 Overview
Schools and colleges present special challenges to the education professionals responsible for staff and student safety. Campuses must be designed to present a pleasant atmosphere for students and faculty, yet protective measures that will consistently prevent harm when challenged must be in place and operational at all times. Troubled students must be supported, but those who present a threat of harm to others must be quickly recognized and dealt with compassionately and effectively. Parents and visitors must be made to feel welcome, yet potential intruders must be intercepted to protect students from abduction, custodial interference, and violence from persons outside the school community.
Requirements of an Effective Security Plan
 An effective security plan must have provisions that meet all of the following requirements:
- Deter rational people from attempting to commit theft, violence, or other offenses
- Deny unauthorized persons access to assets (facilities, equipment, and people)
- Detect unauthorized activity quickly before unacceptable loss occurs
- Delay persons engaged in offenses from completing their objectives until they can be stopped
- Defend against violence, when escape is not an option, to stop casualties long enough for public safety responders to resolve the incident.
Where Should We Start?
Effective security planning is a form of risk management. It consists of a number of elements which must be tightly integrated with each other under an overall vision that defines:
- The assets to be protected
- The threats to those assets
- The risk levels (likelihood of occurrence) for those threats
- Vulnerability to the likely threats
- The levels of tolerable and unacceptable loss
- The resources available to prevent or mitigate losses
The best way to start a plan is with a security assessment which looks at each of these elements in a systematic way, points out where significant risks are not paired with effective countermeasures, and identifies options for effectively bringing those risks back to acceptable levels. Without this step, it is highly likely that important risks will go unrecognized, and major gaps and vulnerabilities to large losses will go unaddressed.
Elements of an Effective Security Plan
 An effective security plan involves much more than just technology. Expensive security system purchases are not always the best answer for reducing risk, and can even be a source of false security if improperly deployed.
For example, a main entry door equipped with an electronic access control system but operated by a poorly motivated security officer who automatically presses the door release whenever the intercom rings does not provide real protection. It is, in effect, a very expensive unlocked door.
In a similar vein, and contrary to popular belief, cameras by themselves do not prevent offenses. Although they may have some deterrent value against people contemplating theft by stealth, this effect does not carry over into violence, where they provide only post incident evidence unless they are constantly monitored by alert personnel and are backed up by an effective rapid response plan.
An effective security plan requires careful consideration and integration of each of the following elements:
- A robust set of policies, procedures and emergency plans
- Practical training and emergency response exercises for all staff and students
- Architectural and landscape design that supports secure operations
- Integrated security system design (locks, access controls, CCTV, intrusion and duress alarms, intercoms, etc.)
- Public address systems
- Emergency equipment
- Dedicated protective personnel, or protective roles delegated to members of the community
- Interoperability and joint exercises with local public emergency response agencies
Not every facility needs every type of security system, but the vulnerabilities they counter must be addressed in some way.
We Can Help
Contact us today to arrange for a professional evaluation of your school or college's security measures and a road map for optimizing your efforts to protect your people, property, and assets at a cost that makes sense for your budget. If your organization can't afford a well qualified full time security professional on staff, consider our outsourced security management support service to provide access to the expertise your leadership needs to act with confidence when protecting your assets. If you'd like to schedule, host or attend a seminar on managing security in schools and colleges, please click here for detailed information.
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