Office Building Security

 This brief article will provide the reader with guidance on some of the basic issues concerning securing office buildings in America today.  These concerns are basically the same for residential neighborhoods, public parks, parking lots and malls etc.

There are more than one million office buildings in the United States. They range from small one story – single office buildings, to towering skyscrapers. Increasingly, more and more Americans are spending a significant part of their lives working in such buildings. And corporations and businesses increasing house their most important assets - their employees and their printed and electronic information in office buildings.

Just like bank robbers who rob banks because that is where the money is, many criminals go to office buildings to steal, rob, rape and spy because that is where their potential victims - companies or individuals - are located.

First, note that nothing discussed here will prevent the type of destructive attack we saw on September 11th. Only government action can do that. What is addressed here are ground based attacks – criminal or terrorist.

First the terrorist threat. Domestic and international terrorists may target both government and private commercial buildings. Within the US alone, the World Trade Centers (WTC) were previously targeted in 1993 with a truck bomb in the underground garage; a subsequent plot to bomb a New York City bridge and underwater tunnel was thwarted; the Murrah Federal building in Oklahoma City was destroyed in 1995 by domestic terrorists with a truck bomb; and letter bombs and anthrax letters have been sent to both government and corporate offices. The traditional threats and building security issues remain, but new (covert) terrorist threats have assumed added importance.

These terrorist threats may not only be international, but may also come from a constantly changing cast of  radical groups and activists. Some individuals in these type groups have demonstrated that they are not averse to using violence to further their cause. Most office buildings are not terrorist targets because they don’t house businesses that terrorists want to attack. It’s up to each building owner or operator to assess their building to determine its risks. All buildings are not alike… not in design and structure… and not in security concerns. Single-tenant buildings (occupied by one tenant involved in one type of business) offer different security issues and risks than does a multi-tenant / single-use building, such as a medical office building with many tenants all in the same type of business. A still different situation exists for a multi-tenant / multi-use building which may have many different tenants doing many different things, possibly including general office rental, retail operations, public utility or agency offices, operating parking facilities, and more.

How Likely a Target Are You?

There is no "cookie-cutter" plan that will secure each and every type of office building, high-rise or low-rise. Management of each building will have to identify its own security needs, starting by conducting a risk assessment. How likely a target you are perceived to be by criminals and terrorists will, in large part, determine how likely you are to actually be attacked. And how potential criminals and attackers perceive you depends, in part, on their potential "gain," and on what visible security measures you have, and how effective they are perceived to be. In other words, what is their possible gain, and what is their risk? Often a lucrative but well-protected target will be by-passed for the less well-secured "easy" building.

In a commercial office building, general security risks may include murder, robbery, rape, assault, theft, commercial espionage, arson, vandalism, bomb threats, and sabotage, to name but a few. The heavy concentration of people and property, coupled increasingly with "open" floor plans, make modern high-rise buildings susceptible to these type threats. Plus, the always-present life-safety risks include fire, explosion, and natural disasters. And today the possibility of a covert terrorist attack has to be considered by some facilities (an armed overt attack would require police or military response).

 The Good Signs system is a multi-purpose solution that will deter and reduce these problems.