Kentucky City Hall Protects Employees with Security Enclosure

Kentucky City Hall Protects Employees with Security Enclosure

A clear, protective enclosure is being installed this week in the first-floor lobby of Owensboro City Hall as a precautionary measure to protect citizen-service representatives.

  • By Jessica Davis
  • Mar 22, 2019

Owensboro City Hall is installing a clear, protective enclosure in the first-floor lobby of its building this week. City officials said the enclosure is a precautionary measure to protect citizen-service representatives from potentially disgruntled customers.

According to Owensboro City Clerk Beth Cecil, who supervises the city’s three part-time citizen service reps, she doesn’t know of any major employee safety problems. However, she wants to ensure those employees are safe in case an issue arises.

"We're doing this out of an abundance of caution," Cecil said. "It's precautionary. We do sometimes have citizens who come in and are disgruntled about a variety of things. I thought it would be a good idea to keep those employees behind a barrier in case things were to get out of hand."

Citizen-service representatives at City Hall are CityAction employees who are responsible for fielding complaints, answering questions and directing citizens to the correct departments.

Owensboro contracted with Kentucky Mirror & Plate Glass Co. to install the glass enclosure, separated on the east side of the lobby with a door. The city’s Finance and Support Services Department tax counter on the north side of the lobby is already separated from the public by a glass enclosure.

Assistant City Manager Lelan Hancock said the Finance and Support Services Department tax counter has experienced issues with particularly angry visitors before. In those situations, CSRs are exposed, he said.

"Sometimes people are upset about the taxes they pay," Hancock said. "Some people have become absolutely irate. It's certainly not common, but, for the protection of the employee who may be dealing with those people, we decided this was the safest step."

About the Author

Jessica Davis is the Associate Content Editor for 1105 Media.

Featured

  • Achieving Clear Audio

    In today’s ever-changing world of security and risk management, effective communication via an intercom and door entry communication system is a critical communication tool to keep a facility’s staff, visitors and vendors safe. Read Now

  • Beyond Apps: Access Control for Today’s Residents

    The modern resident lives in an app-saturated world. From banking to grocery delivery, fitness tracking to ridesharing, nearly every service demands another download. But when it comes to accessing the place you live, most people do not want to clutter their phone with yet another app, especially if its only purpose is to open a door. Read Now

  • Survey: 48 Percent of Worshippers Feel Less Safe Attending In-Person Services

    Almost half (48%) of those who attend religious services say they feel less safe attending in-person due to rising acts of violence at places of worship. In fact, 39% report these safety concerns have led them to change how often they attend in-person services, according to new research from Verkada conducted online by The Harris Poll among 1,123 U.S. adults who attend a religious service or event at least once a month. Read Now

  • AI Used as Part of Sophisticated Espionage Campaign

    A cybersecurity inflection point has been reached in which AI models has become genuinely useful in cybersecurity operation. But to no surprise, they can used for both good works and ill will. Systemic evaluations show cyber capabilities double in six months, and they have been tracking real-world cyberattacks showing how malicious actors were using AI capabilities. These capabilities were predicted and are expected to evolve, but what stood out for researchers was how quickly they have done so, at scale. Read Now

  • Why the Future of Video Security Is Happening Outside the Cloud

    For years, the cloud has captivated the physical security industry. And for good reasons. Remote access, elastic scalability and simplified maintenance reshaped how we think about deploying and managing systems. Read Now

Most   Popular

New Products

  • EasyGate SPT and SPD

    EasyGate SPT SPD

    Security solutions do not have to be ordinary, let alone unattractive. Having renewed their best-selling speed gates, Cominfo has once again demonstrated their Art of Security philosophy in practice — and confirmed their position as an industry-leading manufacturers of premium speed gates and turnstiles.

  • 4K Video Decoder

    3xLOGIC’s VH-DECODER-4K is perfect for use in organizations of all sizes in diverse vertical sectors such as retail, leisure and hospitality, education and commercial premises.

  • QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC)

    QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC)

    The latest Qualcomm® Vision Intelligence Platform offers next-generation smart camera IoT solutions to improve safety and security across enterprises, cities and spaces. The Vision Intelligence Platform was expanded in March 2022 with the introduction of the QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC), which delivers superior artificial intelligence (AI) inferencing at the edge.