Conducting a Security Assessment of a Building Essay

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This assessment will be conducted for the Sun Tower, in Vancouver. Local law enforcement is provided by the Vancouver Police Department.. The area is patrolled very regularly. There is a major station 1km east and the headquarters is 1.5 km to the south. The nearest fire department is a major station that is across the street from the nearest police department. The nearest hospital is St. Paul's Hospital, which is about 2km to the southwest. There is a station for BC Ambulance Services about 2km away to the east. It is anticipated that VPD will have the fastest response time, given the density of patrol vehicles in the area. All emergency services are reached via 911.

The Sun Tower sits on the corner. There is one building directly adjacent. This is home to a beauty salon, and residential condominiums above. There is no security on site.

The main entrance is up a flight of stairs, so there is no need for a vehicle barrier. There is one step for the fire exit, and just two small doors at the back, one for freight and the other with an entrance to the fitness facility in the basement. None of the entrances require vehicle barriers, as none are large enough for a vehicle larger than a bicycle to drive through. There is no on-site parking.

There is no landscaping for this building; its entire footprint is taken by the office tower itself. Intruders could potentially find cover with the scaffolding that is in place outside of the front entrance for construction work on the roof, and intruders might gain similar cover from the dumpster out in the back alley, but available cover is minimal. The building's dumpsters are padlocked. Other dumpsters in the alley may not be, in particular the ones associated with the grocery store. Its loading dock is across the alley, its dumpsters in high use during the day, and may remain unlocked during that period. All dumpsters are highly likely to be locked at night.

The utility shut-offs are located inside the building. It is not possible for passersby to access them. A person would need to enter the building, but even then the utility shut-offs are secured in unmarked, locked rooms.

There are no special emergency routes at the Sun Tower. The sidewalks out front would become hazardous during a snowfall. In the event of emergency, there are emergency stairs, which are not the normal stairs. The emergency stairs are wider, and access to them is typically locked at each floor.

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Several floors are taken by individual companies, so any person not in one of those offices would not have access to the emergency stairs, if those companies have locked down their facilities (as is the case).

Most tenants are software companies, marketing companies and other small businesses in the tech, marketing or legal sectors. There is a fitness facility in the basement that has high traffic. These businesses range from five or fewer employees to around 75 at the largest. A total of around 400 people can be expected to work in the building on any given day. All businesses in the Sun Tower conduct more or less regular office hours. The fitness facility opens earlier than other businesses, to accommodate early morning workouts. No businesses work at night. The building itself is accessible only with a fob from the hours of 6pm-8am on weekdays, and at any point during the weekend. This includes the gym, which has to buzz its clients in during off-hours. Access to the building is provided via fob, and only to people who work in the building. Thus, at any one time, there are hundreds of people who have access to the building. The greatest security risk is during business hours, when no credentials are required to enter the building. Access to any given suite can and is often limited, but there is the risk that someone can gain access to the building, and simply hide in a stairwell or other semi-hidden area until after hours. This is a greater risk than any risk of someone penetrating the building from the outside during off-hours. There is no security presence in the building, only maintenance staff, so this type of situation can only be addressed by the police. Should an intruder enter and remain in the building this way, most floors would be empty of people by 6pm, and detection would be difficult. The person would then have the opportunity to do damage to the building, using whatever tools or weapons they brought with them. It would at that point take considerably longer for the situation to be recognized, and in the off-hours law enforcement would need to gain access to the building, and there would not necessarily be anybody on site in order to provide that access.

There are markers that can be seen through the windows of one marketing company on the….....

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https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/conducting-security-assessment-of-building-essay