounts of scrap over an extended period without leaving a trail, OmniSource changed how it does inventory. “If you don’t know what you have, you might not see the numbers dwindling,” he points out.
Building Defenses
The security assessment will almost certainly reveal areas of weakness. Beyond adjusting policies and procedures as described above, scrapyards boost their security by installing an array of alarms, fences, and monitoring systems.
“We start with a solid external security package,” Squadrito says, which includes adequate lighting, heavy-duty fences, limited access from the outside, and monitoring systems. Good lighting has two benefits, he notes: It deters thieves and improves the quality of video. For facilities with minimal risk, a 10-foot-high fence with cameras might be enough, he says. Facilities with greater risk get more exterior fencing as well as other deterrents, such as heavy-duty lids on roll-off boxes that require a crane to remove.
Williams’ 3½-acre yard hasn’t had a break-in since he installed an electric fence in 2006. “Just the fact that it’s there keeps anyone from attempting to climb the fence,” he says. “Psychology is part of the game.” Electric Guard Dog (Columbia, S.C.), the supplier of DBW Metals’ fence, says its typical project is a 10-foot-high fence that pulses 7,000 volts of electricity every 1.3 seconds. A drop in current sets off an audible and electronic alarm; users can arm or disarm the fence via a keypad. Each project includes installation (always within an existing perimeter fence), technical support, and round-the-clock monitoring for a monthly service fee based on the fence’s length and complexity—scrapyard fees average about $500 to $800 a month, says Jack DeMao, Electric Guard Dog’s CEO.
Alarm and monitoring systems vary in their response to intruders. Some systems automatically alert police; others notify a monitoring company or a scrap company employee who can remotely access the cameras to evaluate the situation. At DBW Metals Recycling, the security company has an employee call list, Williams says. The security firm and people on the list can both access a live view of the yard via computer, smartphone, or iPad to determine whether to call police.
Recording and monitoring technology has improved over the years, and costs have come down. In the mid-1990s, Williams recalls, he had a basic security system that included cameras around the perimeter and a time-lapse recorder that cost the same as the new digital technology used today. He would record at night and view the recordings in the morning. Since then he’s added cameras that rotate, use infrared technology to see at night without the use of lights, and offer remote access. Better monitoring equipment means clearer pictures. “You can zoom in and see a person’s face—not just a profile walking through the yard,” he says. This can result in fewer false alarms, which can incur costly fees, he notes. Cameras equipped with night-vision sensors can see things the naked eye can’t, adds Wes Sewell, president of J.R. Woodruff Co. (Houston), a maker of industrial-grade cameras. “You could literally look a quarter-mile away and identify what brand of cigarettes someone pulls out of his pocket.” He defends the significantly higher price of industrial cameras, asserting that they’re more durable and cover a larger area than less expensive systems. He acknowledges, however, that his systems provide a recording, not real-time monitoring. “That’s where the security company theoretically gets the jump on us.”
Real-time remote video monitoring is the approach OmniSource has taken at yards that continually experience break-ins, loss, and damage, Squadrito says. It uses a system from Watchdog Security (Southfield, Mich.) that consists of analytic cameras along the yard’s perimeter and additional cameras within the yard and buildings—typically around the cashier and scale. The system can discern between a person and an animal tripping the alarm, says Watchdog President Bradley Gladstone. If it spots human intruders, a remote dispatcher speaks to them through a speaker system, clearly identifying them and telling them to leave. Typically, they run off before taking anything, eliminating the need to call the police, the company says. The scrapyard owner receives a detailed report, video, and up-close photos of the intruders for
possible identification the next day. The system also records and stores video for a minimum of 120 days.
Within the yard, most companies install additional security in and around office buildings, scales, and warehouses. Scrapyards should monitor these buildings’ locks and keys as well as the keys to mobile equipment so that thieves don’t use such equipment to steal the scrap, the security professionals point out. Build a “capsule” around employees who work in cash offices by using bullet-resistant glass, steel-plated walls, and panic-alarm systems, Bulat says, and train them how to respond to a robbery. Davis suggests a few tips for selecting bullet-resistant materials: “You want to look at the quality of the installation. Does it meet industrial security standards? Are [the suppliers] insured? Do they indemnify us if there’s a problem with the material?”
