Our operators sit in Richmond, a short drive from most of the sites they watch. Vancouver is where Secure Defence started in 2015 and where we still do most of our work: security camera monitoring in Vancouver, BC, and live video surveillance across the Lower Mainland. Builders and property managers make up most of our client list here. Think construction sites, strata and rental apartment buildings, shopping centres and strip malls, offices, industrial properties, warehouses and distribution centres.
From detection to operator action
This is remote security monitoring for the Lower Mainland, run from inside the Lower Mainland. Every camera we install is watched around the clock at our Richmond command centre. Monitoring is never outsourced. The trained, licensed people on our video walls know the municipalities here and the police services they'll be calling.
Here's what a typical night looks like. Software scans each camera for people and vehicles and ignores rain, wind, animals and shadows. When something real shows up, an operator pulls up the live view. Their first move is a voice warning through the speaker on site: "This is private property. Do not enter. Leave now." Someone who keeps going hears the siren and sees the strobes, and that sends most intruders running. If a crime is confirmed, a supervisor phones VPD, the RCMP or the local municipal police with a verified report and holds the line until officers get there. You hear about it in real time, often in a WhatsApp group set up for your site.
Because a person looks at every alert before anything happens, you get zero false alarms. Compare that with recording-only cameras, which only show the theft after the fact, or a guard, who can only stand in one spot. Clients who switch see 98%+ less crime, with a verified response in about one minute.
Most sites get pole-mounted cameras, on wooden or metal poles or on the building, wired to site power with a 24-hour backup power system. Expect them to be live within 5 to 7 days, sooner if your schedule is tight. Sites with no hydro or internet are covered too: a solar camera tower rental carries its own power and high-speed 5G internet and is set up within 24 hours.
Property crime is still the biggest crime category in Vancouver. The Vancouver Police Department's 2025 year-end figures show:
30,625 property crimes in the City of Vancouver in 2025 (30,863 in 2024), a 3.3% drop in the rate per 1,000 residents.
1,307 business break-and-enters in 2025, almost unchanged from 1,316 in 2024 (a 3.2% drop per 1,000 residents).
4,866 mischief offences (vandalism and similar damage), a 5.9% drop per 1,000 residents.
Source: Vancouver Police Department, Crime Incident and Crime Rate Statistics 2021 to 2025 (data extracted January 15, 2026). Neighbourhood-level figures are in the VPD 2025 neighbourhood statistics.
For the region as a whole, Statistics Canada put the Vancouver census metropolitan area's Crime Severity Index at 81.2 in 2024, down 8% from 2023 (Statistics Canada, 2024).
So one city alone logs well over a thousand business break-ins a year, at stores, offices, warehouses and building sites. Surrey, Burnaby, Richmond and the rest of the Lower Mainland add their own.
SiteRadar, our project-tracking platform, reads public permit, rezoning and development records across the Lower Mainland. On October 19, 2026, it counted 1,631 projects in Metro Vancouver and nearby municipalities, anywhere from rezoning to active construction:
| Municipality | Projects tracked |
|---|---|
| Vancouver | 448 |
| Surrey | 305 |
| North Vancouver (City and District) | 250 |
| West Vancouver | 114 |
| Coquitlam | 96 |
| Maple Ridge | 84 |
| Richmond | 75 |
| Burnaby | 53 |
| Port Coquitlam | 44 |
| Delta | 42 |
Of those, 136 are in active construction. Multi-family leads (566), followed by townhouse (174), mixed-use (145) and commercial (125).
Data: Secure Defence SiteRadar, drawn from public municipal permit and development records on October 19, 2026. The counts reflect what SiteRadar tracks, not every project in the region.
Every one of these will sit for months as an open lot full of material and machines, and plenty will turn into strata or rental buildings that need watching once tenants arrive. Read more about Vancouver construction site security and construction video surveillance.
Anything from a single-lot infill to a high-rise. We add pole-mounted cameras, crane climbing detection, gate access and time-lapse as each job needs. Details are on Vancouver construction site security and construction site security cameras.
Condo towers, residential stratas and rental apartment buildings call us about parkade break-ins, theft from storage lockers and bike rooms, stolen packages, illegal dumping, vandalism and people bedding down in stairwells. Start with commercial strata security, strata live video monitoring, parkade security, our guide to Surrey strata parkade crime or strata and property management.
After closing, shopping centres, strip malls and standalone stores face storefront break-ins, smash-and-grabs, parking lot crime, loading dock intrusions, loitering and encampments. Our Vancouver shopping centre and retail security page and retail security overview show how Lower Mainland retail is covered.
Inventory, trailers, fuel and vehicles stay overnight at warehouses, distribution centres, business parks, truck yards and dealerships. Metro Vancouver detail lives on our industrial and truck yard security, dealership security in Vancouver, warehousing and commercial and industrial. Related reading: Burnaby commercial property theft and Coquitlam vandalism and graffiti.
Vancouver property managers use us well beyond condos: malls, strip malls, warehouses and rental apartment buildings are all watched from Richmond. Strata security Vancouver councils can rely on means operators who can tell a resident from an intruder, who act on parkade break-ins, package theft and illegal dumping, and who log each incident with video and timestamps for council, insurers and police. For property management security Vancouver owners can scale, each site is billed as one monthly fee. More on strata property management security in Vancouver and residential strata security.
City of Vancouver. Downtown, Yaletown, Coal Harbour, West End, Mount Pleasant, the Cambie corridor, False Creek Flats, Strathcona, Kitsilano, Marpole, Oakridge, Renfrew-Collingwood.
Metro Vancouver. Burnaby (Metrotown, Brentwood), Surrey (City Centre and beyond), Richmond, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, New Westminster, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Delta, Langley, Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows, White Rock.
Further afield, there are pages for the Fraser Valley and Vancouver Island, plus a BC overview.
Secure Defence now serves 500+ customers and live monitors 1,000+ sites across Western Canada. In both 2025 and 2026, no security company ranked higher on The Globe and Mail's Top Growing Companies list or BIV's Fastest-Growing Companies in B.C., which makes us the Fastest Growing Security Company in Canada.
There are no cameras or towers to buy. Equipment, delivery, installation, maintenance, high-speed 5G internet and live monitoring all sit inside a single monthly fee. Pick round-the-clock monitoring, or the Standard plan, which runs 4 pm to 7 am on weekdays and all day on weekends and holidays. Your exact quote comes from a free site assessment. Construction cost ranges are on the Vancouver construction site security page.
Common questions from property owners and businesses throughout Greater Vancouver about security services, costs, coverage areas, and solutions.
Send us a few details about your building or job site, and we'll come back with a recommended setup and a monthly quote.