Page 55 - Security Today, June 2017

their affiliate company and direct neighbor, Celadon Trucking, was completing their compliance review for C-TPAT certification. (C- TPAT is a Homeland Security measure for international trucking companies so their trucks can go across the border without being continually searched.)
“I needed to pass that review, and I needed security for the lots that are separate from our headquarters,” House said. “We can’t al- ways have a guard stationed there – you can burn a budget on con- tract security when you have multiple locations. I researched electric security fencing and the security directors and managers that I spoke to didn’t have one bad thing to say about it. In the end, I decided it would probably be the best thing for us to do just because of the remote locations that we have.”
House initially had two locations installed with an electric securi- ty fence so he could cut back on contract guard resources. Over time, he has continued to install the fences at all their lots in Indianapolis and in Dallas.
The Results
“After we installed this basic piece of technology, it saved us. We’re down to zero losses since install. That makes me happy,” House said. “The signs on the fence are a great deterrent and the monitoring system on the electric fence allows me to direct my guards too: any changes or breaches in the fence I can direct security to the location where I’m getting my alarms and check it out. Our employees have commented on how it feels good to have that advanced security.”
House believes the high sell point is it is safe yet effective.
“Security in general hasn’t changed in hundreds of years. You find what you want to protect, you put your barriers up to protect it and you control who has access to it. The only thing that’s really changed over the years is the technology. If you can enhance your security by using technology, then why wouldn’t you?” House said.
Good Perimeter Security Helps Law Enforcement
Electric security fencing can save commercial and industrial compa- nies money, protect employees, customer assets, and reputations. But in the eyes of law enforcement, commercial and industrial yards that invest in electric security fencing are providing a benefit to the com- munity as a whole. By reducing the volume of alarm calls they have to answer, they can be where they are needed most: helping someone whose life is in danger.
“When I was on the force, I can’t tell you how many times a busi- ness owner that had just been robbed turned to me and said, ‘My alarm was going off for hours. Where were you when I needed you?’” Lewis said.
“I always told them the same thing. ‘I was answering 911 calls.’ Alarm calls are the lowest priority calls because the false alarm rates are so high. When I was on the force, we averaged 600,000 false alarms calls per year. Our policy was if the owner of the property failed to show up twice when their alarm was going off, we weren’t answering it either. So if your business is in an industrial district, I’d say you either need to be prepared to show up, even if it is 2 a.m., and the third night in a row, or you need to find another security measure that will defend your property.
“When I was on the force, I can’t tell you how many times a business owner that had just been robbed turned to me and said. My alarm was going off for hours. Where were you when I needed you?” Lewis said. “I always told them the same thing. ‘I was answering 911 calls—people that needed help. That might have been you, or someone in your family, and if you had to make a choice where I showed up, I know which one you would’ve picked.”
Kathleen Hannon is a public relations consultant at Mayfield Consulting. WWW.SECURITYTODAY.COM 47
cess, electric security fence companies often have a compliance team that addresses the issue with the municipalities on behalf of their clients at no additional cost. On a grander scale, a national electrical standard is about to go to a floor vote in June at the American Soci- ety of Testing Materials, which should allow for more rapid adoption on the local level.
But how well does the fence work? We decided to ask some users.
YRC Worldwide
“Thieves were killing us in Birmingham. They were cutting our fence weekly,” said Harold Owen, director of corporate security at YRC Worldwide. “That facility backed up to railroad tracks on a dead- end street. I personally sat on that fence line at night trying to catch people. We just couldn’t do it.
In 1999, Owen and Manager of Security Gary Meeks met Bill Mullis, the inventor and founder of the largest electric security fence supplier in the country. Mullis had an interesting backstory: having suffered multiple break-ins at his guard dog business, he’d designed the solar-powered fence for his own protection. Adjoining businesses rapidly took interest, so Mullis patented the fence in 1991, phased the dogs out, and was building a small family business. He did a lone demonstration of how the fence worked and Owen and Meeks in- stantly thought of that Birmingham location.
“Boy, we put that fence up and it stopped. It was and still is a no brainer,” said Meeks, who is the manager of security at YRC World- wide. “With our supplier, it doesn’t cost a dime to put an electric secu- rity fence up. It goes inside your fence line. If somebody has cut your [exterior] fence and grabs the electric one they’ve already committed a crime. Gary and I have now pushed the electric fence consistently for almost 20 years.”
YRC Worldwide continued to install dozens of electric security fences in terminals across the country ever since. In fact, under Owen and Meek’s direction, they’ve gone on to be recognized nationally as the top corporate security department in transportation and ware- housing for six of the last seven years – a feat they attribute in part to their choice to use this technology.
“We find that typically it’s a third of the cost of the weekend guard. And that’s just a weekend guard,” Meeks said. “An electric security fence gives you 24/7 protection on your perimeter. A guard can never be as omnipresent as a perimeter fence.”
Meeks believes it’s one of the best decisions they ever made. “If somebody is contemplating an electric security fence, I tell them it’s the best move they’ll ever make to protect theirs and their customers’ assets,” he said.
Quality Companies
“We’re in an industrial area. The neighborhood has had one of the worst theft areas in Indianapolis for years,” Meeks said. “Our head- quarters alone includes 5 yards, 2,000 trucks and $700 to $800 million in assets, not to mention the employees here on site.”
Jim House, corporate security and facilities manager for Quality Companies should know about crime in Indianapolis: he spent 24 years as a police officer in Indianapolis before moving to corporate security. As director at Quality, he oversees the company’s primary business in truck & trailer leasing and sales, as well as a number of secondary businesses that also involve heavy equipment.
“The biggest theft problem for us historically is the batteries in our trucks. The batteries are easy to get to, and usually when thieves would come in they wouldn’t just take 1 battery deck, it would be 10,” House said. So, if you had 10 trucks affected – some of these trucks carry up to 8 batteries – you have to replace each battery at $150 or $180/a piece. You have to cover the parts, as well as the labor costs and you have down time with the truck. It gets pretty expensive.”
House researched electric security fencing as an option when