Security of US Capitol Building - Research Paper Example

Security of US Capitol Building The US Capitol building is one the oldest buildings in the United States of America and is located in the Capitol Hill of Washington DC. The building has been used as a meeting chamber of the USA senate and also as a House of Representatives in a period exceeding two centuries now (DeGezelle 4). The house has undergone various security limitations ranging from fire break outs to terrorism attack attempts. Therefore it has been burnt and rebuilt. The same has also been extended and today it is a monument of the architects, builders, the US government and the entire Americans. Capitol building is the centre of focus for the American Legislative Branch containing six major office buildings of Congress of Capitol campus and three other buildings for Library of Congress. The area covered by the US capitol building is 175170 Square feet that is approximately four acre piece of land with floor area of approximately sixteen point five acres and five hundred and forty rooms (Piehl 17). This being the most significant building in the history of the US, it requires an excellent security within its perimeters. The security personnel should be of highest caliber following the fact that the building houses important government offices resources and the personnel working in the building. In addition US Capitol building is one of the major attraction sites for US visitors. Full security mechanisms should be installed in the building for example surveillance cameras should be put in place to monitor and report any form of unusual behavior among the people within or around the premise. A security plan is necessary for such a building to safeguard the building and the office occupants and the public at large against potential bomb explosions, hostage situations and unruly mob situations. Security plan Executive summary A security issue is one the key issues in today life. There have been cases of terrorism bombings reported day in day out. In addition cases of hostages have been rampant across the world. Cases of unruly mobs have always been reported whereby people turn wild and cause unexpected rampages leading to human injuries. All these potential security risks calls for the need to institutionalize a security plan to contain necessary procedures to be followed in case of such happenings. Objective The main objective of this security plan is to provide necessary procedural description of counter actions in case of any of the aforementioned threats materialize. This is meant to equip and keep the security personnel alert and aware of such possibilities. They will be able to execute the security plan so as to save lives and property within the building. Introduction to security i. Protection – this refers to the act of curbing possibility of a threat from happening. ii. Detection – this the act of predicting the possibility of threat happening or is already underway. iii. Reaction – is the actual actions that should be taken after a disaster has taken place or actions taken to counter occurrence of a disaster. iv. Prevention – refers to the measures that should be taken in order to stop a disaster from taking place. Risk assessment This part of the security plan explains the nature of security disasters that may happen and need to be put into consideration so that actual actions or measures that should be taken are recommended. i. Bomb explosion – bombings have become prevalent security disasters in many countries whereby the terrorists targets major buildings of a country. To ensure that bombings risks are done away with in sensitive buildings like US Capitol, the concerned authority should consider exploring the security perimeter mechanism. This keeps away or prevents people from entering the premise from any side. This ensures that the entry into the building is one or two with tight check-in security deployed. Bomb detectives should also be readily available in the building so that in case of any suspicion, an alarm is raised. This will alert the security personnel who are trained to handle bombs to take immediate actions to deactivate the bomb and the people around to do the necessary for their safety. ii. Hostage situations – this is a situation whereby a group of criminals or terrorists hold innocent people according to their will and keep away the security authorities of a country or a building forcibly. In this situation the terrorists or the criminals threaten to kill the hostages upon provocation. To keep away this, the US Capitol employs mechanism of deploying security personnel on all entry points of the building. In addition use of CCTV helps a great deal since these systems detect and report anomalies within the building. This major interior security mechanism reliable for ensuring security of the people working in the US Capitol building. iii. Unruly mob situation – is the situation whereby people in the building turn wild and start fighting each other based on some disagreements or whereby one person is thoroughly beaten by a mob. The US Capitol building needs enough security personnel to help in calming such situations. Security teams The US Capitol building requires security teams to be assigned responsibilities. In this case the security teams need to be integrated so as to work hand in hand with teams that have been created to support business continuity. Every team should be aware of its role and conversant with the way to execute the same. Major teams to be formed include security management team, team of plan development, team to inspect situation, exercise management team, physical security, IT security, and security incident response team. Actions to take now i. The Capitol building managers should consider hiring more security personnel to help in ensuring physical security. ii. Installation of high tech surveillance systems to monitor movements of people within the premise. iii. Train personnel to perfect their response skills Emergency management Preparation – this involves the training, exercising the plan, and preparation of plan development Response – this involves the real reaction to a disaster that has taken place. Recovery – involves actions and procedures to be followed so as to bring everything to normalcy. Mitigation – involves the activities that are carried out before a disaster break out to lessen the impacts of the same. (Ang, and University of South Australia. School of Natural and Built 254) Response actions Evacuation – in case of a disaster the response action that should be taken by the incident response team is to ensure that people have been send away from the building. This will help reduce the impact of a disaster in terms of human lives. Recommendations US Capitol being an important building of the US should reinforce its security by hiring more security personnel of different training ranging from basic security personnel to police security personnel to even highly trained personnel who can detect presence of explosives and necessary actions to take. I also recommend that the US Capitol also consider erecting another layer of perimeter wall to control entry into the building. The walling materials should be of aesthetic value and at the same time more secure. Unnecessary features in the premise should be replaced with those that reinforce security in an aesthetical manner. All entrances in the building should be controlled by high tech systems and telecommunication gadgets such as use of biometric systems to grant and deny access to the building. The IT should be equipped to ensure proper working conditions of such systems. The technology should also be used to screen Capitol visitors remotely. Works Cited Ang, Unn Ter and University of South Australia. School of Natural and Built. Appraising building security of public buildings in Adelaide. Australia: University of South Australia, 2004. DeGezelle, Terri. The U.S. Capitol. New York: Capstone Press, 2003. Piehl, Janet. The Capitol Building. USA: Lerner Publications, 2009. Read More