Viewing security as if it were still 1995 and 2002.

Security risk assessment Coffee Bay: I had the privilege of attending a crucial meeting with a group of ten individuals, including business and corporate owners. We found ourselves revisiting a well-trodden path of conversation: how individuals continue to perceive security in much the same manner as they did many years ago.

We recently conducted an independent security risk assessment for a retail property in Worcester, introducing a new approach to security that identifies risks standard assessments often overlook. This method enables practical measures to be recommended, improving the overall safety and security of the property.

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For years, I’ve been telling everyone that most people do not really understand security. People are stuck in the past, thinking about security like it is still 1995 or 2002, oblivious to how much it has changed and how versatile it’s become.

Security today isn’t just about locking things down; it is about managing everything that goes along with it. There’s so much more involved: communication, structure, and all the little pieces that fit together—but most people don’t see it.

To better explain this, I brought along two puzzle maps.

The first map shows how most people still view security as a singular entity, a flat surface with everything laid out separately.

Whether it’s a house, a business, an estate, or a school, they see security as a collection of isolated pieces.

For instance, in this flat view, (A) perimeter security might just be a fence, maybe with some cameras (B) attached to the fence or on the inside.

But what people miss are all the other connections—communication systems, standard operating procedures (SOPs), control rooms, training, and access control.

They think of each entity (cameras, fences, management, and the like) as standing on its own. This is why you hear people say they just want an assessment for their fence security or their camera security, without realizing how everything ties together and all these small components come together to form proper security.

The second map is different.

It’s a ball of interconnected puzzle pieces, showing how security really works—as an interconnected system where everything influences everything else.

Imagine this ball, where different colors represent different aspects—red for communication, blue for fence security, green for SOPs, purple for management, light blue for access control, and yellow for training.

Everything’s connected. We often talk about a “golden thread” that runs through all aspects of security, and if you pull that thread out, the whole thing falls apart.

This is why we’re still dealing with so much crime in South Africa and why we’ve been losing the fight against it for decades.

It also explains why getting evidence to stick in court can be so challenging. The problem is that we’ve been thinking about security the wrong way for too long—as separate pieces instead of an interlocking system.

You can’t just look at one part of security and ignore the rest.

The glue that holds everything together is a mix of SOPs and management. Yet, some people still think they can assess security while leaving out management or SOPs, but that’s a huge mistake. Recently, a case in the South African constitutional court made it clear that SOPs and instructions are critical. They aren’t just isolated parts—they’re central to the management and communication system that holds everything together.

In a well-functioning security system,

Communication has to flow through everything. Every camera, every device, and every element needs to connect and interact, all meeting at a central point, whether it’s a control room or a management hub. None of these things can stand alone—they’re all tightly linked. But this is where we often go wrong—we’re still thinking about security as a series of disconnected parts, and that’s why we keep missing the mark.

Article written by Andre Mundell, security risk assessor and consultant at Alwinco. # Security risk assessment Coffee Bay

Alwinco does security risk assessments all over South Africa. We have a very strong footprint in Gauteng (Pretoria, Johannesburg, Midrand, Sandton, and Centurion), Bloemfontein, Durban and Cape Town.

Read more on security plans: https://alwinco.co.za/service/security-plans/