Facility security is an ever-present concern for modern sports arenas and stadiums. Contraband substances, weapons and uninvited guests all threaten to disrupt the fun of the game day, put facility owners on the hook for damages, or even cause injury or loss of life. Unfortunately, security preparedness often feels like a negative of its own. Security has costs, is never fun, and is just one more complication of the already complicated world of facility management. In good times you ignore it, and in bad times it is all you can think about.
So, what happens when someone tells you that you can have security that is invisible to staff and patrons? If that is the case, then even in the bad times your venue can still feel like the good times. Is that offer too good to be true, or can our amazing technological age deliver on promises of stealthy security?
As usual, the answer is complicated. If you just want the advice and not the explanation, scroll down to "Questions to Ask” for five good questions to consider for your security screening checkpoints.
Where it works
The good news is that sometimes, modern technology can deliver on miracle promises. Security cameras allow constant observation and are usually unobtrusive. Advanced construction materials increase venue resilience with minimal aesthetic impact. Emergency alert systems are easily ignored when not in use but provide valuable reaction time during an incident. However, all these technologies have something in common. They are passive, like a tall fence or a “no trespassing” sign.
Passive technologies are well-suited to the kind of improvement that has no impact on the felt intrusiveness of security. They do their job without patron interaction, and they provide real value to a security ecosystem through delay, deterrence and detection. The cameras provide information to supervisors and deter criminals, the construction materials prevent easy ingress by bad actors, and the alert systems minimize harm by allowing warnings to outpace danger.
Where it does not work
If you have ever seen someone set off the alarm when they walked through the anti-theft screening at a typical retail store, you saw where the promise of invisible security ends. If the patron was good-willed and the theft was accidental, they likely walked back to address the problem. If they were not, then they just kept walking. For liability reasons these offenders are not typically accosted. This is a passive checkpoint, and many venues today are sold passive checkpoints but promised the results of an active security checkpoint. While a passive checkpoint may be acceptable in a low-harm scenario like theft prevention, no one will be satisfied to know that your checkpoint only sees weapons entering your facility, and the weight of liability will be completely reversed. An active security checkpoint does not just “check out” threats; it puts them in check. If you need to stop threats, you need active security.
The problem of passive checkpoints is pervasive in the world of entry screening. What happens when your X-ray machine, metal detector or “weapons screening” system finds a potential threat? Is the threat disappearing into a crowd 15 feet past the checkpoint before your staff can react? Can they effectively perform secondary screening if the system alarms? If the offender is noncompliant, does the checkpoint fail?
Security supervisors consider these questions a normal part of their job, but they are rarely in charge of choosing their facility’s next security screening system. For those decision-makers, the allure of an uncontrolled, free-flowing checkpoint is strong. Salespeople conjure images of happy patrons and easy entry, all magically made safe by a machine that sees danger. Modern screening systems do excellent work to detect and identify all manner of threats, but a passive checkpoint is like a head with no body. It sees and shouts, but everyone just keeps walking.
To be an active security system, your checkpoint needs to be able to deal with noncompliance, which can be deliberate or accidental. In a passive checkpoint, accidental noncompliance results from uncontrolled and free-flowing ingress where staff control is limited. Even if a staffer knows which individual moving through their checkpoint alarmed, that is no guarantee that they can catch a distracted individual that has already entered their facility to mix with the crowd inside. Deliberate noncompliance is even more challenging. Such individuals will ignore staff and actively attempt to get away from the checkpoint. A lone officer or armed guard monitoring at an uncontrolled checkpoint has the unenviable task of attempting to catch both kinds of offender with limited means to impede their movement. As he does so, he is forced to move away from the checkpoint for which he is the ultimate backstop. That security is so stealthy that it almost does not exist.
Questions to ask
When you are looking at building out or upgrading your entry screening checkpoints, here are five questions to ask:
- Am I encouraged to do my own object testing, or is that need downplayed by salespeople with black box features like AI?
- Does the security vision I am being presented account well for noncompliance?
- Do the checkpoint setup recommendations I am receiving factor in critical components like secondary screening and the presence of an armed guard or police officer?
- Am I being sold a throughput number or fan experience instead of a security result?
- Am I taking the expert advice of my own security team seriously?
To learn more about security screening and other good questions to ask when building an active security ecosystem, visit garrett.com/security and fill out the contact form to receive educational resources and advice from industry experts with 40 years of experience in the world of front-end security checkpoints.