Security Survey: Clear Water Bay - Part 3 of 3

Part two recap:

In part two, we studied in-depth about a back gate and how just one gate had given us much information on possible security risks. Now here is the last part of this survey findings.

Part three: human breakdown

The above photo shows a typical guard booth. As you can see from the photo and the car's rear view mirror, the booth locates on the side of the road that leads into the residence area.

We drove in and drove out without any resistance nor surveillance. The simple question was: where was the guard that was supposed to man the booth?

In the same photo, one can see that there is a notice right under the sliding window. The notice is magnified below for your easy viewing:

The notice is asking visitors to register with their Hong Kong ID card at the management office before entering. That was good willed thinking, but based on our actual drive-by experience, the security policy was not enforced.

Let's take a look at another guard booth.

This booth had all the windows covered with torn pages of magazines and newspapers. We passed by several times but still could not tell if the booth was manned or not.

However, after careful examination and thanks to our high resolution camera, we spotted the guard inside:

You are correct. By seeing his head supported by his arm and his eyes closed, we had good reasons to think that he was dozing inside the guard booth. The reason for the covered up windows now seems pretty clear.

If any managers or residents realise that their guard booth is empty or their guards are dozing at their post, it is very easy for them to put the blame on the guard immediately.

The guard himself could be the problem, but the root cause of the problem is often hiding underneath layers of mismanagement. One would need a thorough investigation to determine the root cause. The problem cannot be solved simply by replacing that one guard.

Conclusion:

In our holistic security management framework, prevention and response are the front and back of our security effort. Countless times that we saw investment pouring in for the best security systems only to find out the human response failed to follow when it was needed the most.

Have your trusted security consultant to perform security review for your sites at least annually in order to keep your security operations in check.