Where Do We Go From Here?

Interview with Patrick Fiel Sr. Security consultant with ADT, and former chief of police for the Washington, D.C. School District

• By Ralph C. Jensen
• Apr 23, 2007

Q. Many people have said that large college and university campuses cannot be truly secure. Do you believe they can be?

A. The answer is college and universities present major challenges considering the size, number of students, staff and visitors. The nature of a university is an open campus. It is a challenge that we have to meet; it’s not an option here. There’s no room for words such as cannot or impossible, as people are saying. We’re talking about lives here. My belief is that we can secure this environment without turning these campuses into a prison.

Q. What elements or combination of elements are necessary to protect students and staff?

A. To get a good security plan to work, there are multiple combinations. You have to start at the beginning with proper policies and procedures in place. Then you can go into emergency preparedness. From there, you can rely on technology. Technology is very critical, as you can see, as a resource around campus because campuses are so large. A majority of campuses have a minimum police force. So technology becomes an extra set of eyes for them. Once you implement security technology, it’s a matter of keeping funding available and making sure you have enough resources. Then you have to train, train, train, making sure you become proficient. The main thing is leadership. You’ve got to get the buy-in from the top. Leaders are ones making decisions on a daily basis.

I go around the country talking to my colleagues and chiefs of police. They understand and really do know what’s needed. However, when they get up to the leadership level, it seems they don’t want to hear it. They develop an attitude that “it’s not going to happen here.” So, it’s a wake-up call, and they have to go in with the understanding that it’s possible it could happen and you have to prepare yourself for the worst disaster there is.

Q. What types of technology can work in a large campus setting?

A. It’s very critical when we talk about technology. The first thing we must do is an assessment. An assessment determines what is currently in place, and what we can recommend to turn it into a solution. One thing we saw at Virginia Tech, and it is critical, is the lack of notification. It is very critical in a time of crisis.

Notification is what we call emergency alert communications. This system is able to tie in instantaneously to telephones, cell phones, digital pagers, fax machines, PDAs, e-mail and computer systems. It can go into the Amber Alert and LTD sites. It can be voiced and text messaged. It also can be presented in 10 different languages. It’s very critical in a crisis situation when information needs to be disseminated to everyone on campus so the culmination of this alert system to the exterior of the campus, allows the 30,000 people that were on campus or coming to campus to have that information. This a very critical step in keeping people informed. It’s also able to reach out to the media, parents and to police. It’s a mechanism of a total notification system.

This is not only used for emergency, but also other things. It could be for weather calls, or a tornado or something foreseeable, such as a change of class or a two-hour delay in the start of school. This doesn’t necessarily have to reach all 30,000 students, it can be selective.

Cameras are very effective on or around campuses. Cameras are so sophisticated that they can go into analytics and tell you exactly what you want to do.

Video also now can tie into law enforcement and, of course, into the emergency response unit that responds to campuses. So cameras are a very effective tool before an incident, during an incident and after an incident.

Access control is very critical when a campus goes into lockdown mode. They have to be able to secure their campuses. Every dorm on campus, every main door and around the perimeter should be secured. You can do this without keys. You can do this with some type of access control system where you have card swipes. Now, card swipes can be controlled by one central location and by giving certain people authorization. For instance, if you have a residence hall and you have 50 students living there, you’d have 50 cards, and the individuals would have their own smart card. Also, every residence hall, every academic hall, every building or facility would be able to be secured. So, basically, a simple deadbolt would suffice.

As you can see, there’s a whole comprehensive plan when we talk about technology on campus.

Q. Many public and private colleges are strapped for money. How can they fund the plans you are talking about?

A. What I’ve learned, especially as a chief in Washington, D.C., is there has to be a commitment here. There has to be a commitment from the administrators and decisionmakers. All schools have money, it’s just they now have to allocate it. They have to balance between education and security; it has to be part of the curriculum. In the past, and I’ve been there, we talk about the fact that we never had any money to do anything. Everyone else had money. So the money that’s incorporated in the general fund has to be part of the solution, so law enforcement or the chief of security can make recommendations and implement some of the things that were talked about.

It’s very political; it’s a commitment. We have to say that we’re committed to finding solutions. It boils down to the administration, implement great leadership and the proper technology, and you’ll have a good working campus.

Q. What role, if any, can government play in helping to secure our campuses?

A. We should be taking the lead for somebody. Someone should step up to the plate, and I believe it should be the federal government. When I was the chief in Washington, D.C., we got a lot of guidance and a lot of information from the Department of Education and the Department of Justice, and now since 9/11, we have the Department of Homeland Security. I think it’s very critical that we have a standard across the board—more like we do in K-12 schools—that we can put into college campuses around the country. It’s critical that we have some type of a standard for a basic level of security at all campuses.