Measure type: Access control

Access control is the measure of reduction of risk by regulating and controlling the flows of traffic into and out of an area or object.

Description

The aim of access control is to be able to determine who can or can't enter a particular area. This discrimination can be done on various characteristics such as whether one is in possession of a ticket, has registered in advance, the time of day, the place of entry, the mode of transport, etcetera.

Boom barrier at a parking

Bus trap

This approach involves architectural features, mechanical and electronic devices, and related means for maintaining prerogatives over the ability to gain entry. Both dynamic measures (moving, acting such as boom barriers or guards) and static measures (passive, such as bus traps or heightened curbs) can function as access control mechanisms.

Various means of access control are feasible, such as:

• Key control systems
• Electromagnetic doors, openable only by qualified personnel
• Door guards
• Barriers, both static and dynamic
• Partitioning off of selected areas during "downtime" hours
• Reduced number of building entrances

Essential conditions

For access control to work, one has to make sure that alternative entry routes are made impossible. For example, erecting a control post at a stadium is useless if the entrance next to it is unguarded. This means that for this measure to work, the access control has to be active at all designated entry points and all other access to the area have to be sufficiently blocked.

In practice this means that this measure usually needs to be accompanied by other measure types, such as target hardening and/or directing traffic flows to prevent uncontrolled entry points.

Effectiveness

Economic effectiveness

Access control does not only reduce the risk of security threats, but also requires time and money by private agents, companies/developers and the public authorities, exacting economic costs. Together, the benefits and costs are referred to as economic impact of security measures. The costs of access control measures contain the relatively straightforward direct expenditures on capital equipment and operational costs (both temporary and permanent), and in addition generate various types of secondary effects. Access measures like closed roller shutters or big chain locks in shopping streets are classical examples of measures that do not create a welcome environment, creating secondary/indirect economic effects as a result of a reduction of the perceived security and quality of the environment. On top of that, access control measures can cause negative indirect effects for commercial venues like convenience stores. These negative effects are caused by a decrease in accessibility, reducing the amount of customers and increasing the costs of distribution.

Whether the costs are making sense from an economic point of view, depends on many factors, and can be answered by two distinct sets of questions:

1. Are the envisioned access control measures cost effective from a socio-economic point of view, or are there better alternatives?
2. Which specific agents (individuals, companies, sectors, authorities) are affected by the access control measures, and to which extend? How do the envisioned measures adjust the behaviour of these agents, and of course the behaviour of criminals/terrorists?

Economic tools can help the decision makers to answer these questions and to prevent wasteful expenditures on security (of course in collaboration with insights from criminology, sociology, etc.).