SPECIAL REPORT: IT Staff I
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What security methods and technology are airports utilising to monitor and control staff access? Ian Putzger investigates.
t appears increasingly likely that the search for high-tech solutions and greater cost efficiencies will ultimately lead to access control points for staff becoming security guard free zones. The financial equation is certainly pointing in this direction, if you believe
the findings of an IBM case study recently carried out at a US airport. For the study, which pitted a centralised operation based on the
technology firm’s offerings against the employee-based approach, discovered that the former would be more effective and save the gateway an estimated $2.2 million a year in labour costs. So how can technology help airports improve access control for staff
working on site at gateway? CCTV cameras are, of course, one of the central elements in most airports’
security strategy, and aligned with other elements, they can add new dimensions to access control. The use of a card reader at an access point can automatically bring up a
stored image of the cardholder, for example, which the security staff in a remote control room can compare with the live image from the camera, points out Jack Turley, vice president of sales and marketing at Gallagher North America, the North American arm of Gallagher Security Management Systems. As the IBM study highlights, video surveillance can also be used to deal
with instances of ‘tailgating’, where one person closely follows another into a secure area. The system identifies such situations, and allows frame by frame
reconstruction of what happened while the room in question is locked. Security staff at the central unit can communicate with the people in the
suspect area and issue instructions. This frustrates attempts to coerce employees to give others access to secure areas. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport has made extensive use of CCTV
cameras, but it was also one of the first airports in the US to deploy biometric technology for security purposes. Employees’ badges are attached to Sea-Tac’s biometric system, which has
records of which particular areas and access points the person in question can enter. Rather than give blanket access to the entire airport, Sea-Tac gives people working at the airport only access to specific areas in line with their work requirements. “It is imperative that the systems are closely aligned, so they
work hand in hand,” remarks Wendy Reiter, Sea-Tac’s head of airport security. Gallagher, which has implemented security solutions at over two dozen
airports in Asia, the Middle East and Europe, is about to commence work on its first airport contract in North America, which involves securing some 40 access points at Laredo.
64 AIRPORT WORLD/OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2010 Guerry Bruner, regional manager for the eastern United States, says that
his system’s close integration to the chosen CCTV provider’s products was one of the key factors why Gallagher was awarded the contract – plus the ability to integrate with the airport’s database. At the heart of Gallagher’s set-up is Cardax FT, a single user interface and
software package that resides on an organisation’s IT network and stores information about cardholders, the site and system activity. It integrates access control and alarms management and can interface
with a host of security and other systems. The dynamic nature of the system is reflected in its ‘compliance’ element, a set of rules determining access that can be updated at any time. If any one
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