May 1, 2004 12:00 PM, by MICHAEL FICKES
Gregg Popkin is haunted by the fear that the next terrorist attack
might hit one of the 110 buildings in his property management
portfolio. “I don't let down my guard for a minute,”
says Popkin, who is a senior managing director with the Los Angeles-based
property management firm CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) Inc. Popkin's
responsibilities encompass CBRE assignments in New York City and
throughout the surrounding region. “Security is more than
a selling feature. It is something I genuinely believe in. If
the people that work for me don't believe in it, then they don't
have to work for me.”
Popkin isn't alone. In the three years since the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks, security directors for central business district buildings
in major cities across the country have reviewed and upgraded
their security planning, staffing and technology in an effort
to meet downtown's new security challenges.
Then again, the lessons of Sept. 11 are not being universally
applied. “I think we're way behind; there are lots of landlords
and developers not paying attention to the threats,” says
Howard Safir, former New York City police and fire commissioner
and CEO and Chairman of Safir Rosetti Inc., a security consulting,
investigative and business intelligence firm with offices in Dallas,
Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Washington.
Landlords that are paying attention have substantially enhanced
their security programs, beginning with security budget increases.
“Some of our clients have probably tripled their security
staffing costs and spent $300,000 to $1.5 million on capital improvements
related to security,” says Henry Garcia, a vice president
with Kroll, Schiff & Associates, a Chicago-based security
consultant. Popkin estimates that office-building owners with
major new security commitments may have doubled their overall
security budgets and driven security's share of the rent as high
as 50 cents per sq. ft.
Higher security budgets are paying for vulnerability and threat
assessments, building upgrades, additional security technology,
and vendor, staff, and tenant training programs.
The fear: Downtown office buildings are easy targets
Security professionals use the phrase “soft targets”
to describe the vulnerability of downtown office buildings to
a terrorist attack. The vernacular phrase allows comparisons between
“soft” and “hard” targets, but doesn't
describe the problem as well or as chillingly as the definition
of a soft target — a target that is out in the open and
easy to hit.
While no attacks on U.S. office buildings have followed Sept.
11, few assume that the danger has receded. “I think we
have been extraordinarily fortunate,” Popkin says. “So
do the experts I talk to; they all say it is not a question of
if an attack will occur, but a question of when. And we've always
considered office buildings as primary targets because they are
so easy.”
Observers agree with Popkin's assessment, noting that soft targets
may have become more attractive to terrorists as government facilities
have tightened security and become more difficult to strike.
Overall, CBRE manages more than 2,200 buildings spanning 370
million sq. ft. nationwide. Each of these buildings, according
to Popkin, has undergone a basic vulnerability assessment developed
by CBRE and consulting security professionals. The assessments
have designated properties as high, medium or low security risks.
CBRE has developed standard security recommendations for medium
and low security risks. For buildings designated as high risks,
CBRE suggests a security consultant conduct a further analysis.
To facilitate the extended assessments for clients, CBRE has formed
an affiliation with Safir Rosetti.
Full-blown security assessments cover vulnerabilities and threats
as well as security technology, services and training from a building's
perimeter and parking facilities through sensitive internal spaces.
The analyses also consider the risks that may follow particular
tenants into a building. For example, landlords might worry if
certain U.S. government agencies or foreign embassies are located
in a building. Business tenants with connections to other countries,
who have drawn fire from terrorists, might also suggest potential
threats.
Hardening soft targets with building design and technology
In response to dire security assessments developed since Sept.
11, Class-A office buildings in major cities across the country
have begun to secure their perimeters with well-known design elements
such as concrete barriers and bollards.
Security-conscious owners have also added security technology
to lobbies inside the front door. Chicago-based Trizec Properties
Inc. now employs visitor management systems in a number of the
company's 67 office properties, with an emphasis on downtown Class-A
office buildings. “These systems are designed so that tenants
can log into a building Web site and register guests for the next
business day,” says Carlos Villarreal, the company's director
of security and safety. “The security reception desks then
access the building Web site, pull in information from the visitor
information service and print a badge, sometimes with a barcode.
When a visitor arrives, security officers verify the visitor's
identity with a picture ID and provide the badge.”
While Villarreal has not standardized access control technology
across the Trizec portfolio, many of the company's Class-A buildings
use a Cardkey P2000 system supplied by Milwaukee-based Johnson
Controls Inc. The P2000 handles both employee access control and
visitor management.
