Page 104 - Security Today, May/June 2019

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campuslifesecurity.com | MAY/JUNE 2019
School Safety and Security— Wide Open Gaps Often Overlooked
hen most security administrators think about securing their school, usually heavy duty door locks and
surveillance cameras come to mind. While these are two important pillars of a physical security “blanket,” there remain many other gaps which can be easily filled with relatively affordable security technology.
This article will address some of these security gaps, while also stressing the impor- tance of implementing an integrated school safety and security solution.
Lack of integration creates unforeseen vulnerabilities in your security blanket.
Before getting into the technology which fills security gaps, note that a great school safety reference guide was developed by the Partner Alliance for Safer Schools (PASS). In 2015, PASS first released the Safety and Secu- rity Guidelines for K-12 Schools, which remains the most comprehensive informa- tion available on best practices specifically for securing school facilities available. The fourth edition (2018) is greatly expanded to address the growing range of complex secu- rity challenges facing today’s K-12 schools, providing a resource for school officials— and their solutions providers—to help achieve the most appropriate and cost-effec- tive of deployment of security solutions.
The Guidelines identify and classify best practices for securing K-12 facilities in response to urgent needs for information identified by the education community. While choosing the right technology is para- mount towards any effective security blan- ket, following the PASS guidelines will ensure you’ve addressed most all available policy and procedural strategies.
Increasing Integrations
Back to the technology. The first gap most often overlooked by school security adminis- trators is your school parking lot. Many unauthorized individuals visiting a school often park their vehicle in the school parking lot. This is the outer most layer a school security administrator should first start thinking about security. At the very least you might consider installing a park lot barrier and paying a security guard to restrict access to the parking lot.
A surprisingly affordable way to automate parking lot security is by installing a gate barrier which opens when a visitor carrying an authorized credential (i.e. a sticker adhered to the visitor’s windshield or a fob attached to their keychain or kept in their car) comes within close proximity of a “read- er” wired to the barrier. Today’s long-range readers utilizing UHF (ultra-high frequency) can often detect an authorized user’s fob from up to 200 feet away.
For those schools worried about fobs being lost, stolen or misplaced they might opt for LPR (license plate recognition) instead of a UHF reader system. LPR elimi- nates the need for users to carry fobs. Instead, the LPR uses its OCR (optical char- acter recognition) engine to recognize the alpha numeric characters on a license
plate. Whether a valid UHF fob or license plate, once the associated reader correctly identifies the user’s credential, the barrier will open up if the user has the necessary access right.
The system will also log that user’s access into the parking lot. This allows the security administrator to have an audit log in case any improprieties are discovered in the park- ing lot. The audit log can also be used to bill/ invoice individuals utilizing the park lot. It’s also advisable for security administrators to integrate their parking lot security with their visitor management system. This way whom- ever in the school is expecting a visitor can be alerted immediately upon their guest accessing the parking lot. This allows the “school host” plenty of time to prepare prior to their guest arriving at the school building.