Press Releases

Morse Watchmans Key Control Innovations Enhance Security Offered by Oldham Council First Response Service Team

by msecadm4921

Of the Northern English mill towns, Oldham has one of the most illustrious histories of textile manufacturing in addition to laying claim to many other achievements and activities. The mills at their peak spun more cotton than France and Germany combined; Winston Churchill began his political career in Oldham; and Louise Brown, the world’s first successful in vitro “test tube” baby, was born in the Oldham hospital. There are even claims that Oldham was the birthplace of the first chip shop. When it comes to key management security, the town shows its innovative spirit here as well with a Morse Watchmans key control system.

A residential, ethnically diverse community with ample retail, educational and cultural facilities, Oldham is the administrative center for the Borough of Oldham and part of the Borough of Greater Manchester. Its distinctive terraced houses and the area’s reputation for no-nonsense, straight-talking folk have remained intact as has the community’s canny ability to be innovative in its undertakings.

The safety and security of the Borough’s one hundred thousand plus residents is watched over and protected by a detachment of the Manchester constabulary and by the services provided by the First Response Service Team. The Oldham Council First Response Service team is charged with monitoring the public space video surveillance cameras and various alarm systems. The Service is also responsible for maintaining the security of public buildings and other critical infrastructure facilities and for responding to incidents and emergencies together with the local police force.

Oldham Council’s First Response Service team has over 50 employees who work in shifts to cover the 24/7 year round duties. From the newly renovated command and control center, they cover an area that is approximately 55 miles square (88 kilometers squared) and can guarantee to be on site within 12 minutes from the time an alarm is activated. When an alarm is triggered from any of the 500 plus properties under their watch, operators at the command center follow an established set of procedures which may include notifying key holders to respond to the alarm. If an owner/key holder cannot be located in a timely manner, the Service team will respond. First Response staff also performs security patrols and are responsible for opening and closing Borough assets (i.e. library, museums, etc.) at specified times.

Controlling and storing the hundreds of keys at various locations throughout the command center was a manual procedure and the systems in place ranged from wall mounted key safes with a single lock on them to vehicle mounted cabinets. Plastic ID access cards and key fobs were stored in a plastic box and kept in the control room. A manual log book was used to keep track of key access and return with only an honor system in place to ensure the recording activity. According to Martyn Scholes, Business Development Officer for the Oldham Council First Response Service, it was an inadequate system and did not offer the kind of tracking and accountability the Service needed.

“All the staff had access to the keys and we were unable to keep track of sets of keys,” said Mr. Scholes. “The main problem was that, after finishing duty, it was a common occurrence for the staff to go home with keys in their pockets or leave keys in the vehicles. Due to the shift systems we work, this presented the Service with major problems. For instance, if a staff member went home with a key it could be up to four days before they returned for their next shift. Or, we might have stored 30 keys on a single key ring which dramatically compounded the problem if it went missing. It was only a matter of time until we were faced with a critical situation.”

So when the command and control center was recently refurbished and the security and surveillance technology upgraded from analog to digital, Mr. Scholes took the opportunity to also investigate options for automating the key control situation. After viewing several competitive presentations, the decision was made to proceed with the Morse Watchmans solution for an automated key control and asset management system.

He says, “The system’s functionality and ease of use really sold us on the Morse Watchmans solution, along with the attractive pricing. Another upside for us is that unlike some of the other systems we looked at, there is no annual maintenance fee for the Morse system.”

The KeyWatcher key control system installed at the command and control center comprises three 96-key cabinets and one 8-key cabinet. The smaller key cabinet is used to house the vehicle keys and the larger cabinets house all other keys. All staff has access to the four cabinets but not access to all the keys. Staff can only remove a key to which he or she is authorized to use by entering his or her pre-programmed PIN code or, on the larger cabinets by swiping their ID card through the integrated card reader. If the criteria entered matches the information stored in the system, the key cabinet will unlock and the necessary key can be removed or returned. The other keys will remain locked into place.

The system also allows management to set user restrictions or parameters for optimum key control and management. Currently, three senior staff members have administration rights to the system and data is stored on a dedicated computer. Staff at the command and control center installed the KeyWatcher cabinets and after a brief training session conducted by a Morse Watchmans representative, was able to program the system and fully implement the new operating procedures. In fact, Mr. Scholes notes that during the renovations, the staff had to re-locate the key cabinets three times over a period of 18 months and did so each time without incident. 

“Our primary goal in implementing a key control system was to control the movement of keys. The Morse Watchmans solution not only made this possible, but provided us with several more benefits that added to the validity of our decision,” said Mr. Scholes.

He adds, “We are now in a position that at any given time we can identify who has a particular key and also how long the key has been in their possession. This is of great assistance to us as certain keys need to be accessed as many as four or five times daily. We also have a duty to open and close council assets at specified times and the automated tracking data has been invaluable in this as we can now prove to the clients when and who accessed the keys.”

By maintaining control of who can access keys with an automated audit trail of all key access activity, Oldham’s First Response Service Team is better prepared for emergency situations. The system helps reduce the number of lost keys which, in addition to improving overall security, helps keep costs of lock/key replacement to a minimum.

Mr. Scholes was also impressed with the fact that the Morse Watchmans system is scalable; they can add more cabinets as their needs change and also eventually add network system control. He says, “At the moment we do not use all the functionality of the system but it is something we are looking at as well as integrating it with the building’s access control system.”

 

Related News

Newsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay on top of security news and events.

© 2024 Professional Security Magazine. All rights reserved.

Website by MSEC Marketing