PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION

One of the objectives in protecting the physical environment is to establish ways of preventing criminal activity through environmental design, also known as “target hardening”. In essence these initiatives seek to protect the principle in these environments by assuming that the main threat is external, and as such barriers are required to deter a potential intruder or delay an actual intruder. As part of the design procedure it is important to take cognisance of the fact that no matter what measures are put in place, they can be breached. The importance is the early detection of any such planned or attempted breach, and the “buying of time” in order to implement required counter measures and/or be able to successfully evacuate/remove the target/s from the danger zone. Issues that require consideration are:

1. Location of property and impact of neighbouring properties.

2. Physical perimeter defences.
Type of fence/wall in place. Level of difficulty to penetrate. Upgrades to be put in place, such as Razor Wrap, Electrification, Alarm Detection, Double fence to “ No mans land”, Lighting, CCTV surveillance, Physical Patrolling, etc.

3. General access to property.
Type of vehicular / pedestrian barrier/s in place. Changes required to restrict access to one point as well as any upgrades required to compliment general perimeter security. Assessment to include communication, visual surveillance by camera/s, creation of vehicle and pedestrian airlock (double control), Identification and logging of all access transactions, facial recognition software to interface with specific database referral, vehicle and number plate recognition for audit purposes, etc.

4. Inner perimeter requirements.
This relates to immediate perimeter of buildings, intrusion detection, CCTV surveillance and Access Control measures to be implemented, Type of doors/windows and implementation of required level of deterrence, etc.

5. Internal Requirements.
To be considered is inter-communication with Control Station, on and/or off site, Level of CCTV Surveillance, overt and/or covert or if at all, Intrusion detection, Emergency Evacuation Plan, creation of a “SAFE” room, etc.

It should be noted that there is a close relationship between all the discipline levels to ensure the required level of security is achieved holistically.