Setting A Security Standard

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, BY CAROL CAREY

Several years ago, Hopkins obtained a Department of Justice grant to create a uniform radio system on campus. In addition, interoperable communications are in place among first responders both in Forrest County (where USM is located) and much of neighboring Lamar County. Most of the emergency and campus personnel use Motorola 800-MHz systems, and all turn to a pre-planned common channel on game days and during emergencies.

“We put much of the campus on the same radio system,” he notes. “This includes the physical plant, custodial, residence life, food services, administrative, recreational, student union and Greek life areas.”

Outside of campus, the Forrest County Emergency Management District manages the area's mutual aid network, which includes the police departments for the cities of Hattiesburg, Petal and Laurel; the Forrest and Lamar County Sheriffs' offices, the Hattiesburg Fire Department and Hazmat section and the Forrest County Triple A Ambulance service, as well as the Forrest General Hospital.

Access control to be upgraded

A Persona electronic access control system from VingCard, France, is currently in place in residence halls and technical facilities on campus. Hopkins expects to extend that system to M.M. Roberts Stadium this summer and have it in place for the fall football season. The system, with card access and readers, will allow campus security personnel to streamline the credentialing process now in place during stadium events.

Presently, a system of padlocks from Master Lock, Oak Creek, Wis., used on the eight stadium gates is changed on game days to a more secure, color-coded Masterlock system. Depending on their access level, personnel are allowed into particular gates. The game-day locks are “a better grade, more hardened lock, difficult to pick, cut or destroy,” Hopkins says. A few people have access to all gates; others, such as vendors, have access limited to just one area. Keys are checked in and out by department supervisors and cannot be duplicated.

Most campus staff already possess magstripe ID cards, which can be used once the Persona system is installed in the stadium. No one is allowed into the stadium area on game days without some type of identification. Credentials presently used include a range of identification measures, from laminated passes to arm and wrist bands. The particular “pass” identifies the area to which the visitor has access.

Perimeter control and lighting

Perimeter control is another area that has been improved as a result of the 2005 vulnerability study. “Our outer perimeter used to be 50 ft.,” Hopkins says. “We've extended that to a minimum of 100 ft. of the inner gates. The outer perimeter is about one to three square blocks. Within this perimeter, we close roads to unauthorized vehicles 12 hours before game day, opening them five minutes after the game. This area is open to foot traffic only during these times.”

Lighting has been improved as well. “We've increased the lighting so that we have more areas covered. We've installed brighter lighting so that we can better perform certain jobs, such as checking bags at the gates,” Hopkins says. Outdoor, weatherproof, halogen and vapor lighting is used to better illuminate the ticket office, concession areas, maintenance tunnels and emergency generator.

Looking to the future

In addition to the football stadium, USM has the 5,000-seat Pete Taylor Stadium for baseball and the 8,800-person Reed Green Coliseum, an indoor arena for basketball and concerts. Marciani would eventually like to see all of the stadiums become part of a research, training and educational laboratory that would be a model for professional as well as college sports security.

The Sports Security Center is a step in that direction. Formed in 2006 as part of USM's School of Human Performance and Recreation, it offers an interdisciplinary program leading to a Master's Degree in Sports Management. The Center is staffed by both athletes and security experts. Hall was both a college and professional soccer player, and was most recently a member of the Northern Ireland Women's National Team.

Director Marciani has been a soccer athlete, teacher, coach and athletic director and is presently director of the School of Human Performance and Recreation. Director of Programming James A. McGee is a security specialist and member of the USM faculty. He has 21 years of service with the FBI, where he was a supervisory special agent. His service with the FBI included participating in crisis response preparations for the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, as well as the Super Bowl.

Walter Cooper, the Sports Security Center's head of Research and Development, was most recently director of operations for sports event security management projects funded through the Mississippi Office of Homeland Security and the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.

With their recent grant for curriculum development and training, the professionals in this program hope to change the face of college sports security, setting national standards that can be applied consistently throughout the NCAA community.

Marciani, in addition, hopes to see USM continue developing its own physical security systems and procedures. He would like to see its stadiums, “equipped with the highest technology, become a representative of what a stadium in this country should have in protections. We'd like to see the best surveillance, command-and-control center, IT and access control. We think it would be applicable to all stadiums in America, professional and college,” Marciani says.

Marciani also suggests that corporate America could benefit from such a “national laboratory.”

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