Page 34 - Campus Security & Life Safety, March/April 2020

Can a Public Entrance
also be Secure?
Take a fresh look at manual revolving doors with new features to secure public-use entrances
Secure Entrance
Afew years ago, an urban bank branch was the target of a public protest. A large crowd gathered, pushed inside the building and took over the interior lobby. The protesters disrupted the retail banking business in the lobby, and attempted to block employees from going up the escalator to work on the upper floors. The disruption lasted for hours, disrupting productivity and causing headaches for management as the news cycled for several days. Luckily, no one was injured.
Soon, their security manager called. It turned out that my compa- ny had made the manual revolving doors the crowd had pushed through, and he was hoping a security upgrade would be possible. I was glad to tell him there are now new technologies today that can address physical security...even on standard, architectural revolving doors used as high-volume public entrances.
When Bad Actors Seek Entry
While crime and violence make for great books or movies, the follow-
ing examples involving public entrances can lead to nightmare out- comes for occupants and building managers:
An angry male student; his girlfriend has just broken up with him; he heads to her dormitory in the middle of the night, and walks right in.
When a gang member is hospitalized, and the opposing gang enters the hospital intending to finish what they started.
The Department of Education states in 2017, campuses in the United States reported 38,100 criminal offenses. That is more than 104 occurrences every day, which could include theft, rape, murder, robbery, aggravated assault and burglary. A study by the FBI on active shooter incidents reported that 22 percent of all occurrences between 2016 and 2017 occurred in healthcare and educational facilities, sec- ond only to commerce areas and “open spaces.”
It is clear that even schools and hospitals are not immune to the damaging impact of crime and violence. Other applications that have a lot of public traffic are: libraries, museums, attractions, municipal buildings, government buildings and urban office buildings that include retail and banking on the ground floor, to name a few. Man-
34 campuslifesecurity.com | MARCH/APRIL 2020