Page 12 - Security Today, February 2018

Metro Security
Bexer County Texas uses best of breed security systems to launch EOC
BIy Ralph C. Jensen
t has been a long time coming, but the Bexar County Metro 911 Emergency Operations Center (EOC) is up and run- ning, and the security systems imple- mented to protect the facility are among
the best of the best. The regional operations center unifies emergency operations into one cutting-edge facility.
A New Home
Built in San Antonio, Texas, the EOC pro- vides a new home for the Bexar County Sheriff’s communications operations and is an alternate site for the San Antonio police and San Antonio fire and EMS operations.
The facility is a joint operations cen- ter not only for Bexar County but also for Comal (New Braunfels) and Guadalupe (Sequin) counties. All three counties touch dividing lines and are considered part of the San Antonio metro area. Bexar Metro 911 executive director Bill Buchholtz said build- ing the facility has stayed on budget of $40 million, “give or take a couple of million.”
The electrical system meets Tier IV data center standards for maintaining operations regardless of any unplanned activity, and the mechanical system meets Tier III standards. Because the building is under a tight security system inside and out, it was also important that redundant systems were in place, as well as uninterrupted power. Employees based at the monitors on the main floor are given breaks every so often to decompress, relax and interact.
Alterman Technologies was hired to pro- vide, install and direct the security solutions effort for general contractor Whiting-Turner, who directed construction on the 81,500 square foot facility located on 11 acres of land.
Early Stages of Planning
Alterman Technologies’ staff was fortunate to work with the general contractor in the early stages of planning security for this facility. According to James Carmen, Alter- man’s project engineer, being able to make early and consistent contact allowed for the integrator to help specify the types of secu- rity that they felt would most satisfy the end user. It also allowed the installation crew to be able to meet their integration deadline of 8 months, long before the overall construc- tion of the facility was complete.
“We were able to evaluate all components of the security solution when we saw the
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