Security Tips

Security and Safety Tips for Johannesburg

Your safety and security are of highest importance to us. Please read these additional safety and security tips to keep you and your family safe in Johannesburg.

The importance of infra-red beams

Preventing collisions and injury:

Beams are pretty much a necessity these days to activate auto close which takes away the human error factor in closing the gate. In other words you open the gate and drive through and it closes immediately behind you. This is important because it prevents the gates from standing open providing more time for a potential hijacker to get in behind you. Bear in mind that your driveway is one of the highest risk areas of your property in terms of security. This is where there is opportunity for somebody to come in behind you as you drive onto the property. Beams will reduce the potential time frame that somebody has to get onto your property.

A gate motor should not be either too fast or too slow. If they are too fast they could cause injury or damage to a vehicle or pedestrian. If it moves too slowly it could constitute a security risk. What this means is that: you want a gate that moves rapidly but not too fast that it could cause a collision.

How to protect my motor from theft?

An anti-theft cage will stop the motor from being stolen or tampered with. Some motors are much easier to steal because they have common keys. If you are going to put one of these motors in, we recommend that you put an anti-theft cage around it.

Nice Hansa machines are much stronger in this regard as they have cast aluminium box housings, they can’t be forced with a screwdriver and the keys are not as common, making them simply not as easy to steal. As yet, we have not had any Nice Hansa motors stolen.

As an extra precautionary measure, however, they can also have an anti-theft bracket installed. Everything helps to keep potential thieves at bay. Nothing is impenetrable but the idea is to make your gate as secure as possible to prevent an intruder from gaining access to your property.

CCTV cameras

CCTV cameras are becoming more popular as crime increases. Many people have cameras around their homes with recording instruments that record images of what is going on in and around the property.

It is important to have CCTV cameras at your gate, both outside and inside. This way, you will be able to record whether or not anyone enters or exits the property and allows you to have access to images after the fact. There are very many cameras, just as there are a wide variety of motors, from cheap through to highly expensive ones.

Our advice is to go for a middle of the range camera in terms of price. This should include one high quality camera placed down the driveway that will have facial recognition. It will be able to give you a good quality picture which the cheaper options do not provide.

Try not to have places where potential intruders can hide from view at your entrance: keep it free from bushes where intruders could hide, install lights that react to movement and then stay on all night. This will allow you to see if anyone is lurking around your gate as you approach it. You can then drive past your property and come back later.

Paying attention and being aware are the most important things for security. Be aware of what is going on around you before anyone gets to you. If, for example, you are driving into your driveway and someone runs in behind, you can hoot and push the panic button to scare them away before they get you with a gun.

Driveway security

Driveways are often a point of greatest vulnerability, in Johannesburg, when it comes to your security. ADT security warning.

Correct gate installation to prevent injury or damage to vehicles

One of the dangers of sliding gates is that, if they are not properly installed, they can fall and, in some cases, even cause death. This is an especially great risk when the gate is installed in an area where children are present. This has nothing to do with the automation of the gate but with the gate itself.

The most important things to bear in mind are:

The gate must be installed with a steel pole. Never just bolt a piece of metal to a wall and then put rollers on it because, as the gate vibrates and moves, it will only be a matter of time before those bolts pull out of the wall. It may be cheaper but it will not hold that gate up indefinitely.

For longer lasting safety, you need to bolt a steel pole securely into the wall making sure that the gate runs between that steel pole and the wall itself. This is so that even if the gate does somehow come loose, the steel pole will prevent it from actually falling over. There have been many incidents of falling gates, but thankfully very few cases in which somebody has been injured. Gates falling on cars has also been a common occurrence. This, again, comes back to doing the job properly.

To avoid this situation:

Look at what you buying when someone gives you a quote on a gate.

Ask them whether there are steel poles supporting the gate, and whether or not they are bolted into the wall.

The same goes for tracking: are they putting steel reinforcing underground? Or are they just knocking a couple of pins into the ground using a bit of cheap round bar?

It all comes down to cost and what you can afford, but you also need to consider long-term safety and how much use you want to get out of the system.

Remotes

Make sure that your remotes are at the correct range so that you can get your gate open before you arrive at it so that you will be able to drive straight through. If you have to first stop at the gate and fiddle with your remote or stick it out the window, you will be exposed to possible hijacking. Be aware and on the lookout for anybody waiting around your gate for it to open so that they can get inside the moment it opens.

If you have lost a remote or someone has stolen your remote, you need to get your remotes changed, clear the memory of the receiver and then return all the transmitters you have. This will ensure that the remote that is lost or has been stolen is no longer operational. There are dozens of different remotes available. Most people these days use code hopping remotes.

The old technology allowed you to copy the code from one remote to the next, and is still out there. However, it is no longer very common. The trouble with this old technology is that if you give someone a remote they can get another remote at any security shop and make a copy of your remote. With the newer code hopping technology, this is impossible.

If you do have to give someone one of your remotes, there is no way they can have a copy made, because any additional remotes have to be programmed onto the receiver in your motor. That is why nowadays everybody uses code hopping. It is a bit inconvenient if you want to duplicate made because you have to go through the procedure of programming them in, but that’s the price you pay for a higher security level.

It is possible to carry a different remote to operate the garage door and your gate and another one to open other doors, set and deactivate alarms as well as for panic buttons. However, it is also possible to have these consolidated into one transmitter to carry with you.