Video Surveillance | Protection Plus Cannabis Dispensary Security

Why Video Surveillance is Critical for Cannabis Dispensary Security

A video sur­veil­lance sys­tem is an essen­tial part of cannabis dis­pen­sary secu­ri­ty. Secu­ri­ty cam­eras help to deter crime, while also cap­tur­ing every­thing that hap­pens at your cannabis store. So, if there’s theft of inven­to­ry, bur­glary, a late-night break-in, van­dal­ism or even employ­ee mis­con­duct, it won’t go over­looked.

But on top of pro­vid­ing this crit­i­cal lay­er of pro­tec­tion, video sur­veil­lance is also required by law at cannabis dis­pen­saries and mar­i­jua­na stores in Ontario and else­where.

Regulations for video surveillance at cannabis retail stores

The Alco­hol and Gam­ing Com­mis­sion of Ontario man­dates that “a secure, high-res­o­lu­tion sur­veil­lance sys­tem must be in place at all times” at cannabis / mar­i­jua­na dis­pen­saries.

Specif­i­cal­ly, the law states that cam­eras be installed to cap­ture the entire store, inside and out, 24 hours a day, includ­ing:

• Entrances and exits, includ­ing where IDs are checked
• Pick up area(s) for cannabis pur­chased online or by tele­phone
• Point of sale area(s)
• Receiv­ing area(s)
• Sales floor area(s)
• Cannabis stor­age area(s)

Busi­ness­es are also required to retain 30 days of video record­ings. So, whether your video is stored on an NVR, a DVR or in the cloud, make sure that record­ings are secure for at least 30 days.

These are not arbi­trary require­ments. They are intend­ed to pro­tect you and your cannabis store from theft any­where on the premis­es.

Let’s look at how all of those require­ments apply.

24/7 security cameras at entrances & exits

As a cannabis store own­er or man­ag­er, you should know who’s enter­ing your prop­er­ty at all times. This is impor­tant for ensur­ing that cus­tomers are of legal age, as well as cap­tur­ing any crimes that occur dur­ing, or after, busi­ness hours.

High-res­o­lu­tion secu­ri­ty cam­eras can help you:

• Mon­i­tor the entrances to ensure no chil­dren or minors are enter­ing the store
• Clear­ly cap­ture all patrons’ faces in case theft occurs inside
• Cap­ture inci­dents that occur after busi­ness hours, such as break-ins

Visual Alarm Verification

You may even con­sid­er a secu­ri­ty sys­tem with Visu­al Alarm Ver­i­fi­ca­tion. In this instance, any break-in that trig­gers the alarm will result in a mon­i­tor­ing sta­tion receiv­ing a pre-break-in and a cur­rent series of video clips. This allows the mon­i­tor­ing sta­tion oper­a­tor to view what had occurred just pri­or to the break-in and while the occur­rence is tak­ing place. Armed with that knowl­edge, the appro­pri­ate steps, includ­ing pri­or­i­ty Police dis­patch can be arrived at. Not only will the Police respond with urgency, but also record­ed evi­dence will be read­i­ly avail­able for the busi­ness own­er, legal author­i­ties and insur­ance com­pa­nies.

Surveillance for point of sale & pickup areas

By law, cus­tomers are not per­mit­ted to touch any cannabis until they have pur­chased it. So, the point-of-sale (POS) is a prime loca­tion for theft, as this is often the first time that the prod­uct is with­in reach of the patron.

POS secu­ri­ty cam­eras for cannabis dis­pen­saries can help to deter some­one from mak­ing a bad deci­sion. But if they do com­mit the crime, you have got it on cam­era to help police appre­hend and pros­e­cute the sus­pect.

CCTV for receiv­ing areas and stor­age

Receiv­ing and stor­age areas are a more attrac­tive spot for savvy crim­i­nals, because if they’re suc­cess­ful, they can get away with much larg­er quan­ti­ties of prod­uct.

It is crit­i­cal that these areas are mon­i­tored with video sur­veil­lance around the clock. High-res­o­lu­tion secu­ri­ty cam­era can give you a clear view of all receiv­ing oper­a­tions, faces, deliv­ery vehi­cles and trans­ac­tions.

If you dis­cov­er miss­ing inven­to­ry, you’ll be able to review the footage to see exact­ly where it hap­pened.

Sales floor sur­veil­lance

Theft and mis­con­duct can hap­pen any­where on your sales floor, and unfor­tu­nate­ly that includes your employ­ees too.

These inci­dents may not always hap­pen right in front of your eyes, but when you have video sur­veil­lance, you’ll catch every­thing. The place­ment of cam­eras alone can pre­vent theft and increase employ­ee pro­duc­tiv­i­ty. And if an inci­dent occurs, you can review it from every angle.

Get more infor­ma­tion

Con­tact Pro­tec­tion Plus for more infor­ma­tion on video sur­veil­lance solu­tions that can pro­tect your cannabis dis­pen­sary.