The general concept used for many assessments is taken from the military's concept of defense in depth, or layers of overlapping security. Essentially, starting at one point, and look for the different methods of protection or risk going outward or inward from the location. Start at your business and go out, then return to the business going inside.
Start with reviewing your business itself. What type of business do you have? A plant nursery has different security requirements than a jewelery store. Are you a 'sole source' provider of a service or product or are there plant nurseries all over the geographical area? You should use a different approach if your service or product was widely available than if you were a sole source provider.
Where is your business located? Naturally, if you are in a high crime area, the risk changes than if you were not. The protection of your facility needs to be altered to meet the threat. Are your business neighbors a higher threat? For example, is there a jewelry store next to your offices? Perhaps the way into the jewelry store is through your front windows and through the attic? Is there a repossession car lot across from your manufacturing plant? Your neighbors bring a lot of risk that is difficult to control outside of relocating to another place. However, there are things that can be addressed to mitigate against their threat. Review the types of crime occurring in your area. If there is a pocket of violent crime and burglaries around your business, you should review safety for your employees in addition to the securing the physical building. If there are only white collar crimes being reported, then adjust your employee backgrounds policy to mitigate against the insider threat, as applicable.
Returning to the business location and looking inward, start at the parking lot/garage for your facility. Can you control the traffic in and around your building? If you are able to seal off a parking garage, essentially making that a 'sterile' area requiring key cards to enter, you may have mitigated against a certain risk. Also, by creating this choke point where all cars must enter and exit from, you can lower the amount of cameras needed to capture vehicle traffic. How many cameras do you have? Who is monitoring them or are they recorded? When I was a deputy sheriff, I responded to a burglary at a business. The business owner had a recorded camera system. However, it recorded over itself every 24 hours. Unfortunately, the crime occurred (we believe) on a Friday night and was not discovered until Monday morning. Any footage of the incident was long gone. Is there an alarm system? Who monitors it and what is their reputation? Have you researched their ability to assist you in an emergency?
Reviewing access to your facility, does your facility use key cards to access the buildings or the non-customer areas? Do your employees 'tailgate' each other. At a client site housing over 200 employees, I observed many of them key card each other in, even though it was the first or second time seeing that person. I understand keying in a person who is known as an employee. However allowing access into a restricted area completely defeats the security practices in place.
Do you have security officers/guards? Are they armed? Are they capable? Are they alert? While taking my family to a museum inside Washington, DC, I observed a security guard who was extremely obese to the point her 'love handles' rested on the grip of her pistol. If she was forced to draw her weapon and defend herself or another person, she would have to move her body away from the weapon before drawing it clear of the holster. At another location, the security guard was a very senior citizen with a police baton. His hands shook while he wrote our information down in the guest log. I saw a cane in the corner next to his desk. This image clearly does not inspire confidence or deter criminal behavior. It may even invite it. Allow me to explain, while in the State of Nevada Police Academy, we were told a story that was taken from an interview with a convicted cop killer and murderer. When he was discussing the events leading up to killing the Police Officer, he indicated he knew he could kill the officer with ease. He said that the cop's boots were not polished. The criminal said if the cop didn't care about something as simple as keeping your boots shined, his combat skills were probably lacking too. Conversely, if a cop has sharp creases and polished boots, he takes pride and care in what he does. He is most likely proficient in combat and should be taken seriously. So, the question remains, are your security guards competent and project an image of professionalism, or do you look at them with dismay hoping you won't need them?
Are your employees back grounded? Who does the background check? What are you looking for? How deep do you check? Do you have pilferage of office or manufacturing supplies? Internal risks are difficult to reduce since they are your employees. They know the processes and procedures as well as the ways around them. It takes time to narrow down the root cause and creative methods to combat them.
In summary, physical security risks are abundant and many of them transparent. Generally speaking, most employers do not consider many of the risks because they are viewing them from their perspective vice an adversary's perspective. A criminal sees your building and routines much different than you do. For a true risk analysis and security assessment, you should consult a security professional, independent of your existing infrastructure for a neutral evaluation. Harden your facility, reduce the risk, cause the threat to target another location, instill resiliency through strength.
This was a general overview of physical security with many critical details and tasks omitted. For a complete security and risk assessment of your home or business, feel free to contact me at forever.resiliency@gmail.com References and CV available upon request.
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