security and protection system

Introduction

      any of various means or devices designed to guard persons and property against a broad range of hazards, including crime, fire, accidents, espionage, sabotage, subversion, and attack.

      Most security and protection systems emphasize certain hazards more than others. In a retail store, for example, the principal security concerns are shoplifting and employee dishonesty (e.g., pilferage, embezzlement, and fraud). A typical set of categories to be protected includes the personal safety of people in the organization, such as employees, customers, or residents; tangible property, such as the plant, equipment, finished products, cash, and securities; and intangible property, such as highly classified national-security information or “proprietary” information (e.g., trade secrets) of private organizations. An important distinction between a security and protection system and public services such as police and fire (fire fighting) departments is that the former employs means that emphasize passive and preventive measures.

      Security systems are found in a wide variety of organizations, ranging from government agencies and industrial plants to apartment buildings and schools. Sufficiently large organizations may have their own proprietary security systems or may purchase security services by contract from specialized security organizations.

Development of security systems.

      The origins of security systems are obscure, but techniques for protecting the household, such as the use of locks and barred windows, are very ancient. As civilizations developed, the distinction between passive and active security was recognized, and responsibility for active security measures was vested in police and fire-fighting agencies.

      By the mid-19th century, private organizations such as those of Philip Sorensen in Sweden and Allan Pinkerton (Pinkerton, Allan) in the United States had also begun to build efficient large-scale security services. Pinkerton's organization offered intelligence, counterintelligence, internal security, investigative, and law enforcement services to private business and government. Until the advent of collective bargaining in the United States, strikebreaking was also a prime concern. The Sorensen organization, in contrast, moved toward a loss-control service for industry. It provided personnel trained to prevent and deal with losses from crime, fire, accident, and flood and established the pattern for security services in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in western Europe.

      World Wars I and II brought an increased awareness of security systems as a means of protection against military espionage, sabotage, and subversion; such programs in effect became part of a country's national-security system. After World War II much of this apparatus was retained as a result of international tensions and defense-production programs and became part of an increasingly professionalized complex of security functions.

      The development and diffusion of security systems and hardware in various parts of the world has been an uneven process. In relatively underdeveloped countries, or the underdeveloped parts of recently industrializing countries, security technology generally exists in rudimentary form, such as barred windows, locks, and elementary personnel security measures. In many such regions, however, facilities of large international corporations and sensitive government installations employ sophisticated equipment and techniques.

      Since the 1960s, crime-related security systems have grown especially rapidly in most countries. Among contributing factors have been the increase in number of security-sensitive businesses; development of new security functions, such as protection of proprietary information; increasing computerization of sensitive information subject to unique vulnerabilities; improved reporting of crime and consequent wider awareness; and the need in many countries for security against violent demonstrations, bombings, and hijackings.

      Security systems are becoming increasingly automated, particularly in sensing and communicating hazards and vulnerabilities. This situation is true in both crime-related applications, such as intrusion-detection devices, and fire-protection alarm and response (extinguishing) systems. Advances in miniaturization and electronics are reflected in security equipment that is smaller, more reliable, and more easily installed and maintained.

Types of security systems.

      Security systems can be classified by type of production enterprise, such as industrial, retail (commercial), governmental, government contractor, or hospital; by type of organization, such as contract security or proprietary; by type of security process, such as personnel or physical security; or by type of security function or emphasis, such as plant protection (variously defined), theft control, fire protection, accident prevention, protection of sensitive (national security or business proprietary) information. Some of these categories obviously overlap.

      Security for small businesses constitutes a special situation. Because small firms cannot afford specialized proprietary security staffs, measures must be incorporated into regular routines and staff training or be purchased from outside organizations. Theft, both internal and external, is a prime concern.

      Residential security constitutes another special category. Sizable housing or apartment complexes, especially if under one management, can employ sophisticated security measures, including, for example, closed-circuit television monitoring of elevators and hallways and trained security guards. Relatively simple equipment for houses or small apartment buildings, as, for example, exterior lighting and alarms, is increasingly used. Some neighbourhoods of large cities cooperatively employ patrol services or organize resident volunteer patrols.

