Virtual Gate Guard

You still have to pay someone to watch the monitors.

Wait, you are paying someone - your paying the company who hires who knows who to sit and watch the monitors for you. Perhaps the central monitoring is in the same town, same State, somewhere in the US or perhaps overseas.

By hiring your own employees (which can have it's own issues) you have full control and can easily replace them. Might not be that way for the system.

Oh, are you buying or renting the surveillance equipment? What about the phone line or internet connection? What happens if the camera is vandalized? What about power outages or internet interruptions (Battery backup only lasts so long). With physical guards, this isn't as big of an issue as it would be with central monitoring.

Lets see what your getting with the system. This would be:
A camera
A microphone
A speaker
A remote control of the gate (if needed)
An internet connection (so it can be connected to the central monitoring device)
Perhaps a phone line
Perhaps a UPS (battery backup)
Likely a Digital Video Recorder in central monitoring
Some unknown person/s in the central monitoring location to control all of this

Compare that with what you have and then ask which is better for the community.

Peter,

It should never come down to dollars.

Decisions should be based on what is the best value for the money being spent and in the best interest of the Association. If Boards made decisions based only on how much it cost, then you might end up hiring people who cut corners.

If cost is an issue, I can offer the following options:

Explain the benefits to the membership when you ask for an increase in assessments (heck we were able to have the membership pass a 20% increase in assessments when we explained the benefits of the reserve study and properly funding the reserves).

Instead of hiring guards as employees, solicit bids from security companies.

Instead of hiring guards as employees, hire independent contractors so you don't have to provide benefits or pay employer share of taxes.

We are a gated community of 801 homes. We converted to an automated gate system with cameras 4 years ago. The decision was based primarily on the poor performance by guards from several different companies we tried. The camera system was pretty expensive to install and it took a lot of time, effort and $'s to get it working properly but it now works quite well. The cameras feed a DVR so that we can review footage if there is an issue and they are also remoted to the monitors at our clubhouse front desk. There is a call box linked to a remote operator in case of problems with the transponders.

I am not up on the technical details of what types of equipment are being used but I can put you in touch with the chairman of our gate committee if you want. I do know that we have cameras that read the license plates of cars entering and leaving, even when it is dark.

"It should never come down to dollars.

Decisions should be based on what is the best value for the money being spent and in the best interest of the Association."

Huh?

"Value of the money being spent...".

That's not dollars?

I wish I was able to afford to live in a gated community. In our 6,400 property HOA, with about 80% part timers, and public streets, the thieves just watch to see who are part timers and help themselves. Suggest you keep live people at the gate. As mentioned by Steve, cameras are less of a deterrent. Save money somewhere else. Once the thieves find out you are less secure they will keep coming back.

Paul T

John,

Exactly right, we tried the "Neighborhood Watch" routine but it failed miserably. I watch my part timer neighbors houses but it is basically "easy pickings" for the bad guys. Our HOA and our Town Police Dept try to do a "media blitz" once in a while but it is like whistling into the wind, if you get my drift.

Paul T

What callbox operator service are available. I am looking for one.