A homeless charity has slammed a business after it installed a ‘heavy-handed’ security system which threatens to call the police if people step in its doorway.
The bizarre alarm system is triggered when people enter the sheltered doorway of an office block in Glasgow.
Once set-off, a loud voice blares through the speakers, saying: ‘You have been detected in an unauthorised area, please leave the area or the police will be called – CCTV is recording’.
A pressure group has also criticised the security measure for being ‘heavy-handed’, ‘aggressive’ and ‘intimidating’.
The alarm system was installed outside an office block in Glasgow and is triggered when someone enters the doorway
Once set-off, a loud voice blares through the speakers, saying: ‘You have been detected in an unauthorised area’
It comes just two weeks after a homeless man was barred from sheltering between two pillars of a building in York after the area was blocked by spiked chains.
Graeme Brown, director of Shelter Scotland, has said homeless people will be affected by the alarm at 46 Gordon Street near Glasgow Central Station.
The alarm is said to have been installed to prevent vandalism and is only activated at night.
But Mr Brown said: ‘It is very sad that a business feels it has to go to such lengths to deny even the shelter of a doorway to someone who has no home to go to.
‘In Scotland, people have a right to emergency accommodation from their local council if they have nowhere to stay and they also have a right to be treated with dignity and respect.
‘We need urgent action to improve the safety net so no-one is looking for a quiet doorway to sleep in.’
The alarm is said to have been installed to prevent vandalism and is only activated at night
The office block on Gordon Street houses a jewellers, a healthcare company, a wig shop, several property consultants and a mortgage broker.
Managing agent Fletcher King refused to give an official comment.
But a source at the company said: ‘The security measure was installed recently – only in the last few months.
‘It is to prevent vandalism, as the building was experiencing trouble with that being that it is very central.
‘It is the cost-effective version of nightly security and it only switches on at nighttime.’
Pressure group Big Brother Watch, who campaign for privacy and civil liberties, said: ‘This is an extremely heavy-handed and aggressive approach to security.
‘People who come near this doorway should not be subject to such an intimidating message.’