How might negligent security lead to injuries?

Property owners have a duty to ensure that the public — whether patrons or those merely passing by — are safe on their property. In many cases, this means maintaining adequate security precautions to prevent assaults, break-ins or other concerns. However, if property owners are negligent and do not take proper security measures, the public could be at risk. How might negligent security lead to injuries?

Nonfunctional locks

Locking a door is often one of the first precautions a person takes to protect their home or secure their place of work after closing. When a landlord knowingly does not repair broken locks or fails to install appropriate locks, they could be held responsible for break-ins or attacks that result from the doors that residents could not lock.

Failure to take security measures

Businesses can take a wide variety of different security measures. They may install video cameras, ensure that their property is well-lit, hire security guards or train their employees in security procedures. Some businesses may also need to take additional precautions limiting visitors’ access to a property after hours. However, the failure to take these precautions when there is a risk of crime could lead to assaults, robberies, sexual assaults or other crimes in the future.

Poorly maintained security measures

Even if landlords or property owners install security measures, the negligent failure to maintain those measures could also put the public in danger. A parking lot with an appropriate number of lights, for example, may not be safe if the owner allows those lights to burn out and leaves part of the lot in shadow.

While negligent security can factor into many injury cases, a faulty lock or lack of security guard may not be enough to take legal action against a property owner. In order to hold property owners responsible for their negligent security measures, they must have had evidence that the risk of the crime occurring on their property was high. This could involve previous complaints about negligent security, previous crimes or other evidence that their security measures were insufficient.