INDUSTRY FOCUS PAGE
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human resource management
Workforce management
Most people who live in residential estates do so for the added security. But gates and fences can only go so far and, as perimeter and building security systems become very efficient, modern criminals have changed their tactics. And, of course, it is essential that all manner of people are able to access the estates. These include visiting friends and relatives but also couriers, pizza delivery guys and building, painting, electrical, gardening and / or plumbing contractors – and their staff.
The fact that estate management has little or no control over the vetting of people that contractors bring onto the estate is a huge challenge. While most of these people are legitimate workers, it may be possible for criminals to find their way onto a team. And, if that happens, that criminal is relatively free to perform criminal acts in the estate.
So the more estate management depends on others to vet personnel entering the estate, the greater the risk of criminal elements being introduced. Workforce management in a secure estate is different from workforce management in a large organisation. The estate’ s management needs to perform the same functions as a company or commercial business, but also needs to give access to employees from various companies who are only vetted and managed once they are already in the estate.
Modern criminals are bold, confident and audacious individuals. They perform criminal acts in broad daylight, often in full view of their victims. Criminal syndicates are well organised and often have extensive networks of information-gathering agents.
ACCESS CONTROL
So to protect ourselves in the face of this new threat, we need to“ own our space”. That means we need to take action to reclaim control over access to our properties.
We need to be able to identify each and every person who enters our space, using the most sophisticated techniques available in this age of technological advancement. These include drivers licence, vehicle licence disc and identity document scanners, and number plate recognition systems. If applied correctly, these systems can detect forged documents.
The lower-quality, more abundant forged ID cards and documents are simply stolen cards that have had the photograph replaced. If access control officers are provided with the correct CCTV equipment and effective training in the use of these systems, they are able to atlantic beach golf Estate
identify those forged cards, because the barcode scanners should produce a photograph of the person when it is scanned.
Professionally forged ID cards are made by staff at offices of the Department of Home Affairs. An innocent person’ s identity is stolen and the criminal’ s photo is included in the barcode of the card as well as on the front of the card. Such forgeries are much more difficult to obtain, and also much more difficult to detect. To spot this type of individual, we need to adopt other technologies.
The equipment used to scan driving licences and the new identity cards is often also able to read vehicle licence discs, which may identify stolen vehicles – or at least stolen number plates. By combining specialised cameras with number plate recognition software, the system can interpret and digitise