It is crucial that corporates, malls, amusement parks, and clubs always prioritize the security of people and property. Potential risks involve unauthorized individuals gaining entry in establishments and accessing confidential information as well as threatening the physical safety of the facility.
Due to these risks, industrial and commercial facilities of all sizes are constantly trying to identify and strengthen their physical security.
The rising concern of securing establishments has necessitated better control over the entry and exit of people accessing the facility. This kind of high-end access control is efficiently provided by turnstiles when compared to conventional doors, which can be used by random people.
Here are a few benefits of using turnstiles over doors in facilities that demand visitor tracking.
1. Enhanced Security
Turnstiles help detect and deter unauthorized entry. Usually, the point of entry to a facility is through the door. This door is secured with biometric readers or electric locks. Though these locks can control entry into the facility, they cannot control the duration of time for which the door is open. Further, they cannot count the number of people entering the facility through a single access.
Regular doors do not come with ironclad provisions to prevent tailgating. Moreover, they cannot regulate the direction of passage. For example, if the door has been activated for a person to enter, it can be used to exit the facility by another user as well.
Turnstiles, on the other hand, offer stepped-up security by managing the entry and exit of people. They also effectively manage the direction of passage.
To gain entry into a facility through a turnstile, people must have valid credentials for the barriers to open. The turnstile allows the entry or exit of one person at a time and immediately relocks. Furthermore, a few turnstiles come with features to detect tailgating, loitering, and forced passage. Unauthorized entries trigger an alarm and alert the access control center about such activity.
2. Effective Integration with Existing Access Control System
Turnstiles can easily integrate with the existing access control systems of a facility. This includes cameras and alarm systems. The access control system permits entry only to authorized individuals. It also provides important information related to the identity of the people who have entered, the time of entry, and the location of access. This system also offers live data to help the facility management track people and ease the process of identifying potential security threats.
When a person trying to access the facility presents the valid credentials, the access control system communicates to the turnstile and signals it to provide access. Access is denied if the credentials are found invalid. The access control system also activates an alert to turn on nearby cameras and lock other turnstiles and secondary doors on identifying a potential threat. A regular door cannot do any such thing.
3. Improved Flexibility for Operational Integration
Unlike doors, turnstiles streamline the entry process and enhance facility operations. The authorization modes for entry and exit include barcodes, magnetic stripes, proximity cards (RFID/NFC) or biometrics. Validation through these mediums reduces work for security personnel and helps them focus on their primary responsibilities.
Turnstiles are operated in a single direction or bi-directionally. They are categorized depending on their direction of access, free passage, controlled passage or locked down types.
Turnstiles also improve facility operations with specific options to schedule entry/exit based on requirements. For example, in a typical workplace scenario, turnstiles can be set to allow entry passage during the day when employees enter the workplace and permit exit passage in the evenings. They can also be closed during the weekends and late at night when the facility is not used, securing it completely.
Turnstiles can be set and scheduled with the help of an access control system based on specific requirements. Moreover, advanced turnstiles can be controlled remotely with an application on the facility’s network.
Wrap Up
Though using doors to access any facility has been the norm, modern times call for advanced security measures to prevent potentially unsafe situations. The above-mentioned turnstile features elaborate on the benefits of how they can better secure a facility from potential risks compared to doors. Do let us know your thoughts about this in the comments section.
Image Credit: Flickr / Automatic Systems