Warehouse security: where losses happen and what to do about them

The Secured by Design commercial guide, written by the UK police crime prevention initiative, says the majority of crimes committed on commercial premises are property related. A warehouse is full of goods that are easy to move and easy to sell, so it is no surprise that warehouses show up in theft data. In one CargoNet analysis of the Thanksgiving weeks from 2013 to 2017, warehouses were the most common place for cargo theft, ahead of business parking lots and truck stops. CargoNet is a cargo theft prevention and recovery network.

Inside any one site, five places are worth walking first.

• Dock doors and delivery bays. Goods leave the building here, so this is where a mistake or a theft is easiest to hide inside normal activity. The police guide says buildings should allow secure deliveries and collections, and that depending on risk, CCTV monitoring may be needed.
• The yard and parked trailers. A loaded trailer in a yard is stock outside the walls. CargoNet's advisory for the July 4 holiday week in 2026 names unattended loaded conveyances as a continuing way cargo is stolen.
• Long blank walls and rear exits. Many warehouses have long runs of wall with no windows, often at the rear and sides, with a recessed emergency exit nobody can see from the road. The police guide says these can attract graffiti, burglary, arson and loitering.
• Stock cages and high value aisles. The goods that are easiest to resell are where a locked door and a camera matter most.
• The gate and the front door. The police guide calls the main site entrance the first line of defence against trespass, and says other entrances should be kept to a minimum and all of them controlled.

Most warehouses are empty or thinly staffed for long stretches, and thieves know it. CargoNet's July 2026 advisory says thieves understand when freight is parked and when facilities may be closed, and that reduced staffing, closures and staged freight create openings. The same logic applies to any weekend or shutdown.

So the question is not only what your cameras record. It is whether anything works, and whether anyone finds out, when nobody is there. Before a long weekend or a shutdown, it is worth a short check.

• Check that every camera shows a picture and that the recorder is recording.
• Check that the outside lights come on, by timer or by sensor.
• Where you can, keep loaded trailers inside the fence, in the best lit place that is easiest to see.
• Check who holds keys, codes and cards, and remove anyone who no longer needs them.
• Make sure the person who will be told about a problem knows they are on call.

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Not every loss comes from a stranger. Staff, agency workers, drivers and contractors already have a reason to be in the building, and they know where things are and when nobody is looking. We have not found a reliable figure for how much warehouse loss this causes, so we do not quote one. The habits that help are the same whatever the number is.

The police guide says access control may be needed on internal doors that lead to warehouse floors, and that codes and cards should be strictly managed so they can be added and deleted as necessary.

• Limit who can go where. Not everyone needs the stock cage, the dispatch office or the dock at night.
• Remove access the day someone leaves. A card or code that still works is the same as an unlocked door.
• Match what left with what was meant to leave. When stock is missing, compare dispatch records with what the dock camera saw.
• Be able to look back. Footage of the dock and the stock areas turns a loss from a guess into something you can check.
• Be open about it. Tell people where cameras are and why. Rules on filming staff differ by country, and our commercial CCTV guide covers the basics.

You rarely need a camera on every aisle. Start where goods and people have to pass, then add. The police guide says it is normal for a system to observe all vehicle and pedestrian entrances as a minimum.

Think about two kinds of view. Some cameras should identify: close, at the height of a face, at places everyone has to pass. Others should observe: wide views that show what is going on. A good plan has both and knows which is which.

• Every way in. Gates, personnel doors and emergency exits. A camera at face height sees who it is. A camera looking down from far above sees the tops of heads.
• Dock doors, inside and outside. One view from inside the door and one covering the apron or yard side shows what was loaded and which vehicle took it.
• The yard and trailer parking. Wide views that cover the fence line and the trailers.
• Stock cages and high value aisles. Close enough to see hands and faces, not only that someone was nearby.
• Blank walls and rear exits. A camera at the corner looking along the wall can watch both directions.
• The dispatch desk and the office. Keys, paperwork and handovers all pass through here.

Lighting and cameras are one plan, not two. The police guide says the aim of lighting commercial units after dark is to deter or detect an intruder. It says lighting design should be coordinated with video surveillance, so that there is enough light to support the cameras.

It also says a lighting scheme should be even, with good colour rendition, and should not cause glare. Uneven light leaves dark pockets and hard shadows, and a camera that looks into a bright light loses the picture.

• Light the places the guide names for when the building is unoccupied: entrance gates, routes to the main entrance and doors, car parks if vehicles are in them, and the sides of the building you can see.
• Do not rely on low bollard lights. The guide says they are for wayfinding, and they do not light a face at a useful height.
• Watch the dock doors. A camera that looks out of a bright open door at daylight can turn a person into a dark shape. Ask any installer to show you footage from a dock like yours at midday.

Every door is a decision about who comes in and where they go next. The police guide says the routes from the site entrance to reception, car parks and delivery points should be clearly defined and as visible as possible from occupied offices.

In practice, send drivers and visitors the same way each time, sign them in, and do not let them wander the building. Keep the number of ways in as low as the work allows, and make sure every one of them is either locked or watched.

These are two different jobs. Recording keeps what the camera saw so you can look back. The police guide says a system that only records can be a useful investigative tool, while a monitored system allows a real-time reaction to criminal activity. It also says most systems are designed for recording and post-event investigation, in which case nobody is watching live.

Most warehouses need both, and the useful split is simple. Be told about the few things that need someone to act within minutes. Record the rest for checking later. If every dock movement sends a message at 2 a.m., people stop reading messages.

• Be told: smoke or fire, a person in a closed area at night, a camera that has been covered or turned away.
• Record and look back: normal dock traffic, deliveries, shift changes and aisle movement. You want them on file, not on your phone in the middle of the night.

Brochures rarely say what happens at 3 a.m. in the rain. These questions get you answers that matter.

• What does the camera show at night, and at the dock door at midday? Ask for footage from a real warehouse.
• Who is told when something happens, how fast, and by what? Ask to see an example alert.
• How are false alarms from shadows, rain, pallets and your own staff handled?
• Where are recordings kept, who can see them, and for how long?
• How would you know if a camera were covered, knocked out of position or switched off?
• Does it work with the cameras and recorder I have, or do I need new ones?
• Which privacy rules and signs apply to my site?

Many warehouses already have cameras and a recorder (a DVR or NVR) in an office or a cabinet. They record. Nobody is looking 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 recorders that are already there: Hikvision and Prama, Dahua, CP Plus, TVT, Uniview, Axis, Hanwha, and any camera or recorder that supports RTSP or ONVIF. It installs in 60 seconds. Your recorder keeps recording as usual, and recordings stay on site.

Our own AI models, trained in-house, watch 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 dock, the yard or the stock cage. A second, larger model double-checks every event before you are alerted. Then the photo arrives on WhatsApp, Telegram or the Foreman app while it is still happening. Event clips are encrypted and deleted after 30 days, and we never train on your footage.

Some things are set up for your site with you, not switched on by default: helmet and vest checks, number-plate reading at the gate, forklift near-miss and idle machines.

A few honest limits. We do not sell cameras, so a warehouse with none needs some first. 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.