5 Key Action Steps Facility Management Professionals Should Take to Ensure an Effective Physical Security Program

As facility management professionals, ensuring the physical security of a facility’s assets and personnel is a critical responsibility. In today’s rapidly evolving threat landscape, security programs must be proactive, dynamic, and continuously optimized. Below are five essential action steps that facility managers should take to ensure their physical security programs are operating as effectively as possible:

1. Conduct Regular Security Assessments and Risk Analysis

A key first step in maintaining an effective physical security program is conducting regular security assessments. These assessments help identify vulnerabilities in the facility’s security infrastructure, technical systems, operations, and procedures.

Action Steps:

Perform a comprehensive security audit at least annually or whenever significant changes occur, such as facility renovations, new technology, or changes in local or national threat levels.
Identify physical, technological, and procedural elements such as weaknesses at entry points, screening, access control points, security camera coverage, and lighting.
Conduct a facility risk profile based on a risk analysis to assess potential threats, from break-ins and theft to natural disasters or active shooter scenarios.
Review previous security incidents at the facility and failed security breach attempts to identify areas of improvement.

A well-documented security assessment with a risk analysis will help prioritize security improvements and direct resources toward the most critical areas.

2. Implement a Layered Security Approach (Defense in Depth)

A good security program makes use of layered zones of protection and incorporates both passive security measures and active security systems to effectively deter crime, detect breaches, assess alarms, delay incidents, limit damage and improve response. Use of the Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design security design approach is based on providing protection for the facility by applying varying levels of protection beginning at the site perimeter, with increasingly more stringent and controlled security protection as you enter the interior and controlled areas of the facility.

A single security measure or system is often insufficient. A layered security approach, or “defense in depth,” uses multiple security strategies to reduce the likelihood of a cyber attack, intrusion, or incident. Each layer provides separations between front-of-house public and visitor areas from the back-of-house infrastructure interior and private controlled areas. This strategy ensures that if one layer is breached, additional safeguards are in place to prevent or mitigate damage.

Action Steps:

Physical barriers: Ensure that gates, fences, locks, and doors are in place to prevent unauthorized access.
Access control systems: Use card readers, biometrics, or key fobs to restrict access to authorized personnel only. These security systems should be continuously monitored and tailored to fit the facility’s needs.
Surveillance systems: Employ high-quality video cameras that cover vulnerable areas such as entryways, parking lots, and perimeter zones. Integrating AI-based video analytics can help security monitor unusual behaviors or incidents.
Alarm systems: Set up alarms or intrusion detection systems to alert security personnel to unauthorized access or suspicious activities.
Lighting: Ensure adequate lighting following IEEE standards is implemented in both interior and exterior areas to deter criminal activity and improve the effectiveness of video surveillance cameras.

Each layer of security should complement the others, ensuring a robust and responsive facility security program.

3. Regularly Review and Update Security Protocols and Training

Physical security procedures and protocols must be clear, up to date, based on best practices, and be well understood by everyone in the facility. Staff and security personnel should be regularly trained on how to respond to a variety of security incidents, from routine access control to emergency responses and facility evacuations.

Action Steps:

Review and update security procedures and protocols regularly to ensure they address current risks and incorporate best practices.
Ensure that all employees, including security staff and facility personnel, are trained on security incident responses, emergency response procedures, active shooter protocols, facility evacuation plans, and first aid.
Establish an emergency response team that can be assembled quickly to manage security and emergency incidents.
Conduct drills to test response times, communication procedures and protocols, and decision-making during emergency scenarios.
Review access control and visitor management procedures to ensure they are aligned with the facility’s security program goals.

A well-trained and prepared facility management team ensures swift and effective responses to security incidents, which can minimize potential physical facility damage, damage to its reputation or monetary losses.

4. Leverage Technology for Enhanced Monitoring and Control

As technology continues to rapidly evolve, so too do the tools available to facility management to enhance the facility’s physical security program. Advanced security technology not only strengthens a facility’s defenses but also streamlines monitoring and management.

Action Steps:

Integrate security systems: Use centralized security management systems to combine surveillance cameras, alarm systems, access control, dispatching, radio communications, and environmental sensors into one unified platform. This allows for real-time monitoring and quicker response to incidents.
Use analytics: Advanced security cameras with AI and video analytics can detect suspicious activity, such as people loitering, or objects left behind. This helps reduce the time it takes to detect and respond to threats.
Automated reporting: Use automated reporting tools and software programs to log incidents, track response times, and monitor the performance of security measures over time.
Remote monitoring: Invest in remote security monitoring systems that allow for 24/7 surveillance of the facility, especially during off-hours and holidays.

By embracing technology, facility managers can enhance the precision and efficiency of their facility management and security operations, offering more comprehensive protection, facility safety, and quicker response times. It is the sole intent of any physical security program to provide obstacles, delaying measures and observation methods to increase the probability and risks of exposure, failure, or capture so that they are greater than the potential for success in perpetrating the incident.

5. Establish Strong Relationships with Local Law Enforcement and Emergency Services

Collaborating with local law enforcement and emergency response teams is a crucial component of a comprehensive physical security program. These partnerships enable faster, more coordinated responses in the event of a serious incident and provide valuable input in security planning.

Action Steps:

Develop a relationship with local police departments, fire departments, and emergency medical services. Share information about your facility’s security measures and systems, security procedures and protocols, and facility operating procedures with them.
Invite local authorities to conduct joint training or exercises to ensure that your team is familiar with their procedures and vice versa.
Establish a direct communication channel with local law enforcement so that security teams can quickly report incidents or request assistance when needed.
Keep emergency contact information readily available and ensure that your information is up to date.

These partnerships strengthen the overall response capabilities and ensure a more efficient handling of security incidents and situations.

Conclusion

To operate an effective physical security program, facility managers must be proactive, adaptable, and committed to continuous improvement. Security is not designed to protect against threats that are static, in fact, security threats are dynamic, and the facility risk environment can change from minute-to-minute and day-to-day.

By conducting regular risk assessments, implementing a layered security approach, keeping security procedures and protocols updated, embracing technological innovations, and building strong relationships with law enforcement, facility managers can ensure that their physical security programs are robust and responsive to emerging threats. The goal is to create a safe, secure environment where personnel and assets are always protected.