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Case Study - Bradford College

 Bradford barriers bring security bonus

With a student count in the region of 28,000 and 2,500 staff, security at Bradford College has a major impact on the city. Following a number of incidents, the college decided to overhaul their security in line with an ongoing campus development plan.

The initiative included installing CCTV cameras and access barriers, controlled by student cards containing barcodes. The College was concerned that the barriers fitted into the environment aesthetically and had some specific requirements for both the software and the design, according to Security Manager, Mark Hirst.

"We took the view that retractable Perspex wings were a better solution than the revolving tripod access typically used in sports grounds. We also wanted to put in a system that was future proofed as the college is in the middle of a major refurbishment programme, and they were compliant with the latest disability access standards," said Mark.

A number of companies were contacted for proposals and SB Electronic Systems came back with the best solution and plans for an aggressive roll-out programme.

Mark said they were surprised at the impact on security and had not foreseen all the advantages of installing the barrier system. "We installed barriers and CCTV in our central campus building that had proved to be a hot spot for trouble. We are now just getting into year two of use and the number of incidents has come down by 95%."

This major impact on security is through a combination of the barriers, cameras and a more reactive approach by security guards enabled by the technology. "The barriers let us track around 5,000 people entering and leaving the main campus building each day and together with the cameras enable us to detect any incident and react immediately in the most appropriate manner," he said.

Further advantages are that the tracking via the barriers helps with building evacuation as the occupation of the building is known. As the campus attracts people of all ages, the records can assist with questions about minors entering and leaving the building.

The main campus barriers are acting as a 'footprint' for further deployments at a current £20m accommodation development and a forthcoming rebuild of large areas of the campus expecting to cost in the region of £150m.

With the technology being future proofed, the College can develop the systems without incurring prohibitive costs.

"We are looking at moving from the barcode tracking to the more sophisticated proximity card 'chip and pin' technology in the future," Mark added.

"We have worked with SB Electronic Systems for over two years now and it has been a good experience and we are delighted with the system currently in place. As our college is developed during the next few years, we will continue to work the SBE team to implement the barrier system across all future new sites."

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