How do I stop theft on a construction site?

Know what is taken and when

Copper and wire during electrical rough-in, appliances and fixtures after they are set, tools from gang boxes, fuel from equipment, lumber from stacks near the fence, and equipment small enough to load on a trailer. The timing is consistent across Houston sites: after the last truck leaves, before the first one arrives, and across the weekend. A site that knows those two facts plans its defenses for the hours that matter instead of spreading them evenly across a week.

Physical controls first

A fence that is whole, with gates chained and checked. Lighting on the laydown yard, the fence line and the building entrances, on timers or photocells so it works when nobody is there. Cages and conex boxes for tools and copper, locked and inventoried. Materials staged away from the fence and delivered as close to installation as the schedule allows. Equipment keys removed and fuel tanks locked. None of it stops a determined crew with bolt cutters, and all of it removes the easy losses that make up most of the total.

Counts, so a loss is noticed

A reel count at the laydown yard each evening, a serial list for appliances and condensers, a tool crib log. Theft discovered on Monday is a police report; theft discovered on Saturday night is a phone call to an officer on site and sometimes a recovered trailer.

An officer for the hours that matter

An unarmed officer on an evening, overnight and weekend post checks the fence and the gates on varied rounds, walks the laydown yard and the rough-in floors, logs deliveries and subs when the gate is staffed, reports a cut fence the moment it is found and writes a daily report the superintendent reads at the morning huddle. Price Protection staffs these posts from the day materials arrive, and the construction site security checklist lists what to have ready. Cameras and remote monitoring have their place alongside an officer; the guards vs remote video monitoring article compares them honestly.