Chapter 5: Natural Access Control

• What is Natural Access Control?
• One of the three main strategies to bring together to bring together the physical environment and social behavior to increase overall protection. 
• Natural Access Control is the guidance of people entering an leaving a space by the placement of doors, fences, lighting, and even landscaping.  
• Examples:
• External bollards with light in them for an office building
• The bollards themselves protect the facility from physical destruction because it prevents people from driving their car into the building. 
• The light emitted helps ensure criminals do not have a dark place to hide. 
• The way the light and bollards are placed guide people along the sidewalk to the entrance. 
• The landscape, sidewalks, lighted bollards, and clear sight lines are used as natural access controls that work together to make individuals feel they are in a safe environment and help dissuade criminals by working as deterrents. 
• An environment's space should be divided into zones with different security levels. 
• Each zone should have a specific protection level required of it which helps to dictate the types of controls that should be put into place. 
• Access controls should be in place to control and restrict individuals from going from one security zone to the next and it should be in place for all facility entrances and exits. 
• Controls that are commonly used for access controls within different organizations:
• Limit the number of entry points.
• Force all guests to go to a front desk and sign in before entering the environment.
• Reduce the number of entry points even further after hours or during weekend, when not as many employees are around. 
• Implement sidewalks and landscaping to guide the public to a main entrance.
• Implement a back driveway for suppliers and deliveries, which is not easily accessible to the public.
• Provide lighting for the pathways the public should follow to enter a building to help encourage that only one entry is used for access. 
• Implement sidewalks and grassy areas to guide vehicle traffic to only enter and exit through specific locations.
• Provide parking in the front of the building (not the back or side) so people will be directed to enter the intended entrance.