by Héctor Gómez Pérez
For these days when the World Cup qualifiers to be held in South Africa in 2010 are on the lips of all Latin American football fans, it occurs to me that we could compare football with perimeter security, although both aspects at first glance have no point of parallel.
If we consider the 11 players of a football team with a facility (regardless of whether it is a residence, a factory, an airport or a penitentiary), we could say that the line of brand flyers fulfills the times of perimeter security in a facility: it is the first line of defense; the one that ultimately has the function of stopping and alerting early the intrusion of the rival, if we talk about football, or the friends of others if we do it in a facility.
Just as containment flyers prevent the opponent from approaching the goal zone at all costs, perimeter security systems become factors that stop intruders from entering the property or persuade them not to even try. In the same way that in the World Cup qualifiers of our region there are less effective defensive systems, in the perimeter security systems there are levels that guarantee better protection depending on the type of equipment that composes them such as fences, meshes, concertinas, volumetric sensors, infrared, CCTV, lights, speakers and sirens, to which response protocols and operational personnel are added to attend the alert.
Security: a priority issue in the region
The issue of security occupies the covers of our newspapers daily, not in vain in a press review of the same date, Tuesday, October 7, 2008, two newspapers from Colombia, El Colombiano, from Medellín and El Tiempo from Bogotá, had security issues as main news in their electronic versions. The first had the headline "Caracas, the most violent" (http://www.elcolombiano.com/BancoConocimiento/C/caracas_la_mas_violenta/caracas_la_mas_violenta.asp?CodSeccion=9) in which it revealed a study by the journal Foreig Policy that indicated that Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, ranked as the most insecure city in the world above New Orleans (United States), Moscow (Russia), Cape Town (South Africa) and Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea).
Among the data extracted by the report, it is worth highlighting that although the aforementioned cities can be considered violent, only Caracas exceeds the figure of 100 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. "According to this study, in this country there is a homicide every half hour and its main victims are young people between 15 and 29 years old, while impunity increases (...) In fact, the latest surveys, such as that of the firm Seijas, carried out in several cities agree that insecurity is currently the biggest problem that Venezuelans have, "said the Medellin newspaper.
On the other hand, the article of the newspaper El Tiempo to which we refer is the same editorial (http://www.eltiempo.com/opinion/forolectores/2008-10-07/mas-inseguros_4587454-1) and was titled "More insecure". It emphasizes the feeling of insecurity that is perceived among the inhabitants of the Colombian capital, Bogotá, through a study carried out by the Chamber of Commerce of that city. According to the report, "People's perception shows worrying results. The feeling of insecurity went from 34 to 39 percent in the last year; in shopping malls, that same perception doubled from 8 percent to 15 percent. Even cultural events are unsafe: 35 percent of respondents are uneasy compared to 16 percent a year ago."
In the same vein, the editorial of the capital newspaper indicates that it has not yet been clarified who were the material authors of the attack against the police station of Suba (Bogota town), which occurred a couple of months ago; nor who is behind a series of bus burnings, nor the reasons that originated the explosion in a building in the north of the city that occurred on Friday, October 3. {mospagebreak}
The issue of security in our countries is so important that on October 7 and 8, the First Meeting of Ministers of the Interior on Security matters of the Americas was held, which proposed measures to counteract insecurity; this was an initiative of the Organization of American States (OAS), headed by its secretary, the Chilean José Miguel Insulza. The meeting was held in Mexico City and was held because, according to the OAS secretary, insecurity threatens stability, democratic strengthening and the development possibilities of our region.
Precisely the headquarters of the meeting is going through a difficult situation of insecurity as a result of the frontal war waged by the state against drug trafficking and that has caused more than 3,000 deaths so far this year. All this added to the high crime rates in some cities, including the capital, where in 2007 there was an average of 25 robberies and four deaths per day, according to data extracted from the newspaper El Universal of that country.
Kraft's case
Kraft Foods Inc, is engaged in the manufacture and marketing of packaged foods and beverages worldwide. Its products range from biscuits, salty snacks, chocolate, confectionery, powdered drinks and cream cheeses, among others. Its large portfolio is distributed in more than 150 countries and has around 175 manufacturing and processing facilities around the world. At the regional level, it has plants in Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Peru and Mexico.