Generally, these systems control access to office towers. Lower
level retail shops and restaurants generally remain open to the
public.
After passing through a building's initial screening system,
employees and visitors encounter lobby and elevator security systems.
Trizec buildings restrict elevator access with glass-door turnstiles.
“We prefer barrier turnstiles today over optical turnstiles,”
Villarreal says.
Turnstile barriers in elevator lobbies slow traffic and sometimes
produce complaints from tenants. New lobby products have begun
to address this problem. Rapor Inc., New Britain, Conn., for example,
has introduced a rapid access portal that remains open most of
the time. It closes only when an unauthorized person attempts
to pass through.
Rapor doors can accommodate conventional access control readers,
biometric readers and magnetometers. When an employee or visitor
satisfies the access control protocol, he or she walks through
the open Rapor door. When an unauthorized person approaches, the
door closes and an audio recording tells the person to exit through
a side door and to see a security officer. “Many clients
like this kind of system because it is fast,” Safir says.
“For authorized people, it is virtually invisible. It only
stops exceptions.”
The system works best for employee entrances, which limit visitor
access, and for high-stress buildings permitting access only to
authorized personnel, Safir continues.
Safir has recommended Rapor systems to several clients, including
the Connecticut Lottery Corp., which occupies a four-story building
in New Britain, Conn. Several years ago, a disgruntled employee
shot and killed four high-ranking Connecticut lottery officials.
According to Safir, the Rapor door has allayed fears of a repeat
incident among Lottery employees. “They are thrilled with
it, because only authorized people can get in,” he says.
Most Class-A office buildings have installed lobby controls of
some kind, says Kroll Schiff's Garcia. “While we're seeing
more and more barrier applications, I would estimate that about
60 percent of downtown office buildings do not use barriers requiring
positive identifications,” Garcia says. “These buildings
still control lobbies with security officers. This can be costly,
because you need to station a guard in each elevator vestibule.”
Class-A office owners have also begun to upgrade conventional
closed circuit television (CCTV) systems. “There has been
enormous growth in the numbers of cameras,” notes Popkin
of CBRE. “In addition, owners are by and large upgrading
to digital recording systems, which allow for faster retrieval
of video during emergencies.”
The additional cameras expand coverage of building exteriors,
parking facilities and lobbies, Popkin says. In addition, hidden
cameras have extended video surveillance to mechanical rooms,
elevators and freight docks.
Signature office buildings such as Chicago's Sears Tower have
taken security precautions a step further and installed X-ray
machines and magnetometers in lobbies to screen for weapons and
bombs. While most Class-A office owners have not adopted these
measures, many, according to Garcia, have incorporated weapon
and bomb screening equipment into their planning. “Our clients
are asking for contingency plans that can be implemented quickly
if risks escalate,” he says.
If a bomb explodes in the lobby of a west coast building, Garcia
explains, risk assessments will change in office buildings across
the country and require immediate steps. To accommodate a sudden
increase in security needs, owners are signing agreements with
security guard companies to increase staffing. In some cases,
owners are purchasing X-ray equipment and magnetometers and storing
them for use when needed. “Owners don't want to apply these
measures every day, but when risks escalate, their tenants want
to make sure that employees will be willing to come to work.”
Vendor, staff and tenant training
Training has become another key to tighter office building security.
Security directors have developed programs to improve the training
of guard company personnel, teach general building staffs about
security procedures and advise tenants on emergency procedures.
CBRE has tapped Safir Rosetti to help train security officers.
“We require all our guard companies to provide a minimal
level of training equal to a standard established by Safir Rosetti,”
Popkin says.
When a guard company wins a CBRE bid, they must send their training
personnel through a Safir Rosetti program, which covers topics
such as threat assessments, life safety responses, communications,
documentation, dealing with threats and confrontations, and assessing
and monitoring situations. CBRE also requires management-level
officers from guard companies to undergo background checks and
have college educations.
Better-trained security officers command higher wages. Popkin
says that wages today typically start at $12 per hour and go as
high as $17 per hour, compared to about $10 per hour prior to
Sept. 11. “Wages have gone up by 25-50 percent,” Popkin
says.
CBRE also requires that all of its vendors — security concerns,
cleaning firms, maintenance companies and others — conduct
background investigations on all employees assigned to tenant
buildings and certify their findings with a bond. “There
has always been a bonding requirement related to the performance
of the work,” Popkin says. “Now there is bonding to
certify employees as well.”
