It is all about access control - just in case you had not noticed the bumper issue this month!
And on the subject, the Brits must be reeling - first a campaigner for Fathers 4 Justice managed to evade security at Buckingham Palace on 13 September and two days later protesters opposing a ban on fox hunting gained access to Britain's parliament in central London.
Jason Hatch dressed himself up as Batman, scaled the fence and stood on a ledge near a balcony of the queen's main residence to promote his cause. The following day a minister reportedly conceded that security measures at Buckingham Palace need improving, this after the royal security operation had recently been overhauled, apparently.
According to a story run on IOL's website on 14 September, "Home secretary, David Blunkett told the BBC that new alarms and camera systems had been put in place at Buckingham Palace after the 11 September attacks and that police inside and outside the palace had been armed."
In a remarkable breach of security on 15 September, the fox hunting ban protesters (at least five of them) entered the chamber - with parliamentary security guards in pursuit - to express their opposition to the ban to members of parliament.
As a result of this breach, the general threat of terrorism and the flour bomb attack on Tony Blair several months ago, security measures at parliament have been stepped up.
Ongoing cases of fraudulent marriages on our home turf have prompted the department of home affairs to investigate possible ways of eradicating the practice. One option under the spotlight is that bridal couples and their marriage officials have their fingerprints taken at the big event - the possibilities for biometrics are endless...
Back to Hi-Tech Security Solutions. Despite being a small issue of the actual magazine this month, we have still managed to pack it full of info - Dr Craig Donald looks at the question of CCTV and invasion of privacy ('Privacy and CCTV'), Maurice McDowell investigates thermal imaging as part of a total security solution ('Thermal imaging as part of a total security issue'), Charlie Pierce tells you all you ever wanted to know about digital video recording and compression techniques ('Digital video recording and compression techniques: everything you wanted to know and cannot get an answer to!') and we republish an article by Graeme Bell that ran in a sister publication SA Instrumentation & Control in September, 'Bhopal, 20 years on - could it happen here?' It is a frightening recount of the Union Carbide 'accident' that took place in Bhopal, India in 1984.
Other than that we have the regular line-up of news and products and then of course the 'Access Control Handbook' which we are sure you will find very interesting and informative.
In the November issue of Hi-Tech we will be focusing on vehicle security, tracking and recovery and fleet management. If you have anything to contribute to this feature, do not hesitate to contact us.
Till next month, be safe!
Lynne Larsen
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