Precisely the case of end user that we will describe below was made in Mexico, where the company has plants and distribution centers in areas such as Tijuana, Monterrey, Guadalajara, Mérida and the Federal District, which was precisely the place where the installation of the perimeter security system was made by Telesistemas y Seguridad Perimetral S.A. de C.V with supplies from the manufacturer Aliara.
The guests for the realization of this case study were the engineer Enrique Segre and the lawyer León Segre, director and manager, of Telesistemas y Seguridad Perimetral S.A. de C.V, respectively, who offered us the details of the product used and the details of the installation process of the perimeter security system in Kraft.
It is important to note that the plants of this food company are located on the outskirts of the Mexican capital, where security conditions are a bit precarious. Hence the need to add to the cyclonic mesh, which the two facilities already had, other elements that offered a higher level of security that prevented the theft of finished food, the supplies for them and the entry of assailants of other goods to the plants.
While the cyclonic mesh persuades assailants not to enter a dwelling or factory, there is always a danger that it will be cut off for entry into the facility; In response to this possibility, the directors of Kraft Foods, through an internal study, opted for a microphone cable system from Aliara to detect the moment when the mesh is cut or an intruder tries to scale it. According to Enrique Segre, aliara's equipment was chosen for the ease of installation, its operating software and its reasonable cost.
As far as the characteristics of the installation are concerned, we can point out that one of the plants (Victoria) has an area of 1125 square meters, and a perimeter of 925 meters. Inside there are a total of 12 buildings; meanwhile the second factory (Ecatepec) has an area of 975 square meters and an effective covered perimeter of 825 meters. {mospagebreak}
Characteristics
The installed system was the Aliara PMS\3A which the manufacturer defines as "an electronic detection system designed to protect internal and external perimeters. It detects the signals coming from the perimeter fence, generated by attempts to cut, scale, hit or tread." It also highlights "its reliability and adaptability in the most demanding topographic and climatic conditions. It addresses a large number of cases in which other systems do not offer solutions: rain, vegetation, fog, wind, snow, rough terrain."
For his part, the engineer Segre, from the installation company, said that "this system is physically placed by means of seals on the existing cyclonic mesh and turns it into an immense microphone. In addition to this, the perimeter is divided into detection zones that in turn are represented on the computer screen to indicate to the surveillance personnel where the event occurred. The size and number of zones is determined by the ease with which security elements will be able to reach the affected site." In the case of the Kraft plants, zones of 150 meters each were made starting from the doors, in such a way that the guards can take care of the two sides of each door; the perimeters were divided into six zones for the small plant and eight zones for the larger one.
As for the monitoring process, it should be noted that the computer, equipped with an aerial photograph of the installation that offers the possibility of determining the area in which there is an event that threatens security, was located in one of the surveillance booths in which there are communication systems with the rest of the control points. It should be noted that there are surveillance personnel 24 hours a day and there is in each area a round control in which the guard presses a button at the beginning and end of the round to warn the system that has already made the route. All processes according to Serge are carried out "with an extremely easy to use graphic software".
Other aspects
It is important to note that this perimeter security system is part of a whole that includes a network of guards, lighting of the entire perimeter, exterior and interior cameras, access control by proximity card, among others.
With regard to the difficulties of the installation, which was completed in November 2007, the installer points out that they were only logistical because the internal surveillance staff opposed the installation of the system, but those in charge of the administration were able to reach agreements with this sector of the company.
The equipment is working satisfactorily since January of this year and "as in all systems at the beginning there was a learning period of approximately three weeks that included the training of all the elements that would have interference in the operation of the same," explained Segre, who also said that the end user is very satisfied with the system since he was able to reduce the number of guards by 40% by eliminating the need for continuous rondines.
Eleven months after its installation, there have been no incidents that threaten the safety of the two Kraft plants in which aliara's perimeter security system was implemented in Mexico D.C.
Epilogue
Finally, the advantages that for Aliara, manufacturer of the security system, PMS\3A offers in the perimeter safeguard are reviewed:
* Low cost.
* Easy installation.
* Reliability.
* No maintenance.
* Generates an early detection allowing preventive actions to be taken before the event occurs.
* Adaptable to the most demanding topographic and climatic conditions.
* Provides solutions in places that other systems cannot offer.
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