When owning and operating a cannabis dispensary, one of your top priorities is preventing inventory shrinkage. And you need to make sure that only authorized customers can access your product.
What’s the best way to secure your dispensary and prevent inventory shrinkage?
Keep reading as we discuss the necessary security considerations for employees and owners of cannabis dispensaries in Denver. This guide will discuss the top retail security technology and tools for your business.
Rule-Based Access Control
When establishing your security system, the key, most important security tool to incorporate into your strategy is access control. Access control prevents anyone from entering your property and accessing your product without express permission.
Access control is a preferable alternative to simple key-and-lock security, as it prevents the occurrence of lockpicking. All employees can enter using a keycard, fob, or even with access credentials on their mobile devices, should you opt for cloud-based access control.
A zero-trust policy is one of the most important things to implement in your access control application. Just because interviewees and employees can enter your store and your behind-the-counter areas does not mean they should be able to access your stock and cashboxes.
To ensure strict rule-based access control, you can protect your building with external door locks while using smart internal doors to protect sensitive areas. Then, you can use your access system control center to ensure each employee, visitor, contractor, and interviewee only gains permission to access the locations of your store they need to for daily operations.
Additionally, if an unauthorized user were to swipe an employee’s keycard, this would mean that they wouldn’t be able to access your cashboxes and inventory stores, reducing the impact of a break-in.
With rule-based access control, you can reduce the potential for employee theft, ensuring that your business is significantly less vulnerable to inventory shrinkage.
Internal And External Security Doors
Applying internal and external security doors to your cannabis dispensary will minimize the impact of a break-in. Should an intruder manage to force entry to the dispensary during opening or closing hours, they won’t be able to enter sensitive areas and access your inventory or cashboxes. This is an essential consideration to prevent financial losses due to theft.
Full Building Alarm System
An entire building alarm system is necessary for threat detection. You can opt for several different types of alarm systems to detect various threats:
- Gunshot Detection – the possibility of an armed intruder- could risk your staff’s job satisfaction and safety. Investing in a gunshot detection alarm system ensures your building is well-equipped to respond quickly to this emergency.
- Motion Sensors – during closing hours, you need to know if an intruder is in your store. Motion sensors will trigger an alert when motion is detected in your store after closing.
- Glassbreak Detection – if someone breaks the glass windows or doors in your store to gain entry, you will be able to receive an alert and call the authorities.
Suppose you invest in a cloud-based alarm system. In that case, you can receive alerts based on security events from anywhere, allowing you to take action quickly and resolve the incident before it progresses and causes damage to your business.
Complete Surveillance System
A complete surveillance system will help you to investigate any potential security risks on your property. A surveillance system provides evidence of a security breach, aiding in a police investigation or insurance claim. Additionally, the surveillance system will help to deter criminals from attempting to enter the property.
You can invest in a cloud-based surveillance system if you want more visibility for your security strategy. You can view the security camera feed remotely using a mobile application or cloud-based control center. Additionally, you’ll be able to integrate security software with your cameras, like analytics for threat detection or facial recognition, to prevent unauthorized entry using stolen credentials.
Network Protection
If you opt for cloud-based security tools, you must ensure your network is secure, preventing unauthorized users from accessing your security data and remote operation features. WPA2 encryption will ensure your security data is undecipherable to any cybercriminal that accesses your network.
Additionally, applying a firewall will monitor all traffic entering your network to block access for untrustworthy sources. Suppose you want your internet activity to remain anonymous and keep your IP address hidden. In that case, you can also invest in a VPN to reroute your network activity through an external server to hide your IP address.
Summary
A dispensary must invest in an airtight security system to prevent inventory shrinkage, break-ins, and financial losses and damages. If you want to upgrade your security system, why not consider the futureproof and efficient technologies listed in this article? You can create an agile response strategy containing security incidents, limiting your exposure in case of a break-in.
