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  • 1.  Audio Recording

    Posted 09-26-2022 02:17 PM
    I was reading Self-Storage Safety and Security: Top Tips to Protect Your Assets by TSSA Legal Counsel in the Conference Issue 2022. It uses the terms "general rule of thumb" and "generally" when talking about Texas being a "one-party consent" state. 

    We are opening our facility soon and our security cameras record audio by default. We do not have an on-site manager as our facility will be completely electronic with online rentals, individual key codes for access, etc. 

    What should we do about our cameras recording audio? Do we add it to our lease stating that by signing our lease you consent to video and audio recording while in our facility?

    What are yall doing about audio recording?

    For those who have audio recording, has it been helpful with incidents in the past?

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    Amanda McGowen
    Cisco Storage, LLC
    Cisco TX
    (254) 334-9944
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  • 2.  RE: Audio Recording

    Posted 09-27-2022 10:12 AM
    The way I view the use of cameras is first to protect the facility and the owner from potential liabilities, and second act as a deterrent for bad actors. i have very high resolution cameras with sound recording in my facility. It is run remotely with no manager onsite similar to what you outlined in your post. The cameras never deterred the bad actors and I had 3 break ins in the past year. Usually they wear mask and face covering and use stolen license plate. So no matter what you do you will have break ins once in a while. The camera will help your tenants for insurance claims and to just understand what happened for police report purposes. The voice recording on my cameras is not very good and quite noisy because they are installed high up and pick up a lot of environmental noise. I am using Lorex cameras which are very advanced and high quality but the voice recording was never useful. So i would not worry about it much.
    Just make sure you have all security measures in place like secure gate, reliable access system, fencing, barb wire, secure locks (cylinder locks are much safer than padlocks) and signage and hope for the best. Encouraging your tenants to buy or have insurance would help down the road when break ins happen.
    hope this helps. Please reach out if you like to chat further.

    Mill

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    Mill
    D&W Self Storage
    Houston TX
    (346) 396-1122
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