If your facility is the White House or the U.S. Capitol, then the answer is easy. (Indeed, those facilities — and hundreds of others in Washington, D.C. and elsewhere — have been so protected for many years.) Often, however, the answer is much less clear. If you are even thinking about protecting your facilities and staff from terrorism, then anti-ram vehicle barriers are just one of a long list of systems vying for your money and attention.
As much as we like to sell our vehicle barriers, we hope that you will take a broad and careful look at your facility's total perimeter security needs. After all, it makes no sense to spend thousands of dollars to protect entrances, while ignoring the fact that a determined attacker could reach your building by driving over the lawn. Make sure your security planners – be they internal staff or contractors – make a comprehensive perimeter security assessment. Our experience extends to government, commercial, and military installations, the latter commonly called Anti-Terrorism Force Protection or ATFP installations. So if you you don't have vehicle access control barrier experts on your security team contact us, we'll serve that role and answer your questions.
We can help you calculate a return on investment for your vehicle barrier. But let's not kid ourselves, vehicle barrier ROI is very subjective — how do you accurately quantify the probability of attack or the value of lives not lost?
Remember also, while barriers are very effective, they have their downsides. They require personnel to operate them, they need a small degree of regular maintenance, and they slow down vehicle ingress and egress. Many are quite ugly (ours are the exception) and detract from a facility or give it a fortress-like look. (See our discussion of barrier aesthetics.)
If you are unsure about using vehicle barriers at your facility, consider taking our Vehicle Barrier Seminar. In addition to a wealth of practical information, you will receive our copyrighted vehicle barrier procurement checklist to help you identify key parameters that will help ensure you select the right barrier and have a successful vehicle barrier installation. Or simply Contact us so we can discuss your needs in greater detail.
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