This year’s Campus Safety Access Control survey is filled with insights about the state of access control across the K-12, higher ed and hospital industries.
Four out of five healthcare and education protection practitioners say their campuses or districts have adopted new or upgraded lockdown/shelter-in-place procedures in the past two years, and 29 percent are considering doing so in the next two years.
Additionally, more than seven out of 10 survey respondents have purchased new or upgraded locks and/ or door hardware in the past two years, and 38 percent are considering more upgrades or new purchases in the next two years.
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Those are just a few of the findings from Campus Safety’s 2017 Access Control Survey, in which nearly 1,200 hospital, school and university security, law enforcement and emergency management professionals participated. Download the complete report here.
It turns out that many of the trends uncovered in CS’ 2014 Access Control Survey are still happening today.
Card and/or biometric access control systems are especially popular, with 71 percent of all survey respondents having bought new or upgraded systems in the past two years.
Visitor management continues to be a popular solution for K-12 schools/districts and hospitals as well, with more than half having acquired them recently.
There also appears to be some progress in how much K-12 and higher ed campuses can lock down. Now, 43 percent of K-12 schools can lockdown 100 percent of their campuses, compared to only 35 percent in 2014. Nearly a third of colleges and universities can now lockdown 75-99 percent of their campuses, which is a seven-point increase compared to three years ago.
Unfortunately, hospitals have not fared as well. The percentage of those that can lockdown 75-99 percent of their campuses has dropped five points from 42 percent in 2014 to 37 percent today. Those facilities that can lockdown 51-74 percent of their hospitals have dropped by six percentage points.
One significant change that has developed since CS conducted its previous Access Control Survey involves metal detection. Concerns about this issue have nearly doubled in the past three years for K-12 schools and districts, with 30 percent now saying that “lack of metal detection or the equipment we have needs to be upgraded” are issues that are very or extremely challenging for them.
Tracking and managing keys is another issue that is still significant for all three sectors and is actually becoming more challenging for hospitals and K-12 schools/districts.
CS thanks all of the 1,188 hospital, school and university security, public safety and emergency management professionals who participated in our survey. We truly appreciate your participation! Read survey particpants’ comments on successes and challenges with access control systems here.
