The essential features of perimeter security

No matter if your operations involve a data center, power generation plant, distribution center, military base, or corporate headquarters, some form of perimeter security will almost always be needed to keep your assets, employees, and visitors safe.

Perimeter security can be defined as various systems and technologies that help secure one’s premises and ensure that only authorized personnel and visitors can access the grounds or facilities. The nature of the perimeter security mechanism will vary depending on the intrusion risks at hand, but can include anything from surveillance monitoring, physical blockades, access control systems, and B.I.G. Enterprises' specialty — security booths aka guard shacks.  

For almost all applications, multiple levels of safety measures are advised. One safety measure is security monitoring.

Security monitoring involves technological surveillance systems such as video equipment (e.g. closed-circuit televisions [CCTV], intruder detection systems), external lighting, and sensory detection systems (e.g. infrared sensors and volumetric field sensors). B.I.G.’s guard shacks can be pre-wired to support these items.  

With high-risk operations, perimeter barriers (in conjunction with guard shacks) are often also used as a first line of defense. By protecting the perimeter of the grounds with walls or fences (preferably both), you can better control traffic coming to and from the premises, as well as delay potential intruders from reaching the central facilities and personnel. These physical barriers can be further fortified with barbed wire, seals (for openings from drains or converts), and other blockades to more proficiently delay and deter trespassers.  

These perimeter barriers have to not only keep unwanted intruders out, but they also must enable authorized personnel to enter the premises, i.e. through access portals. When vehicle through-traffic is involved, these access portals will often include precautionary equipment such as crash gates, armed guard booths and high-security barrier gates to protect against brute force intrusions. These gates can take the form of simple drop arm access controls to hydraulic crash-rated barriers. A combination of Active Vehicle Barriers (AVBs) such as wedges, bollards, guard booths, slidings, risings, pivoting horizontal beams, or lethal net barriers are common safeguards to augment the security of active vehicle barriers.  

Access control systems, or systems that help decipher authorized from unauthorized personnel, are essential features of access portals. When security risks are minimal, access control can be implemented through guards and guard booths, automated access control systems, such as anti-intrusion systems, dual authentication entry, or biometric and color-coded key card security. Yet, when facilities require additional protection for increased monitoring accuracy, automated threat detection must be integrated with assessment and guards/guard booths, which can be accomplished with a combination of CCTV and security guards in a command and control center.  

For this purpose, guard booths, such as B.I.G.’s prefabricated security booths, can be stationed at access portals to facilitate security monitoring and securer admittance. These guard booths often also serve as the central hubs for perimeter security, as they usually house many critical security elements such as surveillance monitors, gate controls, communication technology, data centers, and duress buttons.  

To ensure protection of not only the premises, but also the guard booth and its personnel, it is important that security booths themselves are made with protective materials and amenities. As such, B.I.G.’s prefabricated security booths can be made with bullet resistant construction materials, or constructed with ballistic-related designs that can withstand the two-force blows from an explosion’s blast wave (the initial blast and the rebound effect).   Although these do not exhaust all the potentials for perimeter security precautions, they are a great start to help ensure the best protection of your employees, visitors, and assets.  For further info, reach out to your perimeter security expert at www.bigbooth.com.