Tell us a few amazing statistics about the size of the stadium you’re tasked with protecting.
The stadium encompasses 1.7 million square feet of space. There are approximately 63,400 permanent seats (expandable to 73,000 seats), 88 luxury suites, approximately 7,400 club seats, two 39,000 square foot club lounges, and 77 public restrooms.
What are your responsibilities?
My title is Security Manager from Global Spectrum. My daily duties consist of overseeing the safety and security measure for our guests, staff, and NFL fans. We accomplish this by providing emergency response, safety programs, 24-hour security, and video surveillance through closed-circuit television cameras. I work with all the departments in the stadium to help coordinate each event and the security needs for that event.
How big is your staff?
We have over 25 officers for non-event days. We have a staff of over 750 for event days. This includes outside patrol, inside patrol, ushers, ticket takers, and gate security. We are staffed 24/7 so The PIPEs are always in use!
How many PIPEs and checkpoints do you have?
We have two pipes we use on all our shifts and over 150 checkpoints that we use throughout stadium. Most of our work gets done on the lock-up side toward the end of the day and throughout the night. We complete our tours on a periodic basis and they are random in nature. We have a nice mix of buttons on the inside and outside at our gates.
When a guard goes out, he’ll walk around the building and take a PIPE before he goes out. He’ll hit some contact points, come back, download the report, and then another guard will rotate in, taking up where the other one left off. For example, if one did the service level and the main level, the next will do the loft level and the upper concourse. They’re switching it throughout whole shift and the whole day.
The majority of the checkpoints are around doors that are leading outside, and around high-sensitive areas and rooms that need to stay secured, or points where people don’t check very often so we get our guys to check there to make sure everything’s secured and nothing’s out of place, like behind an escalator or high stairwells. There are some high-sensitive areas, like the NFL locker rooms, and just making sure that our guys are going around and checking things and looking throughout the building has helped prevent a lot of shrink, and a lot of things that if we didn’t have the product, definitely could’ve transpired. But our guys are out and looking around. The system has helped us in making sure that doors and rooms are secure.
How do your guards like the system?
It’s just been user friendly from the first day. The guards are really hands-on with it. Their reports come back and we go over them and we can see what they’ve done. It’s led to a lot of positive feedback in helping us make sure the building is being taken care of.
When we first put the system into place, the guys went around the first couple of weeks and came back and said, we could use one here, another one here, and they started to think outside th class="question"e box. They said, it’s great that we’re checking these places, but what about these areas? The package I bought allowed us to add buttons, so they became more active in trying to think of where they wanted to check. They see a checkpoint and ask a question—if it’s op class="question"en, who’s allowed to go in there? Things like that. It’s making our guys more proactive in starting to think through things.
Do you use the records for investigations?
No, it’s just a checklist of things, so when I get in in the morning, if they have a question they can go back and ask me about it. It’s mostly for recordkeeping and making sure that we are going after everything. If something does come up, we can go back and see that we looked at it at this time and we have it. But nobody’s questioned us yet because our guys have done such a great job.
Reports are downloaded at the end of each shift to review and document officer patrols. This helps us in keeping things in order! Guard1 Plus allows me to review and monitor what is being done on each shift. It is a great aid in making sure our building is secure and safe for everyone. Guard1 Plus has helped out a ton on keeping our records clean and updated.
Does your use of Guard1 Plus change when you have an event?
The great thing about this system is that this helps with our pre-event checks. But once we get event staff into place, we’re pretty much taken care of. When we have an event, we have as many as 750 staff, so everywhere there’s a button we put a staff.
Have you found The PIPEs to be durable?
When first got The PIPEs and they were fresh, they beeped and looked nice, but our guys have done a pretty good job at beating them up. But they’re still in good shape and they’re still working. We haven’t had to change the batteries yet, and it’s been over two years.
Have you found the customer service helpful?
The people at TimeKeeping are fantastic, and anything I needed is just an e-mail or phone call away. That’s definitely helped out. On our end it’s been very well received. Other buildings have called me about the system and I’ve recommended it to them.
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