Court-Ordered Keys
Improving courthouse security with strong key management
- By Fernando Pires
- Oct 01, 2015
The comings and goings of judges, inmates, attorneys, law enforcement,
maintenance staff and others pose a number of safety concerns
for courthouses. Part of managing security in these types of
settings involves strengthening the role of access control to ensure
that all of the various parties within the courthouse remain in the
areas they are authorized to enter, allowing security personnel to focus on operational
matters. With physical keys still predominant in many if not most public
buildings, ensuring that keys to holding cells, courtrooms, file rooms, offices and
other sensitive areas are in the possession of only authorized personnel remains a
top priority.
The main challenges with key management, whether for courthouses or any
number of other applications, revolve around knowing who has a key at any particular
time, how long he or she has had it, when it should be returned and if or
when it was returned. Given the highly sensitive nature of courthouse keys and the
potential security and life safety risks associated with lost or stolen keys—which
could extend beyond the courthouse itself to the general public—it is simply not
acceptable to leave these questions unanswered.
GAINING ACCESS
With a large number and wide variety of individuals requiring access to different
parts of a courthouse, key management can become a major challenge. For example,
a law clerk might reach for the key to a file room, only to find it missing. In a
courtroom setting, information is often needed as quickly as possible; but in order
to access files needed for a particular case, he or she would be forced to go through
the time-consuming—and incredibly frustrating—process of working with security
staff to determine who had the key last, then tracking that person down to
retrieve it. These delays could make a real difference in how a case is decided.
This is just one of the more benign examples of the importance of key control
and management, which take on even greater importance in emergency planning
and preparedness for courthouses. Without adequate means in place for securely storing keys and accurately
tracking their use, keys to holding cells,
judges’ chambers and other sensitive
or restricted locations can become misplaced,
resulting in serious breaches of
security and elevating the risk a courthouse
faces. In an emergency situation,
weak or inefficient key management
policies could lead to a critical key being
missing or create a delay in locating
it, both of which could have dangerous
consequences.
By its nature, key control is a physical
modality; keys are physical objects,
and the first step toward securing them
is to lock them in a safe location. This
fundamental premise and purpose of
key management remain the same, but
the technology inside today’s key cabinets
is quite sophisticated. Digital technology
and system integration, coupled
with the growth of networked, IP-based
systems, have transformed key management
capabilities from simple locked
cabinets into higher-level management
tools that can integrate and communicate
with other physical security and
operations systems—often without requiring
costly upgrades or overhauls.
Compatibility with other security
and network access systems offers an
added richness and usability, as does
the integration of key control systems
with a courthouse’s existing identification
cards. Integration also enables
management to deny egress from a
courthouse to a user who has taken a
specific key until the key is returned.
CONTROL AND MANAGEMENT
Implementing a key control and management
system is a rather straightforward
process that involves a few basic
steps: take inventory of the courthouse
to identify all access points and installed
locks; ascertain the operational needs
of employees, visitors, attorneys, service
staff and others; and establish a policy
with easy-to-follow procedures for effective
key control and management.
Key management systems can be
tailored to offer a wide variety of options
for accessing the keys within the
cabinet, including a built-in keypad,
fingerprint readers or other biometric
technologies, and magnetic or proximity
card readers. Going even farther, an
advanced key management system ensures
that each individual key is secured
to an intelligent locking mechanism
with built-in memory chip. Data from
that chip is stored every time a key is inserted
into a key slot within the cabinet.
This allows key control and management
systems to provide up-to-date
and reliable information that can be accessed
quickly, making it possible for
personnel to proceed with established
procedures in an emergency or other
situation. For example, if prisoners
must be moved from one holding area
to another because of an emergency,
doing so quickly and efficiently can depend
on how quickly keys to each area
and its cells can be located. Immediate confirmation of where keys are or identifying
who has possession of them can
make a big difference in terms of safety
and security.
The driving force behind the evolution
of today’s robust key management
systems has been the development of
advanced application software, which
enables systems to be virtually hardwareagnostic
in terms of configuration and
integration with access control and other
security and business systems and technologies.
The software provides users
with tremendous versatility to control
the system and maximize its reporting
and programmable access capabilities.
ENABLING SOFTWARE
AND INTEGRATION
The advanced notification functionality
enabled by software and integration
includes the ability to send alerts that
contain a high level of information. A
key management system can typically
be set up to send email and/or SMS
alerts to specific recipients. For example,
a user might receive an alert with
the location of a specified key, what
keys an individual has that have not
been returned, and when the keys will
become overdue.
Key management system software
can also run a wide range of activity
reports, sort based on different criteria,
view and print reports, and more. These
capabilities make it possible for system
managers to generate reports and then
analyze the information to maintain
maximum control of access and security
issues.
Given the range of conventional applications
for key/lock systems and the
cost-effectiveness of these devices, the
need for physical keys will continue to
play a significant role in courthouses’
overall security strategies. That said,
today’s key management systems provide
cutting-edge solutions that maintain
strict accountability for keys, limit
key duplication and distribution, and
incorporate leading-edge software that
provides advanced insight into key use.
Email reports detailing which keys are
in or out and who has/had them keeps
security personnel and other stakeholders
informed and up to date.
In an emergency, the speed with
which this allows keys to be located is
critical. Following an incident, the system
can quickly provide specific details,
which can be combined with audit data
from an access control system and/
or video from a surveillance system to
provide a strong evidence trail. Today’s
robust key management systems offer
the control, flexibility and scalability
to help courthouses to ensure the highest
level of security for the various individuals
who pass
through their halls.
This article originally appeared in the October 2015 issue of Security Today.