M
aster Locksmith Tom Jenkins has spent 40
years securing doors and now holds training sessions on physical security standards. Here, he provides some background on door security, why it’s needed and how it ends up in front of us, without most of us taking much notice.
During your working life, say from the age of 18 to 50, do you know how many doors you have walked through in total? Roughly? Well for me, surprisingly, it’s somewhere between 10 and 11 million. It’s taken me 35 years to count them!
But do you take much notice of each door you walk through, apart from your own front door, back door or car door? Probably not. Doors have been in use for 4,000 years and the lock makers and locksmiths who keep them secure are part of one of the oldest professions and still going from strength to strength.
Previously I have written in City Security magazine about our finest lock makers. From Charles Chubb, Alfred Charles Chubb, Joseph Bramah and August Stenman to, and in more recent times, Emil Henriksson, all of whom have paved the way for how we lock our doors. You can read the full article here:
https://citysecuritymagazine.com/security- technology/high-security-locking-victorian-today
I began as an apprentice locksmith more than 40 years ago and have had the privilege of working on some historical door sets and gates, learning some intriguing facts on the way: At the Tower of London, the Ceremony of the Keys has been held for more than 400 years at the same time each night, even during the bombing of London during the Second World War.
When the Tower holds the ceremony for the new Governor, he is handed the Key to the Tower and this is solid gold. Further afield, I have worked at the Vatican, which has a similar set of gold keys that have occasionally been called the Keys to Heaven; I’d suggest they were to God’s House.
Closer to home, I have also applied my master locksmith skills at Number 10 Downing Street – probably the most famous door in the United Kingdom.
© CITY SECURITY MAGAZINE – WINTER 2021
www.citysecuritymagazine.com
High
Security Doors
Do we know
what we are
walking through?
The risk assessment for properties indicates how many minutes of resistance to attack is required, say 3 minutes, 5 minutes, and 10 minutes. The CPNI has a similar platform working alongside the LPCB. For example, SR 4 means that the door will resist a continuous attack with the selected tools for 5 minutes.
The same methods are used by the LPCB, Secured by Design, and Warrington as well as internal testing by various factories in preparation for certificate testing.
Doors are also blast and ballistic tested. This involves literally shooting at the door and creating controlled explosions to record how doors and windows withstand terrorist attacks or industrial accidents. Yes, that door you walked through last month has actually been shot!
The doors installed at both your work and at home have more than likely been tested for protection against smoke from fires, which is the main killer, and naturally fire itself. Additionally, some doors are designed to protect people, assets, and buildings from intrusion and acts of crime, for example, a marauding terrorist attack (MTA).
Today, as an industry we have a whole set of standards and regulations we must adhere to. These include building regulations, British and European standards, UKAS Accredited laboratories as well as the Loss Prevention Certification Board (LPCB), to name a few. Manufacturers and engineering companies spend huge sums on testing to enable them to achieve certification with the LPCB. The security certificate related to doors is known as the Loss Prevention Standard (LPS) 1175. It is further categorised into Security Ratings (SR) 2, 3, 4, 5 and so on.
The LPCB carries out vigorous testing, using various tools to attack the doors in a safe testing facility. They categorise the various tools and kits that might be used to penetrate a door or window and time how long it actually takes to get in using them. This data is then analysed with precision to declare how the door or window is rated.
Doors must also allow escape in an emergency situation; the related standards here are British Standard (BS) EN 1125 & BS EN 179 and are vitally important. The testing and regulation for this forms a major part of every building specification.
We as an industry test all of these for you, and I’d invite you to take notice, just for a day, and see how many types of doors you see at work. Ask yourself about the glass and other materials used. The doors we have today have multiple functions. Do you use a card and/or PIN number to get in? Think about how many skilled trades it took to put the door in front of you.
We as an industry do our upmost to keep you safe, and mostly without you even knowing. So have a look and ask yourself, how safe am I behind that door?
Tom Jenkins MSyI DipGAI MinstAI MBLI. Director – ATAJ Secure.
www.atajsecure.com
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