PHYSICAL SECURITY IN A FRONT-LINE OFFICE

If your office is a Federal "front-line" office with direct "employee-to-customer" service, your office and building should be designed according to Federal Protective Service security guidelines.
If your agency does not have security procedures in place, the head of your agency may want to ask a regional GSA Federal Protective Service office to conduct a physical security survey to ensure that employees are working in a safe and secure environment. (See FPS Organization and Points of Contact).

Before requesting a security survey, your agency may want to do a "crime assessment" of the risks you and your coworkers may encounter in your workplace. Are your customers likely to experience high levels of stress or tension? Do members of the general public who come into the office tend to be argumentative? Have there been threats or incidents of violence involving the public in the past? Or have Federal employees themselves become violent or threatening?

If your front-line public service office fits this profile, your agency needs to take immediate steps to help make your workplace fully secure. Following are some suggestions on improving security in your office and/or building.

• Post a security guard at the main building entrance or at entrances to specific offices. Officers (or guards) should have a clear view of the controlled area at all times.
• Install a metal detector or CCTV (closed-circuit television) camera or other device to monitor people coming in all building entrances.
• Issue all employees photo identification cards and assign temporary passes to visitors--who should be required to sign in and out of the building. Under certain conditions, FPS officers (or contract guards) should be required to call Federal offices to confirm an appointment and/or to request an escort for all visitors--customers, relatives, or friends.
• Rearrange office furniture and partitions so that front-line employees in daily contact with the public are surrounded by "natural" barriers--desks, countertops, partitions--to separate employees from customers and visitors.
• Brief employees on steps to take if a threatening or violent incident occurs.
• Establish code words to alert coworkers and supervisors that immediate help is needed.
• Provide an under-the-counter duress alarm system to signal a supervisor or security officer if a customer becomes threatening or violent.
• Establish an area in the office for employees and/or customers to escape to if they are confronted with violent or threatening people.

Physical Security Features in a Customer Service Federal Office

• Reception desk immediately inside public entrance.
• Silent, concealed alarms at reception desk and on Federal employee side of service counter.
• Barrier between customer waiting and Federal work areas.
• Service counter with windows between Federal employees and customers.
• Window in supervisor's office from which supervisor can view customer service.
• Access-control combination locks on access doors
• Closed circuit television camera mounted for monitoring customer service activity from a central security office for the building.