Lobby Security Basics

Transcription

1 Lobby Security Basics By Sarah E. Ludwig After yet more school shootings began making the news, the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois decided to completely overhaul its virtually nonexistent lobby security a year and a half ago. (The shootings) made us realize we needed to put something in place to secure us a little bit more. We may be looked at as a target because we are in an old high school building, and our property is combined with the (new) high school next door to us, says Patrick Ketchum, Director of the Office for Insurance and Benefits at the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois. Because the door is the first part of a building that the public can enter, it s important for businesses to maintain good lobby security. If you re talking about just a building, the lobby is the first area you re trying to protect, says Tim Sutton, Security Consultant at Sorenson, Wilder & Associates. A lobby is a buffer, a receiving area for people between the public side of the building and the private side. If at all possible, it s best to have employees come in a separate door from the lobby. Assessments The first step to an effective lobby security program is to have a security vulnerability assessment (SVA) done, according to Sutton. 96 November 2014 SECURITY SecurityMagazine.com Lobby Security - Feat.indd 96 10/21/14 3:51 PM

2 The SVA will identify all assets and will attempt to identify all of the vulnerabilities that a threat could exploit to gain unauthorized access to the assets, he says. A good SVA will also utilize historical data and industry best practices, guidelines and standards. SVAs should be done regularly, not just once, because circumstances and technology change. A risk assessment, assessing the potential for loss, is another valuable tool for lobby security, says Sutton. A risk assessment builds upon the SVA and assigns a probability to the likelihood of a threat occurrence, he adds. It helps to determine what level of security will be employed in the protection of assets at the particular site. The risk is calculated by determining the possibility, probability and likelihood that someone would actually attempt unauthorized entry. The lobby can then be designed or set up in the most effective manner for that particular business. LONG RANGE ETHERNET Extends ethernet range...5x the distance! - IP over CAT5e up to 500m without repeaters - Single port units also support UTP up to 150m - Data rate 100mbps, full duplex - PoE/PoE+ compliant More than just power. Made in the U.S.A. - altronix.com - Lifetime Warranty Purpose Understanding the purpose of your lobby will also help you choose the best type of security. Is yours a company that has clients coming in and out all day? A business that mostly deals with employees and rarely has outsiders in the building? In the case of the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois, both employees and visitors are common entities in the building, which is why they have set up a two-door system at the front. Employees have access cards to get through the double doors, but visitors can only get through the first door before they must be buzzed in by the receptionist. Design The proper design of a lobby is more important than people realize, Sutton says. Where the security or reception desk is placed makes a huge difference in how easily people are able to get into the building. Design the lobby so that people have to go through your security measures, says Sutton. If you re trying to control a lobby, it should be a closed environment. Even rearranging a desk can change the environment drastically. Both Sutton and the U.S. General Services Administration recommend looking into Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) techniques to help set up or design a lobby in the most beneficial way possible. For more information on CPTED, visit Ideally, there should be two doors with the receptionist or security officer placed in 98 November 2014 SECURITY SecurityMagazine.com Lobby Security - Feat.indd 98 10/22/14 10:35 AM

