Unlocking the true potential of perimeter protection
Collaboration between fence, gate, lock and systems manufacturers is needed for a coordinated solution.
Ports can choose high-quality fencing and gates but then pay very little regard to the last item – the lock, says John Moore, business development director of Leeds-based Pickersgill-Kaye, which supplies high-security locks for a variety of sectors.
He says a more collaborative approach is needed to the installation of perimeter security systems, with fence, gate, lock and systems manufacturers working together to develop a coordinated solution.
“You get fencing contractors coming along to apply the fence to posts sometimes put in by other people and not necessarily to an accurate degree,” he says. “This should be a comprehensive installation – the lock must be properly fixed to the gate, the gate must be properly fixed to the posts and the posts must be in the right place and suitably braced to provide this protection.”
He speaks with evident frustration of cases where a gate contracator sees a gap and welds steel over it to ‘make it go away’: “The gap is hidden but it is still there.”
Pickersgill-Kaye, which works in naval bases, refineries and other high-risk areas, says industry needs to get away from the ‘chain and padlock’ mentality and turn to available technology.
Its locks can be interfaced with access control systems and CCTV; if someone tampers with the lock, a CCTV camera will automatically swing around to that location, zoom in and flag up an alert in the control room, and other security systems can be triggered.
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