Deliberate crime against a business rarely starts with the crime. It starts with someone finding out how the place works: when deliveries arrive, which door is propped open, how long a patrol takes, who challenges strangers and who does not.

That preparation is visible. The difficulty is that each individual sighting looks trivial, so nobody writes it down, and the pattern never assembles.

What reconnaissance actually looks like

  • The same vehicle parked with a view of your entrance on different days
  • Someone photographing or filming doors, cameras, fencing or loading bays
  • Visitors asking detailed questions about shift times, alarms or security arrangements
  • People testing a door or gate, then leaving without explanation
  • Repeated deliveries or service visits nobody booked
  • Interest in your bins, paperwork or notices in windows
  • Someone waiting at the entrance who leaves when approached
Security officer in a high-visibility vest using a radio at a station
Officers and staff who know what normal looks like are usually the first to spot reconnaissance.

None of these is proof of anything. Together, across a fortnight, they are a pattern worth acting on.

Make reporting take ten seconds

The main reason staff do not report is friction. If reporting means emailing a manager who might think it was a waste of time, most people decide it was nothing.

Give them one number or one form, tell them explicitly that small things are worth reporting, and make sure someone responds. Staff who hear back report again; staff who hear nothing stop.

The value is not in any single report. It is in noticing that the same silver van has been reported three times this month by three different people.

Do something visible with what you learn

When a pattern appears, respond in ways an observer can see: change patrol timings, add a lighting sweep, move a camera, have an officer approach and politely ask if someone needs help. Reconnaissance depends on predictability. Breaking that is often enough for whoever is watching to choose an easier target.

Keep the record

Log every report with time, date, description and any registration. If something does happen later, that log becomes evidence, and it is the first thing the police will ask for.