What to Do When Trespassers Keep Coming Back to Your Property
By Mike Moglia, Founder of Columbia Protection
You did everything right. You told them to leave. You called the police. A week later, they are back, and the cycle starts over.
Repeat trespassing is one of the most common problems Spokane property owners bring to us. It is frustrating because the usual responses do not fix it. Calling 911 every time means waiting while the trespasser finishes what they came to do and walks away. A camera records the whole thing, which is useful for exactly nothing in the moment. And most security companies will observe the trespasser, write it down, and call you in the morning.
Here is what actually stops repeat trespassing: a real enforcement process, backed by people who show up.
Start with a formal trespass, documented properly
Telling someone to leave is not the same as trespassing them. A formal trespass creates a record: who the person is, when they were told to leave, which property they are barred from, and who issued it. That documentation is what turns the next visit from a nuisance into criminal trespass.
We keep trespass records on file for our clients, so when an officer encounters the same person again, there is no debate about whether they were warned. The paper trail is already there.
Cameras should alert you, not just record
Most properties already have cameras. The problem is that nobody watches them at 2 a.m. When a trespassed individual walks back onto your property in the middle of the night, the camera captures great footage of a crime you find out about the next day.
Camera monitoring changes that equation. When a known trespasser is spotted on camera, an alert goes out and an officer responds while the person is still there. The camera becomes a tripwire instead of a history book.
Respond with officers who can act
This is the part that matters most. When our officers arrive and find someone who has already been formally trespassed, they enforce it. If the person refuses to leave or returns after being trespassed, our officers can detain them and turn them over to law enforcement for criminal trespass.
That is the difference between a security company that documents problems and one that solves them. Trespassers learn quickly which properties have real consequences and which ones just have cameras.
Make the property a harder target
Enforcement solves the immediate problem. Prevention keeps it solved. After we clear out repeat trespassers, we look at why your property attracted them in the first place: blind spots in camera coverage, broken fencing, poor lighting, unlocked access points. Small environmental fixes, done consistently, make your property the one trespassers skip.
What this looks like in practice
A commercial property dealing with nightly trespassers typically needs three things: a formal trespass program with documentation on file, camera monitoring with alerts after hours, and an armed response when someone is on the property who should not be. Our alarm response retainer covers exactly this at $300 a month, and for properties with heavier activity, scheduled patrol visits add a visible presence that deters most trespassers before they ever set foot on the lot.
If people keep coming back to your property, the answer is not another camera or another 911 call. It is an enforcement process with officers behind it.
Call Columbia Protection at (509) 342-7233 for a free security assessment. We will walk your property, review what is happening, and tell you honestly what it will take to stop it.