Start with lighting, because it is the cheapest thing that works
If you only do one section of this checklist, do this one. Lighting is the lowest-cost, highest-return security investment available to a residential property, and it is almost always the thing that has quietly degraded. Bulbs burn out one at a time, nobody reports it, and eighteen months later half the parking lot is dark and everyone has stopped noticing.
Lighting also does something guards and cameras cannot: it works on the decision a person makes before anything happens. Most opportunistic crime on residential property is exactly that, opportunistic, and a well-lit approach removes the opportunity without anybody having to intervene.
Lighting
- Walk the full property between 9 p.m. and midnight and note every fixture that is out, flickering or dim
- Check the parking areas for dark pockets between light poles, not just whether the poles are lit
- Check lighting at every building entrance, including the ones residents use least
- Check the dumpster enclosure, the mail area and any package room approach
- Check every stairwell on every floor, including the top and bottom landings
- Confirm photocells and timers are working and not shutting off before the small hours
- Look for fixtures that are working but blocked by tree growth
- Check that lighting reaches the path between parking and the door, not just the two endpoints
Doors, and the propped door problem
Controlled access only works if the doors close. Test every exterior door by opening it fully and letting go: it should swing shut and latch without help. A door that needs a pull is a door that is open whenever somebody is carrying groceries.
When you find a door that is routinely propped, resist the urge to just put up a sign. Find out why. Deliveries, smoking, laundry trips between buildings and dog walks are the usual reasons, and every one of them is a design problem with a fix. Signs do not beat inconvenience. A working keypad, a package room or a second reader does.
Entry doors and access control
- Open each exterior door fully, release it, and confirm it closes and latches on its own
- Check door closer speed and force, and whether residents are fighting the door to get in
- Look for wedges, rocks, tape over latches and worn spots that show habitual propping
- Identify why any propped door gets propped, and fix the cause rather than posting a sign
- Inspect strike plates, frames and hinges for damage or evidence of previous forced entry
- Confirm the intercom or call box works and the directory is current
- Reconcile issued keys and fobs against your current resident list
- Watch the main entry at a busy hour and see how easily someone could follow a resident in
- Check that vacant units are locked and their keys accounted for
Parking, garages and the vehicle problem
For a lot of Twin Cities properties, the parking area generates more incidents than the building does. It is where vehicle break-ins happen, where catalytic converter theft happens, and where residents feel least safe walking at night. It is also, on most properties, the least covered area by both lighting and cameras, because those were installed pointing at the front door.
Parking and garages
- Time how long the garage door stays open after a vehicle passes through, and whether a second car can follow
- Check every pedestrian door between garage and building for propping and proper latching
- Check lighting and camera coverage at ramp entrances and in stairwell approaches
- Walk the lot and identify where a vehicle could be worked on unseen with a quick exit route
- Confirm visitor parking is defined, marked and actually enforced
- Note abandoned or long-term stationary vehicles and deal with them
- Check that residents can see their vehicle from a lit path, or at least walk a lit route to it
Cameras nobody is watching
Almost every property we walk has cameras. A surprising number have cameras that are recording nothing, retaining footage for far less time than the manager believes, pointing at the one area where incidents do not happen, or producing night images too poor to identify anyone. Cameras are a documentation tool, not a deterrent, and they only pay off at the moment somebody needs footage under time pressure.
Test the timestamp. An incorrect date and time on recorded footage is the single most common reason a recording turns out to be useless to police or an insurer.
Cameras
- Confirm the system is actually recording, not just displaying live
- Find out the real retention window in days, then verify it by pulling footage from the oldest date
- Review night footage rather than daytime footage, since that is when it will be needed
- Confirm cameras cover where incidents actually happen, especially parking and rear entries
- Check that date and time stamps are accurate
- Confirm at least two people know how to export footage, and can do it quickly
- Check camera signage is posted where required and still legible
Sightlines, which is where landscaping turns into a security issue
Crime prevention through environmental design comes down to a simple idea: people behave differently when they can be seen. Overgrown planting defeats that, and it happens gradually enough that nobody registers it. Walk the property in late summer when growth peaks, not in April.
