Construction site CCTV: where to put cameras and what they should do

Thieves go for what is easy to move and easy to sell, and a busy site has plenty of it. A lot of it is taken when nobody is there: overnight, at weekends and over holiday shutdowns. UK guidance calls this out of hours. In this guide, after hours means the same thing.

That is why police advice is to keep vehicles, plant and tools secured and out of sight whenever the site is closed. The Secured by Design construction site guide, from the UK police security initiative, lists criminal damage, arson and anti-social behaviour alongside theft.

It is common. In research run by the UK insurer NFU Mutual in January 2026, 36% of the 500 tradespeople asked said they or one of their employees had been hit by theft on site in the previous 12 months.

• Tools and portable equipment, which are small and quick to carry out
• Copper cable, other metal and fuel, which are easy to sell on
• Plant and heavy equipment such as mini excavators, skid steers and generators
• Vehicles, and whatever is left inside them
• Laptops, keys and other valuables kept in the site office

The same job has different names in different places. UK guidance talks about hoarding, site cabins, plant and portable CCTV. Victoria Police in Australia talks about worksites, storage containers and tools and equipment. The advice underneath is close.

In the UK, the Secured by Design Construction Site Security Guide says CCTV together with appropriate signage can be a good deterrent. It says cameras should give images of recognition quality, that site lighting should not interfere with the picture, and that the system should cover vulnerable areas at the right times, with infra-red for night. If the system is meant to support a prosecution, it says to be able to record and store 31 days in a format the police accept, and to have someone who knows how to run the system available at all times. It also notes that portable CCTV systems are easily moved as the site progresses.

In Australia, Victoria Police's checklist for construction site theft lists installing CCTV next to locking buildings and storage containers, audible alarms, good lighting and a guard service. It says to lock up all tools and equipment overnight, mark them with a unique mark and record serial numbers. Its general CCTV advice says to make cameras visible and not use fake ones, to check the images are clear day and night, to keep the storage hidden, secured and backed up off site, and to look for systems that send alerts to your mobile phone. Other Australian states publish their own advice, so check your state police site.

• Visible cameras and signs deter. Fake cameras do not help.
• The picture has to be good enough to use, at night as well as by day, with lighting that helps the camera instead of causing glare.
• Keep the recorder out of sight and, ideally, backed up away from the site.
• Someone has to be able to find and export a recording when the police ask.
• Cameras are one layer. Lock up tools, store plant out of sight, light the site and secure the gates as well.

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One camera cannot cover a whole site, so put them where theft has to pass or where the value sits. Four places do most of the work.

Think about night first. A camera that cannot see in the dark, or that is blinded by a floodlight, only works in the daytime, when you need it least. Secured by Design advises planning the lighting and the cameras together, so the light helps the picture instead of causing glare and shadows.

• Gates and entrances. Everything and everyone goes in and out here, so this is where you get the clearest picture of people and vehicles. Police advise keeping entrances to a minimum, which also means fewer places to watch.
• The material yard. Stacked material close to the fence helps people climb in and out, so police advise storing it away from the perimeter. A camera looking along the stored material sees anyone who gets close to it.
• Plant and heavy equipment. Put a camera on the compound, or wherever the machines are parked overnight. Secured by Design suggests a dedicated secure compound for high value machinery, and a camera there shows who goes near it.
• The site office and cabins. Cabins are hard to secure, which is why police advise against keeping valuables in them. A camera on the door covers the one place where laptops, keys and paperwork are.
• The perimeter. Long runs of hoarding or site fence and blind corners matter, but add them once the four places above are covered.

Early in a build there is often no permanent supply. There are a few usual answers, and the right one depends on how long the job runs and how much sun the site gets.

Whichever you choose, make one person responsible for checking that the cameras are still running. A camera that lost power on Friday is no use on Saturday night.

• A site supply. The simplest and most reliable option where a temporary supply is already on site. Mount cameras on cabins or poles near it.
• Solar panel with a battery. Good for a remote corner or a site with no supply. The panel and battery have to suit the camera, the number of dull days in a row you get, and the winter. Ask the vendor how they sized it for your location.
• Battery only. Fine for a short job, but someone has to swap batteries on a schedule, and a flat battery is a camera that was off the night it mattered.
• A trailer or tower unit that comes with its own power and connection. These are usually hired as a package, which suits a job that will end.

Cameras that record on the site do not need the internet. Cameras that tell you something is happening do. On a site with no fixed line, the usual answer is a 4G or 5G router: a small box with a SIM card and a data plan. In very remote places some sites use a satellite link instead.

