High-tech security in low-income housing

Aug 1, 1999 12:00 PM, JEREMY APPEL

Biometric devices are becoming increasingly common in security applications, fueled by technological progress and falling prices. The sophisticated technology is even being used in some unlikely situations. For example, at two Chicago subsidized housing projects, biometrics serve as part of a successful security and management strategy.

Biometric devices verify identity by measuring a unique physical characteristic such as a fingerprint, hand geometry or iris pattern. Biometrics provide tight security at nuclear power plants, military bases and cash vaults. Now, they also verify the identity of people picking up children from day care, cashing checks, using health clubs, enjoying meal plans, punching in at work and receiving welfare benefits. The once-esoteric industry is rapidly migrating to the mainstream.

Security and management in distressed housing. The residents of many public and subsidized properties, as well as surrounding community members, regularly face gang and drug activity, vandalism, violence, victimization and intimidation. In their attempt to provide safe and sanitary affordable housing, the federal government, public housing authorities and private owners and managers of distressed properties provide fencing, lighting, closed-circuit television, security personnel, drug prevention programs and community policing.

But amassing sufficient information to identify crime suspects, determine the responsibility of lease holders and prove unauthorized occupancy requires extraordinary amounts of staff time. Often, when evidence is scarce or not legally admissible, it is impossible to evict tenants or prosecute criminals.

In the case of unauthorized occupancy, when the income of an unauthorized occupant is omitted from the reported household income of the apartment where he lives, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) subsidizes too great a portion of the rent for that unit. Meanwhile, thousands of law-abiding, qualified low-income individuals and families await affordable housing.

A new approach to housing security. In Chicago, Marshall Field Garden Apartment Homes and Skyline Towers have found a solution to such problems. Biometric devices are controlling access and providing valuable investigative information. A dual strategy of prevention and accountability is proving to be a critical weapon against crime and illicit behavior.

The strategy is made possible by a specialized access control system that integrates biometric hand geometry devices with single-person-passage portals. These two products have frequently been used together in high-security settings. Here, they are supported by custom-tailored, housing-specific software and subsystems.

"Biometrics makes it easier for me as a manager to know what the problems are, and be able to document the problems," says Dennis Parello, a former security director at Marshall Field Gardens. "The system is a tool that any security-minded manager or security director in any complex could use to enhance the security and safety of tenants, guests and employees."

Biometric devices have revitalized "a housing-based industry" - particularly through reducing crimes such as narcotics trafficking - according to Timothy Vance in a Citizens Housing and Planning Council report.

Masuring success. Considerable anecdotal evidence of success has been noted in the media since biometrics were first applied to housing in the early 1990s.

"It is obvious that physical living conditions have improved at Marshall Field Garden Apartments," says Alexandra Oberdorfer in her study of the problem for her public policy thesis for the University of Chicago. "This is evidenced by decreases in crime rates within the complex, by greater satisfaction levels of residents as indicated in interviews, and, most importantly, by the comparison of before and after. Although there is some controversy about the system, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages."

Regarding the controversy, former director of security Parello notes, the people who "tend to bum-rap the system, bum-rap security [personnel] and bum-rap everything else that goes on in the complex are a lot of the people we have in our office for complaints and troubles."

"When you look at the overall picture, I would rate [the success of the system] a nine or nine-and-a-half [on a scale of one to ten] in terms of enabling us to secure the property and help residents," says Donald Wheeler, former assistant director of security who worked as a leasing agent at Marshall Field Gardens before the system was installed in October of 1992.

Such success at Marshall Field Gardens has prompted other housing managers to install similar systems on their properties. In recognition of the need for security improvements at a 506-unit Skyline Towers high-rise and the proven effectiveness of biometrics at Marshall Field Gardens, HUD awarded Drug Elimination Grant funds for biometrics in distressed housing. Skyline's system went on-line in November 1997, using biometric access control and information systems.

The application. At both Marshall Field Gardens and Skyline Towers, the biometric systems control routine access by verifying each user's identity. Users include children and the elderly, residents, guests and staff. They use their hands as keys to pass through the single-passage portals.

Single-passage portals, which look like enlarged telephone booths, use two interlocking doors, an occupancy sensor and control electronics to prevent "tailgating," when someone gains access through a door that was opened by an authorized individual. Tailgating undermines both security and the integrity of reports. If one portal door is held or propped open, the other remains locked to deny unauthorized passage.

A sensor - measuring the location of weight distributed on the floor - determines whether a portal is vacant or occupied by one or more persons. When it senses single-person occupancy, the door through which the user entered the portal locks.

