In cities where getting to school means walking or taking public transportation for many kids, safety is of utmost importance. These same cities, however, are always going through changes, like commercial and residential properties going vacant. With school zones and vacant properties often overlapping in terms of the space they occupy, it’s essential to implement vacant property security to protect the children who pass by vacant properties on their way to school.
How Can Vacant Buildings Pose a Danger?
Vacant buildings provide a place for criminals to hide. In one Detroit neighborhood, for example, students had to traverse block after block of vacant homes—at least 88 vacant properties and dozens of vacant lots. Without any vacant property security, it can be impossible to know who or what is in the empty buildings, and the vacancies make it easy for unsavory characters to lurk around the neighborhood.
For some students, there is no alternate method of getting to school—school buses may not come to where they live, and it may be the only route that takes them from home to school. While cities are often slow to do anything about these types of problems, property owners aren’t powerless.
Keeping Children Safe
It’s not all that difficult to keep school passageways safe, but it does take some planning. Cities need to ramp up police and security presence in areas of the city where robberies and violence are more common, but that’s not all that can be done.
Property owners, whether they are banks or private owners, should secure vacant buildings with vacant property security like steel window covers and door guards. They are more effective than plywood and are longer lasting, not to mention cleaner-looking. In some cities, abandoned and vacant homes and buildings are eventually demolished, such as in the case of the aforementioned Detroit neighborhood—3,200 buildings are marked for demolition, with 1,010 already knocked down in 2013.
But that’s not the ideal solution. With steel window covers and door guards in place, you can prevent entry to a building and keep it secure without resorting to tearing it down.