3 between them so that he or she can closely monitor who is going in and out, says Sutton. The lobby is set up similarly at the Diocese of Springfield. Beyond the fact that any visitors have to be let in the second door by the receptionist, they can t go anywhere in the building past the lobby without either a key or an access card, Ketchum says. In order to boost security even further, the employees have been instructed to walk down and retrieve their visitors from the lobby, as well as walk them back to the lobby when it s time for them to leave the building. The design and setup at the Diocese is still evolving. We re going to move the offices that are down in the lobby area into the main section of our building, so that the conference rooms will be by the lobby, and visitors will not have to be buzzed into the main section of the building, says Ketchum. The front desk will also eventually be behind glass so visitors can just come in and walk up to the desk to announce themselves. Visitor Management Systems A visitor management system (VMS) is another component, though Sutton cautions that it isn t necessarily lobby security. People can still get in, and they are still going to go wherever they want unless you control where they are going, he says. A VMS can be a self-serve kiosk, or it can be managed by a person. It scans the visitor s driver s license, registers that he or she is there, and can then create a badge to be worn. A VMS works well for emergency management purposes as well because you know who is in your building and how many, says Sutton. Ketchum says that at the Diocese each visitor receives an ID badge with a number on it, which is written down in a log. If there s an emergency, the person at the front desk grabs the log book so we know who all is in the building, he says. Before they employed this lobby security system, visitors could walk around the building completely on their own. A VMS, whether assisted or selfserve, needs to have policies and procedures behind it that make people use it, says Brian Allen, Director of Sales at LobbyGuard Solutions. The VMS doesn t replace people, but it can enhance their jobs, he says. Many schools are now employing a VMS that also does a background check when visitors scan their IDs, alerting school officials to sex offenders and the like, says Sutton. Video A useful tool in the lobby security arena is a video intercom system. You never want to buzz anyone in until you know who you re buzzing in, says Sutton. If you can t see the person for yourself, a video camera is absolutely necessary. Video surveillance analytics are also particularly helpful in some areas, such as being able to tell how many people have come in and when, as well as motion sensing and programming the camera to set off an alarm under certain conditions. I think you can accomplish a lot through video, but only if you understand it and use it proactively. Otherwise it s not going to help if you re not actively using it to help your security, Sutton says. Inadequate Insurance Could Make Your Temperature Rise SWB PROTECTION KNEW BETTER. A faulty alarm system. Four false alarms. The system was crying wolf. When the temperature alarm went off for the fifth time, it was real, but mistakenly ignored. The result: A $3 million dollar computer center was ruined and the hospital sued SWB Protection for the damages. Fortunately, when it came to their insurance, SWB Protection knew better. They were prepared with Professional and Excess Liability Insurance from BROWNGUARD. Loss: Hospital Computer Center Claim Paid: $3,000,000 In this case, inadequate insurance would have been an emergency. P E. brownguard@brownyard.com SecurityMagazine.com SECURITY November Lobby Security - Feat.indd 99 10/22/14 10:36 AM

4 Policies and Procedures Technology is only as useful as the policies and procedures that are written and observed by those people executing it, says Sutton. For instance, he once saw a hospital where the emergency exit doors did not have any alarms or commands put on them, so no one knew when they d been opened. Worse, the doors could have been propped open, and no one would have been notified. You can have a topnotch security system, yet if you don t have policies and procedures that employees can follow, or if it s not installed properly, you don t know if the door has opened, Sutton says. Updating and revisiting policies and procedures regularly is part of a good overall security plan as well. We have a small committee of people here, and we meet on Tim Sutton BEYOND SYSTEMS INTEGRATION G4S Technology engineers confidence. G4S Technology provides layered security solutions that improve customer lives, enhance public safety and promote economic development. Thinking beyond the obvious, G4S Technology customizes complex security and communications solutions that: Identify Security Threats at Every Level Develop Standards and Best Practices Mitigate Risk and Control Costs Deliver Gold Standard Solutions and Service Named the SDM 2013 Integrator of the Year, G4S Technology creates customers for life engineering confidence from design and deployment to maintenance and beyond. g4stechnology.com 1200 Landmark Center Omaha, NE G4S-USA1 a regular basis to discuss safety and security for the buildings, whether it s fire or tornadoes, or anything, Ketchum says. Train Employees Well You re only as strong as your weakest link at the front desk. You want that to be a very strong-minded person who understands security with regard to people coming in the front door. They should be able to diffuse a situation, or see suspicious activity, Ketchum says. The strongest element of lobby security is a security officer, says Sutton. The juxtaposition is that the weakest element is also a security officer. The human element is the weakness. Training helps strengthen this weakness. In Ketchum s case, all of the 60 or so employees at his office need to be welltrained in order to effectively carry out their organization s policy of meeting visitors in the lobby and escorting them to other areas, as well as bringing them back to the lobby when they leave. The receptionist especially needs to be well-trained so she doesn t buzz someone in a door she s not supposed to, or if there s a meeting and the lobby gets busy, she knows who to call to come and help her so no one slips by and creates a security breach. Securing the lobby takes time and money, but as it is likely the first place a malicious person will enter the premises, lobby security is imperative for the protection of the whole building and its occupants. As Ketchum puts it, We want to be an example for other schools to look at security more closely. You want to be ahead of these things, not wondering what to do after it happens. Want to Learn More? Check out the lobby security providers included in this article: HID Global LobbyGuard Solutions 100 November 2014 SECURITY SecurityMagazine.com Lobby Security - Feat.indd /22/14 11:54 AM

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