October is National Crime Prevention Month and a good time to evaluate if your business has the necessary safeguards to protect against and prevent certain crimes from occurring.
The list below is not comprehensive, but it includes some of the most common threats your business may face on your property.
Equipment and Vehicle Theft
One of the most frequent and debilitating crimes your business can experience is the theft of equipment and/or one of your vehicles. If you are on the smaller side, this can quickly cripple your operations if you don’t have the cash to quickly replace stolen machines. Even as a larger operation, this can be a major inconvenience for your business, as the recovery of these items is rare.
According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, less than 25% of stolen equipment is ever recovered. NICB also lists mowers (riding or garden tractors) as the most common style of equipment stolen in 2022, with 3,019 thefts. Meanwhile, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that in 2025, a motor vehicle was stolen every 48 seconds in the United States.
Machine thefts most commonly occur out in the field, so it’s important to train employees to stay aware of their surroundings and practice basic protection measures, including locking doors, removing keys from the ignition, and keeping track of equipment on the job site.
Equipment or vehicle theft can also occur after hours at your facility. How hardened your site is plays a major role in deterring break-ins. Storing equipment behind gates and installing security cameras, alarms, and tracking systems are all layers of protection worth investing in.
As for the recovery of stolen equipment, the key is keeping good records of your equipment’s serial or product identification number that you can provide to law enforcement.
“In one of our recent theft incidents, our employee was able to do an audit on the asset tracking software, Asset Panda, and found the stolen equipment in under two minutes,” says Teddy Russell, CEO of Russell Landscape Group, based in Sugar Hill, Georgia.
Embezzlement
Another common crime landscape companies can fall prey to is embezzlement. When this occurs, not only do you have to deal with a diminished bottom line, but you also have to spend significant time and money in legal battles with the employee who broke your trust.
Embezzlement occurs when an individual has the financial pressure, opportunity and ability to rationalize stealing from you.
By implementing checks and balances in your financial processes, you can make it harder to steal and discourage fraud in the first place. For instance, if someone other than you can sign checks, have a policy that all checks over a certain dollar amount require your signature or two signatures. You can also have bank & credit statements mailed to your home so you can review them instead of blindly trusting an employee.
Fuel theft is one common form of embezzlement in which an employee may use a company card to fill up a personal vehicle.
By monitoring your fuel fill-up frequency, where employees fuel up, and matching fuel charges to mileage and tank capacity, you can identify when fuel card fraud is occurring. Assigning driver PINs to each fuel card makes it easy to identify abnormal purchases. You can also set dollar limits on fuel spend to prevent crew members from filling up anything more than their fleet vehicle.
Cyberattacks
As technology becomes more integral in landscape businesses, so is the risk of cyberattacks. These can take the form of malware, ransomware, and phishing attacks.
Office managers can be tricked into sending wire transfers and without good backups a ransomware attack can cause a company to lose access to the systems they need to run the day-to-day aspects of the business. Even after paying the ransom, there’s no guarantee the cybercriminal will provide a decryption key that actually works.
Data breaches can cost companies with fewer than 500 employees over $3 million, and 60% of small businesses fold within six months of a cyberattack.
To protect against cyberthreats, train your team to spot phishing attempts and require strong, unique passwords for each account. Implement a system that sends out test phishing emails to identify employees who need additional training if they click on your fake malicious link or attachment.
Regularly patch and update your field devices, as cybercriminals often look for vulnerable devices that are running old, unpatched software.
You also need to make sure you have backups and systems in place so that if you are breached, you are ready and can limit the damage.
“Regardless of industry or size, if you deal with customers, you have a responsibility to be good stewards of their information,” says Adam Scheinberg, VP of information technology at Massey Services. “Learn more. Partner with professionals. Raise the bar and let your team see your commitment to security and best practices.”
Drug Abuse
While drug abuse isn’t a crime committed against your business, when employees abuse drugs on the job, it puts themselves, their coworkers and your clients at risk. According to the CDC, workplace deaths due to unintentional overdose from the nonmedical use of drugs increased by almost 500% from 2012 to 2020.
One way to help mitigate drug abuse within your company is to have a drug-free policy.
Rob Ambler, president of Ambler Industries, based in Furlong, Pennsylvania, says he started drug testing in 2018 after an employee overdosed on heroin in the company bathroom.
“You can’t start it fast enough,” Ambler says. “Professionally, it was one of the best things I’ve done for my company. Honestly, if that person gets in a truck and kills somebody, you would have been better off not having anybody. The legalities and the cost and charges of that are life-changing.”
When implementing a drug-free workplace, make sure you have a formal written policy, decide how often you will test, and have an employee assistance plan.
Workplace Violence
Workplace violence can range from threats and verbal abuse to physical assaults and homicide. It can involve employees and clients alike. In 2023, 14 percent of workplace fatalities were due to violent acts.
No industry is immune to this type of violence since it is usually motivated by interpersonal or work-related disputes. There can be violence between coworkers, customers, individuals near the job site or domestic disputes in which the victim is assaulted or threatened while at work.
Although the likelihood of a workplace violence incident is low, your company should still take precautions and have a crisis plan in place. It is recommended that companies conduct active shooter drills at least annually.
Provide safety training so employees recognize warning signs of potentially violent behavior and can de-escalate fights.
While you can’t eliminate every threat your company may face, you can make it harder for crimes to take place and prepare your team for when incidents do occur.
