diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 6f9b510..7559b9b 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -1,4 +1,9 @@
 FROM python:3.10
+
+# Create non-root user
+RUN groupadd --gid 1000 appuser \
+    && useradd --uid 1000 --gid appuser --shell /bin/bash --create-home appuser
+
 COPY requirements.txt /app/
 COPY apimanager/ /app/apimanager/
 COPY static/ /app/static/
@@ -7,6 +12,11 @@ COPY .github/local_settings_container.py /app/apimanager/apimanager/local_settin
 RUN pip install -r /app/requirements.txt
 WORKDIR /app
 RUN ./apimanager/manage.py migrate
+
+# Set proper ownership and switch to non-root user
+RUN chown -R appuser:appuser /app
+USER appuser
+
 WORKDIR /app/apimanager
 EXPOSE 8000
 CMD ["gunicorn", "--bind", ":8000", "--config", "../gunicorn.conf.py", "apimanager.wsgi"]
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/development/Dockerfile.dev b/development/Dockerfile.dev
index 306e381..a44107f 100644
--- a/development/Dockerfile.dev
+++ b/development/Dockerfile.dev
@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
 FROM python:3.10
 
+# Create non-root user
+RUN groupadd --gid 1000 appuser \
+    && useradd --uid 1000 --gid appuser --shell /bin/bash --create-home appuser
+
 # Set environment variables
 ENV PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE 1
 ENV PYTHONUNBUFFERED 1
@@ -29,14 +33,20 @@ COPY demo/ /app/demo/
 COPY gunicorn.conf.py /app/
 
 # Create necessary directories
-RUN mkdir -p /app/logs /app/static /app/db
+RUN mkdir -p /app/logs /app/static /app/db /static-collected
 
-# Copy development local settings and entrypoint script to /usr/local/bin
-COPY development/local_settings_dev.py /usr/local/bin/local_settings_dev.py
+# Copy development local settings directly to the correct location
+COPY development/local_settings_dev.py /app/apimanager/apimanager/local_settings.py
+# Copy entrypoint script to /usr/local/bin
 COPY development/docker-entrypoint-dev.sh /usr/local/bin/docker-entrypoint-dev.sh
 
-# Set proper permissions
-RUN chmod +x /app/apimanager/manage.py /usr/local/bin/docker-entrypoint-dev.sh
+# Set proper permissions and ownership
+RUN chmod +x /app/apimanager/manage.py /usr/local/bin/docker-entrypoint-dev.sh \
+    && chown -R appuser:appuser /app \
+    && chown -R appuser:appuser /static-collected
+
+# Switch to non-root user
+USER appuser
 
 # Expose port
 EXPOSE 8000
diff --git a/development/docker-entrypoint-dev.sh b/development/docker-entrypoint-dev.sh
index 4cacc1a..641318e 100755
--- a/development/docker-entrypoint-dev.sh
+++ b/development/docker-entrypoint-dev.sh
@@ -5,10 +5,6 @@
 
 set -e
 
-# Copy development local settings if it doesn't exist or force override
-echo "Setting up development local_settings.py..."
-cp /usr/local/bin/local_settings_dev.py /app/apimanager/apimanager/local_settings.py
-
 # Wait for database to be ready
 echo "Waiting for database to be ready..."
 while ! pg_isready -h 127.0.0.1 -p 5434 -U apimanager -q; do