The New York Times

May 7, 1995

YOUR HOME;
Guarding Against Intruders

In the Middle Ages, castle royalty found security behind water-filled moats and turret-topped towers. In ancient China, an entire civilization found security behind a 5,000-mile stone wall. Beefing up security, it seems, is a universal preoccupation.

But moats, towers and walls can all be breached. So how safe is your castle?

"I don't care what kind of security you have," said Michael G. Kessler, president of Kessler & Associates, an investigative company in Manhattan. "If a pro wants to get in, he'll get in."

As disheartening as that may seem, Mr. Kessler and other security experts say there are many ways to protect your home and family from uninvited, unexpected intruders. Moreover, they say, even as security technology has advanced significantly in recent years, it has also become less expensive and is now within the reach of most landlords, co-op corporations, condominium associations and even private homeowners.

"The prices for internal security systems have come down enormously," said Michael Cherkasky, managing director of Kroll Associates, an international investigating firm in Manhattan. "Systems that used to cost tens of thousands of dollars now cost in the thousands. And for a small, private system, we're literally talking just hundreds."

Among the security systems now available to residential property owners -- particularly to co-op corporations and condominium associations, because of their ability to distribute expenses among individual unit owners -- are ones involving access cards and electronic surveillance. The access-card systems use magnetically encoded plastic cards instead of metal keys for entry into buildings. Electronic surveillance systems, interior and exterior, use tiny, easily hidden cameras to provide constant monitoring of lobbies, laundry rooms, elevators and stairwells.

Peter Dukarm, sales manager for Jordan Intercom Systems in the Bronx, said that it was now possible to install a closed-circuit television system that transmits a live picture of a lobby or vestibule area to every apartment in a building.

"We can hook up our cameras to a building's master antenna or cable television," Mr. Dukarm said, "and you can see who's at your front door without getting up from the couch." Residents, he said, simply tune their television to the cable channel that is assigned to the system.

"A few years ago this was a rare thing," Mr. Dukarm said. "But prices are dropping, and cable operators are becoming more cooperative."

The cameras, he said, are so small and inconspicuous that they can be completely hidden. In addition a system can be set up that allows several locations to be monitored and then displayed simultaneously on a split screen. The closed-circuit television system can be used along with a building's existing intercom system, he said.

"For a five-story building, with one camera in the lobby, it would usually cost less than $4,000," Mr. Dukarm said.

In addition to installing televisions in lobbies and laundry rooms, Mr. Dukarm said, it is also prudent and relatively inexpensive to install motion sensors, audible alarms and automatic "egress-only" locks at roof doors. All of that would cost less than $2,000, he said.

In fact, most security experts agree that the most effective and least expensive strategy for increasing security in a multi-unit building is also the one that is most often overlooked.

"The basic rule of any security project is to look at your perimeter and make sure every door automatically latches when it closes," said Mark Berger, president of Securitech Group, a manufacturer of high-security locks in Maspeth, Queens. All doors to the exterior of the building -- as well as doors to the basement, roof and garage -- should lock automatically when they close.

For property owners looking for state-of-the-art security systems, Mr. Berger said, a card-access system is an alternative to conventional key locks for entry doors.

"Every card is registered to a specific resident," he said, adding that the access cards are similar to those used to gain entry to cash machines in bank lobbies. Such cards are difficult to duplicate, he said, and if a card is lost it is simply taken out of the system -- rendering it useless -- and a new card is issued. "For a 200-unit building, you're looking at $5 to $10 per card and about $1,000 for the system," Mr. Berger said.

Notwithstanding advances in technology and the increasing affordability of sophisticated gadgetry, many security experts say that the most effective crime deterrent is the flesh-and-blood kind.

"Since we've had a security guard we've had absolutely no robberies," said Ann Hamilton, president of the board of Southview Owners Corporation, a 104-unit co-op in Jackson Heights, Queens. Mrs. Hamilton said that her co-op hired the uniformed guard after the apartments of several elderly residents were broken into while they were out shopping.

"We also wanted to cut down on the number of strangers running around in the building," Mrs. Hamilton said, referring to delivery people and messengers. "Now the security guard takes in the packages and leaves a note in your mailbox."

The guard, she said, "gives the residents a sense of security."

Ethan Lazar, president of Cambridge Security Services in Manhattan, said that even buildings with doormen should consider hiring trained security guards.

"In New York City there's a healthy percentage of doormen who are not security trained," Mr. Lazar said, adding that under a 1992 state law, security guards must be trained, fingerprinted and subjected to a background check.

For those who can't afford the luxury of guards, doormen, closed-circuit television and electronic access, there are other, inexpensive, strategies that can be used to enhance security in a building of any size.

"First, make sure your intercom system is working properly," said Gerald A. O'Rourke, president of Strategic Controls, a security consulting company in Manhattan. "Second, it's always imperative to have good lighting and a clear view of the lobby from the vestibule. So forget esthetics -- there should be no curtains on the door."

Mr. O'Rourke said that elevators, rather than having a small mirror in one corner of the car, should have mirrors on the rear and side walls. "That way, regardless of what direction you're approaching from, you can see if anybody's in it," he said.

Apartment doors, he said, should have a latched deadbolt. With such a lock, he said, the deadbolt hooks into the mechanism on the door frame rather than simply sliding into it. Moreover, he said, every lock should have a cylinder protector on the outside of the door. The protector, he said, is a round metal plate that covers all but the keyhole on the cylinder and prevents the cylinder from being pulled from the lock.

"A burglar is looking for the line of least resistance," Mr. O'Rourke said. "The idea is to put enough obstacles in the way that you'll discourage him and he'll go somewhere else."

Author - Jay Romano