By Michael Fisher*
While Australasian cities are far safer than many other international urban centres, our facility specifiers, designers, and managers are nevertheless becoming quietly aware of the increasing incidence of lone wolf attacks on staff and visitors at public and private facilities.
According to the Global Terrorism Index, lone wolf attackers are the main perpetrators of terrorist activity in the West in recent years – 98% of all deaths from terrorism in the US, for example, have resulted from attacks carried out by lone actors.
As well as politically motivated attacks, Australia and western nations in general have witnessed multiple single-person attacks at churches, educational facilities, shopping centres, tourist hot spots, sports facilities, corporate HQs, and police and defence facilities where grudge-bearing individuals have focussed their frustrations on occupants, innocent staff, and passers-by.
Such incidents can be difficult to anticipate – the lone wolves involved often do little to attract attention to themselves before their actions. But nevertheless, building designers and operators know lone wolf attacks are a known threat, even if the likely offenders are not. We, as specifiers of public and private buildings, therefore, have a duty of care to protect staff and visitors most at risk.
The question is: how do we do this without turning buildings into forbidding fortresses that no-one wants to visit, rather than welcoming facilities where people’s needs are served in a hospitable environment?
Security a Concern When Designing Police HQ Building
Resolving this aesthetic and security equation was a priority for my colleagues at Boon Edam Inc in the US, who worked with the Dallas Police Department (the ninth largest municipal police force in the U.S., with 3,012 sworn officers) when their headquarters came under attack.
The department is located in the Jack Evans Police Headquarters building, which was built in 2003. It is a 358,000 square feet (33,259 sq m) building with six floors, which is spread over a three-acre (1.214 ha) site, with a separate 1,200 car parking garage and a large open parking lot for additional visitor parking.
The Jack Evans Police Headquarters building was under construction when 9/11 terrorists flew aeroplanes into the World Trade Buildings in New York. That event was preceded by the Oklahoma City Murrah Federal Building bombing in April 1995 when Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, largely acting alone, killed 168 people. Therefore, security was a concern in its design.
Police officials worked with a Police Design Consultant – McClaren, Wilson, and Lawrie Architects of Phoenix – to help design the building to resist a terrorist attack and isolate potential hazards. The building also needed to control visitor traffic and access. On an average month, there are 5,000 public visitors to the Jack Evans building.
Screening Room with Security Revolving Doors to Contain Incidents
The solution was to keep the existing exterior unchanged and focus on adding a layer of security once a person enters the lobby. Visitors now enter the headquarters and immediately proceed to a side room where security screening is conducted. A new secondary wall with bullet-rated glass and solid bullet-resistant wall materials was constructed inside the lobby to channel visitors to the room.
Once inside the screening room, which also has bullet-resistant walls, the visitor has belongings x-rayed, and they walk through a metal detector. If anyone was to produce a gun and begin shooting, the incident could be contained inside that room.
Once a visitor has been cleared, they proceed into the main lobby via a Boon Edam Tourlock 180 security revolving door. This automatic, four-wing door is the most advanced, security revolving door in the Boon Edam product range that offers maximum throughput, allowing users to enter and leave the building simultaneously. If a large number of persons try to force their way into the facility, the Tourlock 180 will determine that more than one person is trying to enter and will reject the person and lock out any others from entering.
Once a visitor is ready to leave the lobby and exit the building, they pass through another Boon Edam Tourlock 180 that leads to a vestibule with exterior swinging doors. If someone tries to go back into the lobby from the front vestibule area, without going through the security screening room, the Tourlock security revolving door will reject their entry.
Balancing Security with Aesthetics
The Jack Evans Headquarters security upgrades for the lobby improved security and still kept the best aspects of the lobby design, including the antique police car, and the overhead police helicopter. The Boon Edam security revolving doors accurately prevent both tailgating and piggybacking and provide the department with maximum security while controlling traffic flow.
“While it would be great to have a building totally open to the public and then add security as needed, such is not the world we live in anymore,” says Paul M. Schuster, Senior Corporal/Facilities Management for the Dallas Police Department.
For the most part, attacks on police facilities are random, single-shot drive by shootings, says Schuster. “Often, the officers are unaware that the building has been shot at until they find a bullet hole in the brick or glass. Increasingly, police tend to be a symbol of government and some citizens see that as a visible target to lash out at.”
Police officers are trained to expect the routine types of calls, such as domestic violence, traffic accidents, and other crimes. Yet they must be flexible to anticipate the non-routine that can be dangerous and change in a heartbeat.”
Active shooter threats produce a broader, layered approach to security
One such dangerous and unpredictable active shooter incident occurred on June 13, 2015, after midnight, when a 35-year-old male placed a duffle bag with a remote-controlled bomb to detonate later between cars in the parking lot of the headquarters building. The suspect then began shooting continuously at the lobby windows. Officers responded to the scene, a vehicle chase began, and the incident ended outside the city. Luckily officers in the lobby took cover and were not injured.
Following that incident, the Dallas Police Department conducted a security assessment of the building and also at seven patrol stations throughout the city. The assessment included testing various construction materials for bullet resistance to various types of weapons. Gensler Architects and Guidepost Solutions, LLC developed the solutions and plans.
Future security plans – in line with Boon Edam’s layered security approach to protecting buildings and facilities – include exterior site security upgrades to the patrol stations and the headquarters to include security fencing with card access controls for fleet and employee vehicles at each of the sites.
“Yesterday we were concerned about handguns, today we are worried about rifles, and the idea of terrorism is always present with outright attack or bombs,” Schuster notes. “The police officers and police staff only want a place that is safe and where they can do their good work.”
Listen to an interview with Paul Schuster here.
*Michael Fisher is Managing Director of Boon Edam Australia, which is part of the privately owned international Royal Boon Edam group, which provides architectural revolving door and layered security solutions to some of the world’s largest companies, Fortune 500 companies, and companies in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea including financial, data and telecommunications, Federal and State Government, hospitality, health and age care, logistics, retail, and distribution facilities.
About us:
With work environments becoming increasingly global and dynamic, smart, safe entry has become the centre of activity in and around many buildings. Royal Boon Edam is a global market leader in reliable entry solutions. Headquartered in the Netherlands, with 150 years of experience in engineering quality, we have gained extensive expertise in managing the transit of people through office buildings, airports, healthcare facilities, hotels and many other types of buildings. We are focussed on providing an optimal, sustainable experience for our clients and their clients. By working together with you, our client, we help determine the exact requirements for the entry point in and around your building.
Please take a look at our range of revolving doors, security doors & portals, speed gates, tripod turnstiles, access gates and full height turnstiles to ensure the security of your entry and perimeter.
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