Panel Built Military Access Control Advantages
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How Guard Houses Bolster Perimeter Access Control
The modular guard houses in this area play a vital role in the facility's overall access control beyond protecting officers from lethal force. The building acts as a security hub, outfitted with various tools to ensure the safety of the officers present and the military installation as a whole. To accomplish this responsibility, the guardhouse itself must be outfitted to enforce the Four D's of physical security: Deter, Detect, Delay, and Defend.
First, the guardhouse, military officers, and access control point as a whole helps to Deter a would-be assailant because it shows that this is a facility that takes their security and protection very seriously. Any attempt to penetrate or illicitly enter the facility would likely end badly for any who try.
Second, this access control point's primary mission is to Detect any incoming threats to the facility by actively checking the identification of all those who enter.
However, Panel Built guard houses also can be outfitted with additional security devices such as security cameras and CCTV surveillance stations. These tools allow the officers to examine each area of the installation for suspicious activity, all from one central location.
Third, the access control point should be outfitted with active vehicle barriers to Delay a threat from entering a facility. This is a barrier that is capable of withstanding the impact of a vehicle and can only be lifted by an operator located within the guardhouse. Additionally, the ballistic materials used to form the guardhouse also delay the attackers by making it difficult to penetrate the building and allow themselves into the military installation.
Finally, the guardhouse itself can allow the officers to more easily Defend themselves in the case of a threat. Another important feature of Panel Built's ballistic rated buildings is the gun ports which can be incorporated into the building's walls. These gun ports allow for officers to safely return fire in the case of an active shooter, allowing them to defend themselves and the facility from an attack.
Overall, Panel Built designs ballistic rated guard houses to give military installations all of the advantages necessary to properly defend themselves and their perimeter access control point. Due to the high threat level at these facilities, the buildings require several features so officers can effectively identify, defer, and attack a threat from a protected environment.
Additional Panel Built Products For Access Control Points
At military installations, there are of course more access control points than just the vehicle entrance at the perimeter. To gain entry into certain buildings or facilities, additional access control points will typically be required to gain access to ensure that the person has the proper credentials to be in that area. For these instances, the buildings can utilize a few different options to accomplish this.
One popular option is to use heavy-duty security turnstiles which designed to control foot traffic into their facilities. However, if these areas are not always manned by an officer, someone could try to bypass the turnstiles by trying to climb over the system, using the metal bars as a sort of ladder. However, incorporating Panel Built's turnstile canopies into the overall access control design helps reduce the offender's ability to easily scale the turnstile. Additionally, the canopy provides shelter to the turnstile and those queuing in line, protecting the facility's security investment and helping to keep their visitors out of inclement weather.
Similar to these turnstiles, individual buildings may elect to use a mantrap at their entrance to provide an additional layer of access control. These systems essentially create an additional room onto the entrance of the buildings. This room consists of two sets of doors: one set leading inside and the other leading outside.
In this case, the first set of doors could either be unlocked or locked. If unlocked, the first door would immediately lock once a person entered. From there, the person is only able to enter the building using a form of Identification, a keyfob, security code, etc. If the outer door is locked, it would have the ID verification and once the person entered, the inner door would remain locked until the outer door was closed. A form of vestibule monitoring (either manual or technological) should be employed in these vestibules in order to ensure no more than one person enters at a time. Mantraps are a great tool to ensure no more than one person is able to enter a building at a time and to potentially capture those who fail to gain access illicitly.
These are just some of the many products that Panel Built, Inc. provides United States military installation. Beyond bolstering their physical security and access control systems, Panel Built fabricates a variety of other structures to supply the military with additional storage, office, maintenance, and training space. Through our modular offices, mezzanine platforms, guard towers, training towers, and more, Panel Built has had the honor to work closely with nearly all branches of the United States military (you can see a few of our previous military customers). If you think Panel Built could help bolster the security at your military installation, give us a call at 800.636.3873, send us an email to info@panelbuilt.com, or let us know in our LiveChat feature in the bottom right of the page. We're always more than happy to answer any questions or concerns that you may have.