Controlling the Campus

  • By Greg Hamm
  • December 06, 2023

Controlling access into your facility is vital in keeping your employees and patrons safe. Allowing unauthorized vehicles onto your premises can be a recipe for disaster. A vehicle can be used to cause mass casualties by sheer speed and force or exploding at a crowded location. It is crucial to only allow vehicles that are considered ‘safe’ to enter your premises. How do you go about this and make sure everyone is protected? Let’s talk about some best practices to help keep your perimeter secure.

First, and most important, is installing some type of crash rated barrier that will not allow a vehicle to enter without authorization from a guard or other form of digital or analog compliance (RFID, Card Reader, etc). These barriers include beams, in-ground and surface mount wedge barriers, rising bollards and sliding gates, all of which are all automated and allow access when a signal is received to raise and lower or open and close.

For high-threat locations, you want to make sure these barriers are equipped with an Emergency Fast Operation (EFO) that will deploy the barrier in less than 2 seconds. Delta Scientific’s DSC2000 modular barrier system will raise in less than 0.50 seconds providing even more protection under these emergency scenarios.

Second, you want to make sure the rest of your perimeter is protected. If you only protect the ingress and egress locations of your facility, then someone intent on getting into your facility will simply find the weak spot in the fencing. Using crash rating post and cable behind existing fencing will eliminate this from happening. Using decorative crash rated fixed post bollards is also a good option, especially if you are trying to keep your aesthetics nice. Even using something as simple as large boulders and ditches will help alleviate the threat.

There are a couple of other ancillary products that will enhance your perimeter security and provide even greater access control protection. These products include security cameras, doppler radar for speed detection, and under vehicle detection systems. Used together, along with the barriers above, you are providing the highest level of protection for your facility and ensuring your employees and patrons are as safe as possible.

This article originally appeared in the November/December 2023 issue of Campus Security Today.

About the Author

Greg Hamm is the vice president of sales and marketing at Delta Scientific.

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