Sonitrol highlights their security products to secure marijuana dispensary and the visitors from attacks

Canada is one week away from recreational marijuana dispensaries being open for business. Until now, medical marijuana dispensaries have been legal and have been the only legal way to purchase marijuana. Starting on October 17th, 2018, marijuana will be obtainable by the general public of age. This will bring a large influx of recreational marijuana dispensaries throughout Ontario and the rest of Canada.

With this influx of dispensaries come new security measures that need to be taken into account. Dispensary owners not only have to worry about the security of their inventory, but also the security of their customers.

Major security solutions

This includes both interior and exterior security measures. The major security solutions marijuana dispensaries need to have implemented are cameras, access control, audio sensors, and glass break detection. Monitoring the business via video cameras, especially when one has an expensive inventory like marijuana, is a top priority.

Shrinkage is also a concern for all businesses, but especially for retail businesses

Having eyes on the inventory, employees, and customers is extremely important. One also wants to make sure they have eyes outside of the facility as people leave the dispensary. Shrinkage is also a concern for all businesses, but especially for retail businesses like marijuana dispensaries. Cameras can be a huge deterrent for employee and customer theft.

Allowing authorised personnel

Protecting the inventory begins by only allowing authorised personnel in certain areas of the facility. Access control, also known as key card access, allows one to control who goes where, and when. This gives owners and managers the ability to restrict or grant access the way they see fit. In a marijuana dispensary, one might want to restrict access to inventory areas, offices, and record rooms. Access control adds another layer of security and peace of mind for dispensary owners.

Audio sensors are what have made Sonitrol the company it is today. These sensors fill in the areas that aren’t covered by a camera. Even though one might not have a video of what is going on, audio sensors, monitored by their trained team of professionals, give the user and the police the ability to track movement around the facility.

Glass break sensors

Sonitrol is listening to voices, walking, glass breaking, or doors opening, just to name a few

In the event of a break-in at the marijuana dispensary, Sonitrol is listening to voices, walking, glass breaking, or doors opening, just to name a few. These inputs are then analysed and are able to triangulate the location of the intruders. With this information, Sonitrol can direct the police right to the location of the intruder(s) to arrest them and recover all, would be stolen, property.

In addition to hearing audio, Sonitrol can also detect glass breaks. A large percentage of thieves choose to enter through broken windows, with the mind set that breaking a window can’t be detected. However, thanks to Sonitrol’s glass break sensors, every single glass break that happens within the range of that sensor will be caught by their monitoring professionals. Without video to show the break-in, Sonitrol’s glass break sensors, combined with the audio sensors, can verify the break-in and dispatch police.

Faster police response

Sonitrol has a lot to offer marijuana dispensaries. However, one of the most valuable things that they offer is that they are able to verify alarms which results in a faster police response and higher apprehension rate.

With this technology, they are able to verify that someone has broken into the facility, whether it is with video and/or audio. That verification tells the police that someone is in the facility right now and they need to get there as quickly as possible. Verified alarms are, on average, responded to within 8 minutes compared to the 45 minutes of an unverified alarm. All of Sonitrol’s solutions, working together, will protect the marijuana dispensary from internal and external theft and more importantly, protect the employees and customers.