At Trizec, Villarreal oversees security training for both security
and building staffs. Both security and staff are trained to respond
to changes in color-coded threat levels issued by the Department
of Homeland Security (DHS). If the threat moves from yellow to
orange, for example, Trizec buildings will add additional patrols
outside of buildings, forbid vehicles from parking in front of
buildings, communicate with local law enforcement agencies for
details of specific threats in the region, communicate with tenants
about evacuation procedures should evacuation become necessary
and discuss procedures related to sheltering in place should a
biological or chemical attack occur outside the building.
As a matter of course, Trizec conducts regular evacuation drills
with tenants and discusses security responses to various scenarios
in tabletop drills that include staff from building management
and tenants. “If there is a fire, the property manager will
serve as the emergency director,” Villarreal says. “An
engineering person will have responsibility for managing the air
handling system. Someone will be assigned to make sure the firepumps
are running and verify that water is being released through the
sprinkler system.
The security director would serve as the incident commander,
whose responsibilities include determining whether or not to evacuate.
If an evacuation is called for, housekeeping would help move tenants
out.”
Housekeeping and other building staff also receive training in
disaster recovery: extracting smoke and water and moving files,
cabinets and furniture as necessary.
In Trizec mailrooms, employees are trained to screen mail and
packages for biological and chemical threats. Engineering departments
are taught to manage air-handling systems in the event of an incident.
Security personnel receive training on identifying bombs and weapons
imaged by X-ray machines, even if those machines are only used
intermittently at times of elevated threats.
Medical training has expanded as well, according to Villarreal.
“Where we used to teach manual CPR, we now train people
to use automated external defibrillators,” he says.
Manufactured by companies such as Medtronic Physio-Control of
Seattle and Royal Philips Electronics in the Netherlands, automated
defibrillators cost about $30,000.
How much security is too much? Only a month after Sept. 11, Popkin
reports receiving complaints that some buildings were overdoing
security precautions. “They told us it was a pain in the
neck,” Popkin recalls. “They didn't want to wait in
line while we checked IDs. They didn't want their clients to have
to wait in a line when visiting a building. In response, we've
tried to be as polite as possible and explain the larger purpose.”
In Case of Disaster…
Developing a business resumption plan in the case of a disaster
can pay off, especially in the case of major buildings. Following
a disaster, it is critical that all businesses employ a safety
professional to perform a hazard evaluation and assessment. The
American Society of Safety Engineers (www.asse.org), Des Plaines,
Ill., offers the following disaster safety checklist:
Have the structural integrity of the building validated by professionals
before anyone enters the facility.- Contact the proper government agencies to get approval to
resume occupancy of the building.
- Provide training in selection and use of Personal Protective
Equipment, including eyewear, gloves and dust masks.
- Make sure the atmosphere in the workplace is tested for asbestos
and other chemical/toxic agents.
- Have vents checked to ensure that water heaters and gas furnaces
are clear and operable.
- Ensure that no wall or ceiling materials are in danger of
falling.
- Ensure that fire and smoke alarms have been cleaned and tested.
- Check for safety of electrical systems, computer cables and
telecommunications' equipment.
- Use start-up guidance materials provided by the Federal Emergency
Management Agency(www.fema.gov) and the National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health (www.cdc.gov/niosh).
- Inspect and test general facility sanitation systems to guard
against potential employee exposure to toxic agents.
- Inspect furniture to ensure it withstands expected loads and
usages.
- Make sure there are adequate illumination levels for employees.
- Ensure that there is a clear path of egress for emergency
evacuation and that fire extinguishers are operable.
- Gather and dispose of broken glass, debris, or other materials
with cutting edges.
- Check with local utilities for information on power, gas,
water and sewer usage. Do not use fueled generators or heaters
indoors.
- Check lines and cabling of chiller systems for the mainframe
computer system to avoid chemical leakout.
- Create a new emergency plan and distribute it to employees.
- Inspect the condition of drain, fill, plumbing and hydraulic
lines on processes and machines.
- Make sure flooring surfaces are acceptable and free from possible
slips, trips and falls.
FOR THE RECORD
About the companies
For information, circle the Reader Service number (listed below)
or visit securitysolutions.com
Johnson Controls Inc. 5
Kroll, Schiff & Assoc. 6
Medtronic Physio-Control 7
Rapor Inc. 8
Royal Philips Electronics 9
Safir Rosetti Inc. 10
If you would
like additional information please contact ElectricEyes at 306-347-0606
or info@electriceyes.com.
