The Costs of Crime and the Benefits of Security Technology, Part 2
In part two of this story, we explore the many benefits of locks and access control technology on campus.
By Robin Hattersley Gray · March 24, 2016
This article is the second part of a two-part cost/benefit analysis of locks and access control. Read part one here.
Now that we’ve covered the costs associated with locks and access control systems in part one, let’s look at their many benefits.
For campuses that choose to install locks on doors so teachers can lockdown their classrooms in the event of a mass shooting, history has shown us that this strategy does much to mitigate the carnage resulting from these tragedies. In the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting, for example, “Not a single student or staff member was killed behind a locked interior door,” Safe Havens Executive Director Mike Dorn noted to CS in 2013. “This affords additional evidence that lockdown is still one of our most effective tools to prevent death in mass casualty school shootings.”
Although the death toll from Sandy Hook was horrific, with 20 children and six adults being killed, many lives were saved because lockdown was implemented quickly in most of the classrooms. What that number actually is we will never know, and it’s impossible to put a price tag on who was saved.
Rate of Other Crimes Decreases Too
Active shooter events are one of the most dramatic crimes that can occur on a campus, but what about other crimes? Access control and locks can reduce the occurrence of these types of incidents too.
“We have saved a substantial amount of money by locking down some of our dietary serving areas and nourishment closets on the patient floors,” says Carolinas HealthCare System Locksmith Supervisor and Application Specialist David Moore. “In one instance, we were losing hundreds of dollars per week over a two month period because people were getting into our serving area of the cafeteria after hours.”
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