If you happen to be up to date on recent crime statistics, you might see some information that conflicts with what you’re feeling. Most reports indicate that general crime rates are stabilizing or decreasing, especially crime rates across California. However, for high-net-worth-individuals across wealthier areas such as Atherton, Pacific Heights, or Beverly Hills, these population-wide statistics are dangerously misleading.
The threat landscape on the ground has shifted. We have moved away from the era of “opportunistic” thieves. Today’s greatest threats are strategic, calculated, and professional.
For the wealthy homeowner, especially in California, threats aren’t just random bad luck anymore. They are researched and planned hits focused specifically on a high-value target. The criminal happening upon an open window isn’t as common of a threat anymore. Now, organized groups are scouting priority locations, tracking the movements of their target, and selecting victims based on what they wear, drive, and where they live.
One of the most difficult to manage crime trends in California is follow-home robberies. This tactic makes traditional security planning and threat prevention nearly obsolete.
Spotters scout potential marks in high-end retail districts, luxury dining venues, or other areas with potential for concentrated wealth. They identify their targets based on harder to hide characteristics, such as any high-value clothing or jewelry. Once they find their target, the actual team of burglars will tail them home.
The reason this tactic is so effective is simply due to the speed at which it occurs. The team can pounce in seconds, using wi-fi jammers or cutting power lines to defeat common home security systems, and getting in and out with valuables in less than five minutes. No police department, regardless of funding or amount of officers, can respond to a 911 call fast enough to prevent a crime that is over in five minutes with little to no trace of the criminals to follow.
While follow-home robberies are more spur of the moment crimes that target individuals from basic scouting information, flash burglaries target large estates. These groups scout properties for as long as needed to learn the site’s security patterns, resident schedules, and any form of on-site security that can be seen without breaking in. Once they’ve figured out what is needed to get through, whether it be signal jammers, cutting power to the area, or even just a blind spot in the camera system, they pounce.
These organized teams utilize the weaknesses of tech-based security systems to enrich themselves at the expense of the homeowner, typically stripping the house of all valuables in minutes and disappearing before anyone in the wiser. They know that they’ve got a window of time to get in and out before your traditional security system even calls the police, let alone the police’s arrival. Jewelry, safes, cash, clothes, whatever you can imagine are gone and the burglars are in the wind before you even hear that your home was broken into.
The unfortunate truth is that the security systems most high-net-worth families rely on, such as cameras, motion sensors, and alarm systems suffer from a reactive gap. They are excellent at documenting or detecting a crime in progress, which is great for an insurance report, but if the deterrent presence of a camera doesn’t halt a potential criminal, there is little else that a system can do to stop a crime in its tracks. They tell you after the glass is broken. They alert you after the intruder is already in the hallway. In an era that is moving towards targeted, high-speed crime, any delayed reaction is already a failure.
To combat a threat that is planning to specifically take down your security system, moves fast, and operates as an elite team, you cannot rely on passive technology alone. You need a deterrent capable of thinking, adapting, and acting in real-time. You need a solution that narrows that wide gap between detection and response. You have to move beyond just surveillance and monitoring and into on-site threat prevention.
That’s where we come in. JPT Security specializes in preventing these rapid burglaries and other on-site emergencies. Our teams are proud to boast a response time in the seconds, not minutes or hours. With us on your side, even the fastest criminals won’t be able to avoid detection and neutralization. Interested in learning more. Contact us for a free security consultation, and learn how we can enhance your peace of mind with our elite residential and executive protection teams.
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