Updated on October 28, 2026
Every state that allows cannabis cultivation requires cameras. What the rules do not require, and what most grow facilities do not have, is someone watching those cameras when the building is empty. A recorded camera documents a break-in for the inspector. A live-monitored camera interrupts it. This guide covers what state rules typically ask of a grow facility’s surveillance, where cultivation sites actually get hit, and how to add live monitoring to the perimeter without rebuilding the compliance system inside.
Mobile Video Guard is a Bowie, Maryland security company that provides live-monitored mobile surveillance to cannabis cultivation sites, greenhouses, dispensaries and the construction projects that build them, in all 50 states.
Why grow facilities are targeted
A cultivation facility combines three things thieves like: a product with a high resale value per pound, a business that often holds cash because federal banking rules keep many operators out of the banking system, and a location that is usually industrial, rural or both, with few neighbors after dark. Add the fact that losses are sometimes hard to insure and the facility becomes a target twice over: once for the crop and once for the equipment, lighting and HVAC that make the crop possible.
The incidents that reach the news are armed robberies. The ones that cost operators more over a year are quieter: break-ins through a greenhouse wall, trailers backed up to a loading dock at 2 am, copper and generator theft on an outdoor grow, and diversion by someone with a badge. Each of these happens outside, at the perimeter, before anyone touches a door.
What state rules typically require inside the facility
Requirements vary by state and change often, so the licensing rules for your state are the only authority. Most cultivation licenses share the same core:
- Continuous recording of every room where cannabis is grown, processed, weighed, packaged, stored or destroyed, plus every entrance and exit, 24 hours a day.
- Resolution and framing good enough to identify a face and read a label, with fixed cameras and no blind spots in licensed areas.
- Retention of recordings for a set period. Thirty to ninety days is the usual range, with California at the long end at 90 days and several states at 30 or 40. Some states extend retention when an incident is under investigation.
- Remote access for regulators, so an inspector can log in to the live feed or pull footage on request.
- Alarm and access control with logs of who entered each limited-access area and when.
- A documented security plan submitted with the license application and kept current.
This is the fixed system every licensed grow installs. It is designed for compliance and evidence. Nobody at the state is watching it, and in most facilities nobody at the company is either.
Where the compliance system stops
Three gaps show up on nearly every cultivation site we visit:
- The perimeter. Rules concentrate on licensed interior areas. Fence lines, parking, generator pads, outdoor and greenhouse canopy and the approach road are lightly covered or not covered at all, and that is where intruders start.
- The response. A recorded system produces a clip after the fact. By the time someone reviews it the product is gone. Alarm panels help, but police give an unverified alarm low priority because most of them are false.
- The build phase. A new facility under construction holds months of lighting, electrical and HVAC equipment before a single camera is live. It is a construction site with a cannabis budget.
How live monitoring closes those gaps
Live remote monitoring adds people to the cameras. Mobile units, a trailer or pole-mounted system with several cameras, thermal or night-vision imaging, solar power and cellular video, cover the perimeter and outdoor areas without touching the licensed interior system or its wiring.
- Analytics detect people and vehicles and ignore animals, weather and traffic on the road beyond the fence.
- An operator looks at every flagged event live, within seconds, and decides whether it is a late employee or a threat.
- Intervention. For a threat, the operator speaks through the unit’s loudspeaker, describing the person, and activates strobes. Most people leave at that point.
- Police dispatch. If they do not, the operator calls the local police with a live description and stays on the feed. A verified crime in progress gets a faster response than an alarm signal. How police monitoring works explains the difference.
- Evidence. The incident is clipped as it happens and shared with the operator’s client and the police, separate from the compliance recorder.
Monitoring runs on the schedule the site needs, usually from the last shift to the first, with 24-hour coverage for outdoor and remote grows.
Where it fits on a cultivation site
- Outdoor and greenhouse canopy. Acres of plants with a fence and a gate. Pole or trailer units with thermal imaging cover long fence lines and detect people at night at distances a standard camera cannot.
- Indoor facility exteriors. Loading docks, trash enclosures, generator and HVAC pads, employee parking and the roof access ladder.
- Harvest and transport windows. Short-term coverage during the weeks when the most product is moving.
- New construction and retrofits. Coverage from the day equipment arrives until the permanent system is commissioned and the certificate of occupancy is issued. See construction site security.
- Retail. Dispensary lots and rear entrances after hours. See dispensary security.
Keeping the two systems separate
Operators sometimes worry that adding a monitoring provider complicates compliance. It does not, provided the line is clear. The licensed interior system stays as it is, owned by the licensee, with its own recorder, retention and regulator access. The monitored mobile units cover exterior and perimeter areas, record to the provider’s platform, and share clips on request. Nothing in the monitoring service reads from or writes to the compliance recorder. If your state requires that any camera on the licensed premises be registered in the security plan, list the mobile units in the plan and give the inspector the access they ask for. Confirm the provider holds a security agency license in your state, since several states require that of any company monitoring a cannabis premises.
What it costs
A monitored mobile unit is priced as a flat monthly fee per site that includes the equipment, cellular data, solar power, monitoring, moves and incident footage, with no long-term contract. For a facility that currently staffs an overnight guard at the gate, one unit covering the perimeter typically costs a fraction of that post and sees the whole fence line rather than one spot. Request a quote with the site address and we will come back the same business day.
What to ask a provider
- Is a person watching live, and how quickly do they look at an event?
- Can the operator speak through the camera and trigger strobes?
- Who calls the police, and do they stay on the feed with a description?
- Do the units work with no site power or internet, and do they have thermal imaging for night detection at distance?
- Will the provider list the units in our state security plan and cooperate with inspections?
- Is the provider licensed as a security agency in our state?
- What is in the monthly price, and how fast can a unit be on site?
Frequently asked questions
Does live monitoring replace the surveillance system my state requires?
No. The state-required system records every licensed interior area and must stay in place. Live monitoring adds operators and mobile cameras to the exterior and perimeter, where state rules are thin and where most incidents begin.
How long do cannabis facilities have to keep video?
It depends on the state. Thirty to ninety days is the usual range, with some states requiring longer retention when an incident is under investigation. Check your state’s cultivation rules and keep a margin.
Can a monitored unit cover an outdoor grow at night?
Yes. Units with thermal imaging detect a person by body heat at several hundred feet in total darkness, which is what makes long fence lines on outdoor and greenhouse grows practical to cover.
Will regulators object to a third-party monitoring company?
Not where the arrangement is documented. List the mobile units in the facility security plan, keep the compliance recorder under the licensee’s control, and use a provider licensed as a security agency in your state.
How fast can coverage start?
A mobile unit needs no power, internet or construction, so it can be delivered and monitored within days of a signed quote, and sooner for an active incident.
