TABLE OF CONTENTS William G. Sewell, RCDD
Senior Vice President, DMJM Technology
Arlington, Virginia
Urban anonymity, the idea that people won't know what you're doing or who you are, will, one hundred years from now, look like a small window in history the 19th and 20th centuries.
ARNO PENZIAS (B. 1933)
American physicist, 1978 Nobel Prize Winner in Physics
The best-performing security sensor is a highly trained, dedicated human being. Human senses cover the necessary operations: sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste, feeling, and a voice to sound an alarm and remain vigilant. The human brain can process input from all senses simultaneously and make decisions based on inferences and subtle environmental changes.
Putting people in place to monitor and secure facilities is an expensive proposition. Security guards and cruising patrols can be a costly component of facility operations. Every security post, staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (24/7), represents several full-time employee positions, whether in-house personnel or outsourced to private companies. When salaries, fringe benefits, and related costs are calculated over a year or longer, costs rapidly add up for each position. Minimizing the number of full-time security officer posts or employees allows building owners to reduce operational costs. As a result, by reducing staff costs as well as taking advantage of the many enhanced capabilities of twenty-first-century technology, security technology programs have...
