Increased security in office buildings

[quasar]

I don't know how widespread this is, but this morning I walked into the lobby of my place of employment and was asked to produce a company ID with picture by a second (new) security guard. Not having been warned in advance, my ID was sitting upstairs in my desk drawer where it was tossed when I realized it interfered with my door card.

Luckily the guard behind the desk was a regular and recognized me. He verified to the new guard, who seemed to work for a different company and have the sole job of checking IDs, that I indeed worked at Lucent. The other guard seemed dubious, but the fact that the first guard recognized me and knew which company I worked for eventually convinced the first guard to let me through. I have no idea how they are handling visitors.

This seemed extreme to me. I certainly want to feel safe, and other than a brief moment of panic after a fire last week, for the most part I do. Each company has door key cards needed to get into the offices. I just don't see the point in having to show an ID to get into the building. If someone wants to get in, all they need to do is park and go in through the staircase between the parking lot and the lobby. As far as I know there is nothing in place preventing that.

Are others seeing increased security at their places of employment?

Janice

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

We have to wear our ID's now or have them on our persons -- but there's a preference for wearing them in plain sight. It's been the official policy for oh, I'd say forever, but no one ever followed it. Now we're dealing with hundreds of volunteers who have some work to do on the lower 2 floors of our building, but manage to find their way to the other four floors... so the worker vs. volunteer ID's are serving to identify which team everyone's on.

mj
whose ID picture looks nothing like her and is expired, but got her past the National Guard to ground zero anyway

[erik_kosberg]

Single-tenant office buildings may need to control entry for reasons such as potential industrial espionage, but large buildings with hundreds of tenants present an entirely different situation. Couriers, clients, delivery people, spouses and others won’t have ID’s. And any ID can be forged.

[quasar]

That's the thing. Each tenant has separately keyed door cards. I cannot get into other offices unless someone from those offices lets me in or I manage to sneak in behind one of them. To me, this building check just makes it a lot harder to do business - the people who will have the hardest time are visitors - the people trying to do business with the tenants.

I say that not yet knowing what the policy is for visitors.

Janice

[realtraveller]

Security at large office buildings needs to be checking trucks that pull up in front or that pull into their garages and delivery zones. It was reported this morning that the same suspects who had fake hazardous materials drivers' licenses also had the building plans for the Sears Tower in Chicago.

Additional security measures at small "ordinary" office buildings are probably not necessary. But for large "target" buildings, government buildings, power plants, etc. security needs to be extremely thorough.

I used to work in the Sears Tower and if I still worked there, I would want the security to be "terrorist proof".

[KateTPZ]

There have been no differences where I work - but I work in a 2-story building in a 3-building complex in small town, America. We're not exactly terrorist target material.

I fear that the appearance of increased security is going to give us all a false sense of safety. What amount of increased office building security would have saved even one person in NYC or the Pentagon?

[erik_kosberg]

I used to work in the Sears Tower and if I still worked there, I would want the security to be "terrorist proof".

“Terrorist proof” is never going to happen. Are we going to start fingerprinting every employee and every visitor for instant FBI background checks? Maybe we should strip search every courier — some of them even look like ferriners. My office has a bunch of X-Acto blades; is every graphic designer now a potential terrorist?

[realtraveller]

Yes, as "terrorist proof" as possible, feasible, practical and constitutional.

If I owned or managed a large, notable office building, I would institute severe security. It would put my leasees more at ease. Failure to have good security now is a not only a recipe for catastrophe, it is almost criminally negligent. So that if the terrorists' bombs don't bring down a company, the ensuing litigation for wrongful death, personal injury and property damages as a result of negligently providing security surely would.

[quasar]

Okay, so today they only had the one guard and I flashed my ID and was waved through. The problem? I had accidentally shown my state ID card (oops).

So I guess they aren't checking too closely, are they?

Janice