Beyond Keys In Kansas

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM

Derby, Kan., is a city of some 20,000 people, about 10 miles outside of Wichita. In 2000, the city began a major building spurt, culminating in the new Mulberry Road civic complex, which includes a new city hall, the town's library and the old city hall — now converted into a senior citizens' center. In addition, a new police and courts building, a new fire station with EMS and new administration and public facilities were constructed and opened in 2001.

During the design process, city officials agreed that the new construction would be protected with an access control system in addition to key locks. Key locks presented a problem in that there would be too many keys to the new buildings in existence. Changing all the locks, a time-consuming and expensive job, would be useless because a lost or misplaced key could cause a potential security breach. The city chose to implement card-based electronic access control into the new civic complex. After receiving bids from several security integrators, Derby city officials selected an access control system from Compass Technologies Inc., Exton, Pa., through system integrator Trimech Inc., Wichita, Kan.

Under the implementation, all building exteriors would be completely card-controlled. Card access was provided for the city's civic complex, police department, water towers, parks, the city's water-metering facility and one of its two fire stations. The Rock Road fire station includes a storm shelter/safe room area that can be opened to the public from the police department dispatch desk during weather emergencies such tornadoes and ice storms. During a January 2004 ice storm that brought down miles of wiring, various doors were programmed to allow private utility crews access into the building from the cold.

Access control will soon be added to the civic wastewater plant facility. The facility is securely fenced to protect a police firing range and automobile impound area. The new access functions will provide control and identification information to ensure that the area is locked at all times following a new Homeland security regulation requiring all wastewater facilities to be locked.

About 125 city employees and 31 volunteer firefighters carry cards providing access to various buildings and areas. The police department holds about 45 of the cards. High-ranking officers in the fire and police departments carry cards permitting entry to every access-controlled building in the city. Lower-ranked firefighters only have access to their assigned fire stations. Police patrol officers have access to the station and will be able to access the firing range when access control is implemented. Police dispatchers and fire department personnel who work around the clock are also outfitted with card access.

The system's aim is to identify groups of people by the facility where they work and to give access to the facilities that those people need to enter on a regular basis. At the police headquarters, for example, only detectives can have access to the evidence room, excluding even the police chief. Other police building doors also have restricted access — including the sally port, a prisoner transfer area, and the holding cells, which are controlled by dispatchers.

A few of the city's long-time vendors — including security and HVAC contractors, a computer consultant and a few technicians who visit the water company's metering station — were given access cards. Otherwise, cards are issued to vendors on a case-by-case basis and only for the duration of their specific function.

Currently, the city's access cards are designed solely for security. Every time a card is used under the present setup, the system records it by ID, location and time. However, the Compass Technologies system will readily support a variety of other control applications, such as an ancillary time-clock function.

Since the card access system went on stream, the city has installed a fiber-optic communication network that allows interconnecting card readers and controllers. Originally designed by Sandifer Engineering and Controls Inc., Goddard, Kan., subsequent installations have been completed by Trimech.

Moving from key locks to card access was a desirable solution from the security aspect as well as for convenience. Furthermore, it was clear that the logical time frame for implementation was during the construction of the new complex. City officials would have preferred to give up keys entirely and card-control every door, but the budget did not permit it. However, both the city hall complex and the new police headquarters now have walls fitted with conduit leading to a blank plate on every door. If the budget ever permits, any or all doors can be fitted with card control at minimum expense and inconvenience.

Even without carding individual doors, the new system provides better knowledge of who is in each building and what is going on inside and provides a record of each entry.

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© 2008 Penton Media Inc.

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