One of the most important investments a business owner can make is in the physical security of their business. Video surveillance can be beneficial by keeping your building safe and with collecting intelligence.
Our firm has been involved in several high profile cases where opposing counsel has retained private investigators to vet our employees, contractors, and work product.
On 5/7/2015, approximately 20:49 hours, the subject pictured below was observed outside of our office in Corona, CA. The video shows the headlights from a vehicle pull up in front of our office and then the subject below is observed walking up to the front door area of our office. The actual video shows that once the subject observed our surveillance camera he turned around and walked out of view. Our office was obviously closed this late in the evening. We also maintain a large sign on our door that states “BY APPOINTMENT ONLY” and gives a phone number for client contact. You can easily read the sign and observe that our office is closed from the parking lot area without exiting your vehicle.
Based on prior observations and this person’s appearance, we believe he is a private investigator (who is known to us) out of the Los Angeles area. It is unclear why he felt it was necessary to visit our office after hours.

The actual video from this incident shows the subject’s demeanor when he realizes he is on camera. It is important to be able to produce still images and video of any incident you are investigating. Still images are good for purposes of identification while video shows the actual activity.
Some other prudent security investments would include theft and fire alarm systems with battery backup. These systems should include at least two data connections, e.g. telco and cellular. Many of these systems include personal monitoring solutions where in addition to 24 hour security monitoring services, the user is notified via a smartphone application of an activation. Having a combination of security cameras and an alarm system gives the user the added benefit of being able to remotely check on their business 24 hours a day.