Davis suggests using both overt and covert cameras. In DBW Metals’ yards, cameras monitor all scale and shipping transactions. “The more technology we apply, the more we find out what’s going on. It always pays for itself and then some,” Williams says. Bulat suggests painting the base of the scale for incoming scrap a different color so it stands out for the camera. That can make it easier to see if someone steps on the scale to add weight to the load, he explains.
The security experts advise keeping nonferrous grades of scrap in locked warehouses with limited accessibility and armed with cameras, motion detectors, and alarm systems. If the scrapyard does not have a warehouse, Bulat suggests placing nonferrous scrap bins in a central location, away from walls or fencing, that’s well-lit and monitored by cameras so “you can concentrate on watching that core area.”
One more line of defense these professionals recommend is the security guard. “If you can afford guards, hire guards,” Bulat says, and train them so they know what’s valuable and so they’re safe. “Manage them, too,” he adds, “because they could steal from you as well.”
Watching the Inside Track
Yard security is not just about protecting assets from outside forces. “You have to protect yourself from unscrupulous employees,” Bulat says, which is more difficult than protecting the yard from intruders. “Employees know your weak links better than you do,” Squadrito explains. “They know where the cameras are, your schedules, and your hours of operation.”
Employee theft prevention starts with the hiring process, they say. Conduct background and credit checks as well as drug tests. Look for gaps in applicants’ work experience, Bulat says, and if you find any, try to determine the cause from the background checks.
Watch for employees who deviate from policies and procedures, Bulat says. Develop security policies that limit the areas workers can access based on their work. If you discover employees outside their designated work areas, ask them why they’re there, he says. “It shows you’re watching and paying attention.” Secure and limit access to recording devices, he adds. “Don’t even allow supervisors to look at what cameras actually see”—and what they don’t see. Some companies store the recorders or backup recordings off site.
Williams uses several layers of supervision over scrap sales transactions. Three people check every inbound and outbound load, he says. “That means three people would have to be in collusion” to falsify the information. Bulat recommends watching for “cubbyholes,” places where workers stash material in the yard. “Every yard has them,” he says. It might just hold a little bronze statute or a drill bit that came in as scrap, he adds, “but that’s stuff you’re paying for.”
Unscrupulous employees might work with outside individuals to steal from a company. “Oftentimes it’s the employee setting the stage for someone else to steal the scrap by setting material along the fence line or where it’s easily accessible,” Squadrito says. Bulat recalls an instance where a crane operator deposited material into a pickup truck parked on the other side of a scrapyard wall. After he filled the truck, his accomplice drove it into the yard and sold the scrap back to the facility. “There’s some wild stuff we see on a day-to-day basis,” he says.
Each of the scrap companies interviewed has a zero-tolerance policy for employee theft. Prosecution is essential for deterring internal theft, they say. “You have to make an example of [thieves],” Bulat says. The companies also demand restitution through the court systems. “It doesn’t matter if it’s for $500 or $100,000,” he says.
Not everyone with regular access to a scrapyard is a company employee. Contractors and temporary workers deserve similar scrutiny, as Williams learned the hard way. Shortly after he first installed cameras, he noticed the equipment stopped recording between 11 p.m. and midnight. Baffled, he checked the equipment and circuits and even tried another recorder, he recalls. According to his keyed-entry alarm system, only the cleaning crew was present at that time of night. He hired a detective to monitor them and learned that his cleaners were “literally cleaning [me] out.”
A Balancing Act
Security measures come at a cost, but not having them also has a cost. It’s important to balance your needs with your risks, Bulat says. “Your return on your investment should be greater.” Williams’ perspective is, “don’t be afraid to spend money to save money. If you’re not watching, [scrap is] going out the door.” That said, no investment in fences or high-tech gadgets can replace employee ownership of the security issue, Bulat says. “It’s everyone’s responsibility to report seeing something suspicious, such as an individual who doesn’t belong there or metal that’s out of place. If they do that, then you should see a decrease in internal and external thefts.”
Diana Mota is associate editor of Scrap.
Scrapyard security requires a never-ending cycle of assessing risk and adjusting tactics to protect the yard, its assets, and its people from ever-changing threats.