With both doors locked, the user enters a personal identification number (PIN) on the keypad of the biometric device, an ID3D HandKey from Recognition Systems, Campbell, Calif. To terminate the process and exit the portal at any time, the user can unlock the door through which he entered simply by stepping towards it. PINs are assigned during enrollment when users first arrive at the property. They associate individuals with apartments and indicate whether users are residents, guests or staff members.

Software checks whether each user has current access authorization. If the user is a tenant, he is given unlimited access authorization for the term of her lease. Guest access authorization expires electronically. If the user does not have current access authorization, he can only exit the portal via the door through which he entered.

An authorized user inserts his hand in the biometric device. By means of infrared light, the device compares his unique hand geometry to a 9-byte image, a template that was recorded during enrollment. If the user's hand matches the template, the opposite door unlocks and he can pass. Otherwise, the first door unlocks and he must vacate the portal in the direction from which he came.

Templates are automatically updated, adjusting to gradual changes in users' hands that occur as they grow, age or experience weight changes. If a user's hand geometry changes rapidly, for instance if he breaks a finger, a new template can be created.

Biometrics eliminate "passback," which occurs when someone gains access using a key or card that was borrowed, lost, stolen or duplicated. Even sophisticated card-based systems can only report which cards were used to unlock doors. Biometric systems can report which individuals unlocked them.

Residents grant access authorization to their guests for each visit. Guests enroll in the system during their first visit to an apartment and are assigned a PIN that associates them with their host's unit. The duration of a guest's access authorization varies depending on whether he is a friend, pizza delivery person, baby-sitter, out-of-town guest, etc. Management approval is necessary for residents to grant extended unlimited access authorization. The access authorization of a previously enrolled guest whose "pass" has expired can be reactivated when he returns for subsequent visits. Guest enrollment and transaction information remains available for report generation, even after access authorization has expired.

Some atypical passage situations require more flexible access control procedures. Examples include a parent with a stroller, a caretaker pushing a wheelchair, an amputee, or paramedics seeking quick access. Bypass systems enable a guard to override one or more of the three criteria - single-person occupancy, current access authorization and identity verification - for passage. Bypass portals and lanes accommodate all atypical passages.

Since these passages require guard input, they are recorded on video tape so guard integrity and job performance can be monitored. The system is fail-safe and can release all door locks in the event of a power failure or fire alarm.

Not only does the system strike a balance between convenience and security; it is also easy to use. It has to be to accommodate a large volume of diverse users. At Marshall Field Gardens, a 10-building, 628-unit gated community, the system often records more than 10,000 transactions per day for more than 6,000 users. At Skyline Towers, tenants speak more than 20 languages. The system is also easy for staff to operate. Managers will be happy that "the system itself is really easy to run with a minimal training for the security staff," Parello says.

At Marshall Field Garden Apartment Homes, a subsidized housing complex in Chicago, crime is prevented through deterrence, limiting access to the general public and denying access to specific individuals through biometric readers. The presence of visible security measures deters criminal and illegitimate activity.

In addition, properties benefit from the false perception that the hand geometry devices take fingerprints and are networked with law enforcement records. Potential criminals who worry that the system can provide investigators with information are prone to do their "business" elsewhere or not at all.

Many managers try to bar dangerous or disruptive individuals from their properties, but are only moderately effective in doing so. With identity verification, single-person passage and electronic access authorization, management can automatically deny access 24 hours per day. "It gives us a great arm to bar people from our property. Some people aren't authorized to come onto the property, because they committed a crime on our property or because they were found causing or being involved in domestic battery. We can bar the person on our system," says Dennis Parello, a former security director at Marshall Field Gardens. The system enables management to bar a person, even if a tenant approves the visit.

Audit trail reports provided by the biometric access control system at Chicago's Marshall Field Garden Apartment Homes have proven invaluable in many investigations. One report disproved a teenager's claim that he was elsewhere at the time of a burglary. Another supported the alibi of a man who was on the property when a crime took place across town.

Two reports in combination helped police find and arrest a man who violently attacked a woman he knew - one indicated he was still on the property and the second listed all of the apartments that he had visited previously.

To maintain the element of surprise, police have checked whether the individuals for whom they have arrest warrants were on the property before going to their apartments.

One report shows non-resident use patterns to determine unauthorized occupancy. With supporting documentation, management can order an unauthorized occupant to move out, have the lease holder add him to the lease or evict the host tenant. If adding him to the lease increases the portion of rent paid by the tenants, it relieves HUD of some of its rental assistance burden. "We've used [the system] against unauthorized occupancy. Our success rate is fairly high. In fact, when we've had to test the matter all the way through, the residents have either moved out or been evicted," says Donald Wheeler, former assistant director of security at the complex.

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