The next challenge: Defining the industry's post-catastrophic role

Oct 1, 2001 12:00 PM, Larry Anderson www.securitysolutions.com

Unthinkable is a word that describes the recent terrorist attacks. Many other words — gut-wrenching sadness and bitter anger, dull shock and utter disbelief — also come to mind. How could it happen? And who? And why? Definitely why?

The terrorist attacks made a mockery of our industry's attempts to protect people and assets … or did they? The World Trade Center in New York was described on the very pages of this magazine as having a state-of-the art security system that was the envy of everyone. The WTC raised the bar on high-rise security after the bomb attack in 1993. And yet the CCTV system, the access control system, some $50 million dollars in security improvements, much of it targeted at preventing another terrorist attack — they all ended up somewhere in that pile of rubble. The strict rules about admission to the building, every required ID card, every careful visitor screening — they all proved not so much ineffective in the face of the terrorist attack, but worse, irrelevant.

Obviously, there was nothing that the security departments at the World Trade Center, or the Pentagon for that matter, could do to prevent the tragedies. In the scenarios that unfolded, the security departments offered no protection, and neither does the security industry. We can't protect against airplanes flying into our buildings any more than we can protect against space aliens — a possibility that seemed about equally unlikely up until the day of the attack.

But make no mistake about it: Security failed on September 11; it failed utterly, miserably, and, yes, tragically. The failure happened sometime before those hijackers commandeered the airplanes. Exactly how and where it failed will be debated and second-guessed for years to come. Obviously, the field of security has monumental work to do, no less urgent because the course to improvement may seem unclear. However and wherever we failed, let's fix it. Haunting memories of September 11 will remind us of the profound price of not doing so.

But once those planes were hijacked, the practice of security became powerless to stop the course of destruction. CCTV cameras couldn't stop those planes. Neither could computerized access control. Neither could the brave group of people aboard one of the planes who died trying.

Paraphrasing a well-known prayer, perhaps this is what the industry can learn: “Grant us the serenity to leave to God and the U.S. Government the threats we cannot prevent, the tools and the strength to protect against the threats we can prevent, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

One could argue, after all, that it was the effectiveness of security measures at the Pentagon and the World Trade Center that made it necessary for the terrorists to resort to such unthinkable and dramatic means of destroying their targets. If the only way to attack the World Trade Center is from the air, then the security system at ground-level must have been outstanding. And you read it hear months ago: It was.

Where do we go from here? As a country, the answer will come from our political and military leaders and from the hearts and minds of the millions of Americans who will face this new level of threats with the same determination that has served us so well for more than 225 years. As an industry, the answer will come from our people and, yes, our technology.

In the newly emerging climate of terrorism, the industry's products and services will not become less important, but more so; not irrelevant, but critical. Protection will be a key component of dealing with the scary new environment, and protection is what we do. Rather than feel frustrated or paralyzed by the terrorist events, we should feel provoked, empowered and determined. We can't protect against planes flying into our skyscrapers, but there is still a lot we can protect against. And a lot that we must protect against. Now more than ever.

Want to use this article? Click here for options!
© 2012 Penton Media Inc.

This month in Access Control

• Targeting The Customer
• Electronic Pedigrees
• One Hero Among Many
• Who? What? When? Where? Why?
• More from September's issue