Put the router where the signal is best, often high on a cabin or pole, and test it at night as well as in the day. Then ask what the system actually sends over it. Live video from many cameras at once uses a lot of data. A single still photo of an event uses far less. Ask any vendor what their system sends, how often, and how it behaves when the signal drops.

These are two different jobs, and they are often mixed up. Recording keeps what the camera saw, so you can look back after something has gone. It helps with insurance and with police. Secured by Design says recordings that may be used for prosecution should be kept for 31 days, in a format the police accept.

Being told is different. Someone, or something, watches the cameras and tells you while the person is still on site. That is the only version where you can act: ring the site manager, ring the police, or speak to whoever is nearby. A recorder with nobody looking tells you what you lost. An alert with no recording leaves you without evidence. Most sites need both.

There are three common ways to be told while it is happening. We cover them in more detail in our guide to remote video monitoring.

• People at a remote centre watch your cameras and phone you or the police. Good when you want a person to judge the video and make the call. It is a recurring fee, and the people can only judge what the camera and lighting let them see.
• Software watches the cameras and sends you a photo. Good when you or your site manager can act on a message. You decide who gets told and what happens next.
• A siren, lights or a speaker on the site. Good for scaring people off. It only helps if someone is also told.

Calling the police has its own rules, and they differ by place. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, police give a response number only to systems watched by a recognised monitoring centre that meets national standards. In some US cities, Seattle for example since October 2024, police send officers to a monitored alarm only when there is evidence such as video, audio or a panic alarm, not on a motion sensor alone.

In Australia, Victoria Police says to call Triple Zero (000) if a crime is happening now, the suspect is still there or anyone is in danger, and to use its online reporting or the Police Assistance Line on 131 444 for anything that is not an emergency. It also says not to confront the thief, not to touch anything and to call your insurance company.

Ask your local police and your insurer what they need before you rely on any system to bring officers to your site.

Cameras are easy to sell and hard to compare, because a brochure rarely says what happens at 3 a.m. in the rain. These questions get you the answers that matter.

• What does the camera see at night, and how far? Ask for night video from a real site, not a showroom.
• How is it powered, and what happens when the power or the signal drops?
• Who gets told when something happens, how fast, and by what? Ask to see an example alert.
• How are false alarms from animals, rain or your own workers handled, and who gets woken up?
• Where are recordings stored, who can see them, and how long are they kept?
• Can the cameras be moved as the site changes, and who pays for that?
• Is it a contract or month to month? What is the notice period, and what happens to the equipment at the end?
• Which signs and privacy rules apply here? Rules on recording differ by country and state, and sites beside public roads or homes need extra care. Ask a lawyer about yours.
• Does my insurer have requirements for site security? Insurers can set conditions, so ask before you buy.

Prices vary too much by site and by country for any single figure to help, so we will not make one up. What you can do is know what moves the number, so that quotes can be compared fairly.

• How many cameras, and how much ground they cover. Wide, open sites need more cameras or better ones.
• Power. A site with a supply is usually cheaper than one that needs solar panels and batteries at every pole.
• Connection. A router and data plan for each site, and more data if video is sent often.
• Buy, lease or hire. Hiring suits a job that ends in months. Buying suits a company that moves cameras from site to site.
• Night performance. Infrared, lighting and housings that protect the camera from knocks and weather all add cost.
• How long recordings are kept, and where. Longer storage costs more.
• Whether a person watches. A service with people involved adds a recurring fee on top of the equipment.
• Moving and maintaining. Sites change shape. Ask what it costs to relocate a camera and who checks them.

Many sites already have cameras and a recorder (a DVR or NVR) in a cabin, put in by a previous contractor or by the site manager. They record. Nobody is looking at them at 2 a.m.

That is where our software fits. It runs on a Windows PC at the site and works with the cameras and recorder that are already there: Hikvision, Dahua, Axis, Hanwha, Uniview, TVT, and any camera or recorder that supports RTSP or ONVIF. It installs in 60 seconds, and your recorder keeps recording as usual.

It watches every camera for three things: smoke and fire, people after hours in zones you mark, and a camera that has been covered. The zones could be the gate, the material yard or the plant compound. It also warns you when a camera goes offline. When one of those happens, a second, larger model double-checks it, and then we send you the photo on WhatsApp, Telegram or the Foreman app while it is still happening.

A few honest limits. We do not sell cameras, so a site with none needs some first. The PC has to be able to get online to send you the photo, so on a site with no broadband it needs the kind of router described above. We do not provide guards or a monitoring centre, so the alert comes to you and the people you choose. And where we watch for smoke and fire, we do not replace certified fire alarms or life-safety systems.