5 Steps of Site Security Evaluation

Study the building and the surrounding area. Walk around with the building engineer, if possible, and take note of the physical attributes and layout of the building. For each floor, observe access controls and potential workarounds. Note immediate neighbors for later investigation.

Interview the property manager, the chief building engineer, security guards and their supervisor. Develop a site-specific security questionnaire and go over it with each of these parties.

Create a visitor profile. Visitors include anyone who is not an employee or tenant of the facility. Visitors can be categorized as invitees and noninvitees. The object of implementing policies will be to move the unexpected noninvitee guest to invitee status by identifying the visitor and having an authorized building occupant accept the guest into its space.

Assess the risks. First, identify the main threats to the building, such as local crime, workplace violence and terrorism. Then, rate these threats on a scale (such as 1 to 10) to get an overall picture of each threat category.

Evaluate possible solutions for problematic areas. If visitor management is a problem, how much effort and expense would it take to mitigate the risk associated with this area? Assess each area with an eye to potential solutions.