The commonly used guideline is to keep shrubs near walkways, windows and entries down to roughly two to three feet, and to raise tree canopies so the lowest branches start around six to eight feet. That leaves the band at eye level clear, so a person standing behind planting is visible from a distance.
Landscaping and sightlines
- Trim shrubs near walkways, windows and entries to roughly two to three feet
- Raise tree canopies so the lowest branches start around six to eight feet
- Check building corners, entry alcoves and stairwell approaches for concealment spots
- Confirm the sightline from parking areas to building entries is unobstructed
- Look for worn footpaths through planting, which show where people actually walk
- Check that the dumpster enclosure does not create a blind corner or a climbing aid toward a fence or window
- Repeat this in August, when growth is at maximum
Common areas, keys and turnover
Amenity spaces and key control are where a property quietly loses track of who has access. Every unreturned fob is a permanent hole in your access control, and they accumulate one move-out at a time.
Common areas, keys and fobs
- Check laundry room lighting, door lock, hours and visibility from outside
- Check fitness and community rooms for working access control and posted hours
- Check stairwell doors lock behind residents and landings are lit and visible
- Confirm roof access is locked and, where appropriate, alarmed
- Check storage areas and lockers for door integrity and individual locks
- Confirm keys and fobs are recovered at move-out and deactivated the same day
- Identify who holds a master key, and confirm its use is logged
- Set and follow a rekeying policy between tenancies
- Confirm vendor and contractor access is issued deliberately and recovered afterward
Write down what happens, because patterns are invisible otherwise
Individual incidents feel random. Written down with dates and times, they usually are not. Three car break-ins in a quarter is background noise until you notice all three were on Thursday or Friday between 1 and 3 a.m. in the same corner of the lot. That pattern tells you exactly where to put a light, a camera or a patrol, and it turns a general sense that things have been bad lately into something you can act on and budget for.
It also matters later. Documentation is what supports an insurance claim, a lease enforcement action or a police follow-up, and it is what justifies a security line item at renewal.
Documentation
- Keep a simple incident log with date, time, location on the property and what happened
- Record resident complaints even when nothing further comes of them
- Review the log quarterly for patterns by hour, day and location
- Photograph damage before it is repaired
- Keep records long enough to be useful, which in practice means at least a year
Minnesota compliance items worth checking while you are at it
Several requirements that touch security are set locally rather than statewide, so the specifics depend on your city. These are the ones that come up most often in the metro.
Minnesota and metro compliance
- St Paul: confirm the property holds a current Fire Certificate of Occupancy, which the city requires for all buildings other than owner-occupied single family and duplex structures
- Minneapolis: confirm the rental dwelling license is current, and understand the conduct on licensed premises ordinance, which makes the license holder responsible for taking action after criminal or nuisance conduct by tenants or their guests
- Check whether your city requires Crime Free Multi-Housing training as a condition of rental licensing or renewal, as a number of metro cities do, including Wayzata, Coon Rapids and Brooklyn Center
- Confirm smoke and carbon monoxide alarms are current, since these are checked at inspection and are the most common violation
- Confirm exits, exit lighting and stairwells meet fire code, since a blocked or unlit exit is both a code issue and a security one
When the checklist is not enough
Everything above is work you can do yourself, and on many properties it is genuinely all that is needed. Fix the gate, replace the lights, sort out key control, and the incident count drops without anyone being hired.
Officers make sense when the problem is a person rather than a condition. A specific individual who keeps coming back. Loitering in the parking lot at predictable hours. Residents who have stopped using the laundry room after dark. A pattern that continues after the physical fixes are made. Those need presence, and presence at the hours the pattern actually happens, which is usually not the hours anybody wants to work.
If you have worked through this list and something is still happening, that is the conversation worth having. Our on-site assessment is free, we walk the property with you, and you get the written findings whether or not you hire us.
This is general guidance, not legal advice. Rental licensing, inspection and crime-free program requirements are set locally and vary by city, and codes change. Confirm current requirements with your city's inspections or fire department, and consult an attorney on questions of landlord liability or lease enforcement.