If you’re reading this, you or someone you know has likely experienced package piracy. According to a Security.org survey, about 38% of people have had packages stolen from outside their homes. As online shopping continues to grow at a breakneck pace, this figure will only increase.

This is a particular hardship for multifamily properties, which receive about 149 packages per week on average — all from different places and delivery drivers. These deliveries sometimes come from known quantities like the U.S. Postal Service or UPS, but there’s an increasing trend in independently contracted drivers. Ensuring the security of all these packages is a headache that many property managers don’t know how to cure.

This dilemma isn’t helped by the Postal Service, either. Mailboxes are already off-limits to other delivery carriers, which makes residents even more susceptible to package theft. And as the service reevaluates its business model, there’s a chance that people with new addresses will no longer receive direct deliveries — they may be required to pick up their mail at central locations. This will only further complicate package management for apartment buildings and other multiunit properties.

How to Safeguard Residential Packages

In a world where more than half of all purchases happen online, package piracy is an issue that property managers cannot afford to ignore. While it may seem like an insurmountable task at times, it’s far from hopeless. Here are four steps community managers can take to reduce package piracy:

1. Create a secure room.

We often think of package lockers as ideal solutions, and they work fine in certain situations. However, they aren’t without challenges — of the managers who opt for package lockers as a preferred solution, only half actually used them. That’s because lockers tend to be too small to house all packages and are too costly or impractical to install in many apartment buildings.

Consider creating a secure area with a connected lock that lets you know exactly who uses it each time. Whether it’s part of the manager’s office, a rehabilitated utility closet, or a section in the lobby, a secure room is an excellent way to accommodate packages of all sizes without having to find the space and money to install storage lockers. A secure room could even house a fridge where tenants can store perishable items for short periods.

2. Install a video camera.

Ideally, this video camera would be located in a secure room and visible — to encourage residents to be on their best behavior. Even if you don’t have a dedicated package room yet, a video camera trained on the area where packages are delivered can act as a deterrent the same way video doorbells do in single-family housing units. They can also provide evidence in the case of theft.

3. Use a package check-in system.

According to the National Multifamily Housing Council, 43% of community managers use a package check-in system to notify residents electronically when their packages are delivered. This is not only convenient, but it can also decrease the likelihood of package theft. If a package arrives in the morning, for instance, a resident might be able to pick it up over lunch or ask someone else to hold it for them while they’re at work. This can greatly reduce the amount of time a package is exposed to potential thieves.

4. Offer in-residence deliveries.

If residents are comfortable with it, consider a curb-to-couch solution where a delivery agent can get a single-access credential to the resident’s unit. This would allow the delivery driver to drop off packages inside the door of the residence, reducing the clutter of packages piling up in a locker or room — and giving residents a “white glove” experience.

There’s no question that online shopping and on-demand services are here to stay, which means security challenges aren’t going away any time soon. By taking matters into their own hands, property managers can save residents money and time while instilling the sense of security that’s lost when thefts occur.