Physical security.

      Some of the most effective advances in security technologies during the past few decades have been in the area of physical security—i.e., protection by tangible means. Physical security has two main components: building (building construction) architecture and appurtenances; equipment and devices.

      A building can be designed for security by such means as planning and limiting the number and location of entrances and by careful attention to exits, traffic patterns, and loading docks.

      Equipment and devices may be classified in various categories depending on the criteria used. If the criterion is purpose, some of the principal categories are record containers, including safes and files; communications, such as two-way radios and scrambler telephones; identification, including badges and automatic access-control systems requiring the use of a code; investigation and detection (e.g., lie detectors) and intrusion-detection devices, such as photoelectric cells and ultrasonic-wave-propagating equipment; observation and surveillance, including listening and recording devices, cameras, closed-circuit television, and one-way mirrors; countermeasures for observation and surveillance, such as equipment designed to detect electronic surveillance devices; and fire protection. A classification system based on process results in another set of categories. Examples include perimeter barriers (e.g., fences, walls) and locks to prevent or control access, as well as lighting systems to aid surveillance and to deter illegal entry.

      Advances in security equipment technology have been numerous. Some of the more noteworthy examples include sensor devices that report unauthorized removal of items; personal-identification and access-control systems that directly “read” unique personal characteristics such as voice quality and hand geometry; surveillance devices that can scan premises at night; and devices that permit surveillance at considerable distances, making entry to the premises unnecessary.

      A major part of security programs consists of measures designed to recruit and effectively use trustworthy personnel. “Personnel (human resources management) security” is a term often used to include measures designed to select only those people for whom there is a good prognosis for trustworthiness, on the premise that losses from employee untrustworthiness are more frequent and usually larger than losses from outside the system (e.g., burglary, robbery, shoplifting, espionage) and that one of the best predictors of future behaviour is past behaviour.

      Common synonyms are “screening” and “vetting.” The most common technique is the background investigation, which involves obtaining all relevant available data about a person's past education, employment, and personal behaviour and making judgments concerning the individual's likely future loyalty and honesty. Thus, the dossier and computerized national data banks exemplify a response by a society in which great geographic mobility necessitates record keeping as a basis for judgments. Another technique is the polygraph, or lie-detector, examination. Research has also been directed to the possible capabilities and limitations of pencil-and-paper psychological tests and stress interviews. In addition to selection techniques there are other measures designed to keep personnel trustworthy after they have been brought into the system—for example, employee indoctrination programs and vulnerability testing.

      Systems and procedures constitute another area of the personnel-administration approach to security. It is possible to devise work methods and management controls in such a way that security is one of the values sought along with maximizing productivity and minimizing cost. Examples include the use of automated record-keeping systems, the use of forms and reports periodically checked against physical inventories, and the application of the principle of dual responsibility, whereby work is so subdivided that the work of one employee checks the accuracy of the work of another.

      Because control systems are not self-administering, they must be periodically tested and policed. A typical procedure is the vulnerability test, or “created-error” check, in which an error or breach, such as an erroneous invoice, is deliberately planted in the system to see if it is detected and reported. Undercover investigators, such as hired “shoppers” who check on the honesty of sales personnel, also play a role in monitoring the operation of control systems.

      Guard-force training, supervision, and motivation are other important aspects of the personnel-administration approach to security. The use of operational personnel to attain security objectives is still another. Examples include engineers, production workers, and clerical staff applying government security regulations for the safeguarding of classified information, and salespeople cooperating with security staff in the detection of shoplifters. The cooperation of operational personnel to attain security objectives along with production objectives demands an interplay between knowledgeable training and communication programs, supervision, employee motivation, and management example.

      The personnel-relations approach implicit in much of the above recognizes that the attitudes of rank-and-file employees and the social climate that they create can either be conducive to security or constitute its greatest enemy. Therefore, if security programs are to be successful, they must be carried out in a context of considerable understanding and cooperation of virtually the entire work force. The security program is apt to be only as good as the overall pattern and climate of social relations and loyalties of workers and executives of all ranks.

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