PRINT THIS STORY:

CHANGE TEXT SIZE:

ADJUSTING TO A CHANGED LANDSCAPE

Centers reassess security measures

By Debra Hazel

In the world created on Sept. 11, where office complexes are attacked and biotoxins arrive in the mail, many Americans have become a lot warier of public spaces.

And because few facilities are as public as shopping centers, many security professionals believe regional malls could become terrorist targets. While the FBI deemed a widely circulated e-mail warning of a shopping center attack on Halloween a hoax, mall security experts are evaluating procedures and policies across the board to protect their shoppers and employees. The directors of security with most of the major mall developers, who normally meet a few times a year, have been consulting constantly about methods and threats since Sept. 11.

“The reality is that any place where large groups of people gather is a target,” said David Levenberg, corporate director of security for General Growth Properties, Chicago.

Yet Levenberg and his peers face a challenge not known by their counterparts at office or government buildings: Shopping center owners are reluctant to alienate customers by making their centers appear like armed camps, yet they still must make them safe for shoppers in an insecure time.

“Office buildings can have controlled access. This is the exact opposite of what we want to do,” noted Thomas C. Walton, regional vice president of Allied Security, Boston, speaking at a security session at ICSC’s Southeast Regional Conference and Dealmaking, held in October in Atlanta.

Most security experts believe that shopping centers, bustling icons of American’s consumer culture, are a potential target for a terrorist act of some kind.

“The magnitude of traffic puts them in the second tier, like sports arenas and amusement parks,” said James Joly, vice president of mall services for Allied Security. First-tier threats are government and military facilities as well as signature office projects. But malls have their own significance to terrorists.

“When terrorists look at targets, they look at symbols of American culture and consumerism. I don’t think centers are immune,” said Jonathan Lusher, senior vice president of consulting and inspectional services for IPC International, Bannockburn, Ill., noting that malls have been targeted in Britain and Israel.

Most say that high-profile centers would be more at risk than smaller centers in rural or suburban communities. But perhaps the highest-profile center in the United States, the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., says that while it has increased security procedures, it does not consider itself especially vulnerable.

“We’ve no reason to believe we’re a logical target,” said Mall of America spokeswoman Maureen Cahill. “We’ve received no credible threats at all.” But mall owner/managers are taking no chances, with many beefing up security and re-examining procedures.

The work began immediately after the attacks: East Coast malls were closed by early afternoon on Sept. 11, and West Coast and Midwest projects did not open at all. While several developers say the shutterings were not done out of security concerns, but out of respect for those killed that day, many did use the opportunity to rapidly reassess their security procedures and to search their projects for potential problems.

“We consulted with Macerich and others, and that day went through every building, checked every dumpster, garbage bin, etc.,” said John C. Schroder, COO of Westfield America, Los Angeles.

Westfield has increased the security presence at its centers by about 30 percent on average. Areas of the center not visited by the public, including truck tunnels, are checked. Local police patrols also have been increased.

Access to centers’ roofs, always tightly controlled, is now even more carefully monitored, noted Tom Cernock, director of corporate security for Simon Property Group, Indianapolis, at a security telephone conference ICSC organized in October to enable shopping center and other security professionals to discuss problems and solutions.

ICSC has also launched a service on its Web site called Shopping Centers on Alert, which provides news updates and links to security resources for shopping center professionals.

The Macerich Co., Santa Monica, Calif., has asked its security staff to be even more alert than before.

Mall security staff are also paying more attention to shoppers.

“We’re really going out of our way to be friendly to our customer,” said Eugene D. Thompson, vice president of corporate security at Macerich.

Even more important, Schroder said, is to increase the surveillance along the mall’s periphery, utilizing the latest in closed-circuit cameras. The cameras should be clearly visible to potential troublemakers of any kind.

“If the entrance and egress are under surveillance, they’re less inclined to enter the building,” he said.

Automobile access has been carefully rethought and more stringently enforced. Cars are no longer allowed at center parking lots overnight, and can no longer stop in the fire lanes to pick up or drop off passengers. General Growth is also carefully checking the manifests of delivery trucks to ensure the vehicles are where they’re supposed to be.

Other preventive measures likely will include more extensive background checks on short-term temporary tenants. Westfield is considering the purchase of bomb-proof trashcans similar to those used in public places in Israel.

Post-incident measures also are being evaluated. Nearly every firm re-examined evacuation procedures and held additional drills, some involving police and fire departments. More than one professional pointed out that the orderly evacuation of the retail concourse of the World Trade Center, managed by Westfield America, saved many lives (see story, Industry hero put others first).

“A number of us have prepared for serious emergencies or catastrophes for a long time,” said Steven Crumrine, director of corporate security and safety at The Rouse Co., Columbia, Md. “You need to be prepared for a worst-case scenario. But it’s been difficult at times to get someone to take it seriously.”

Those days are over.

Technology also is playing a part: Many companies are increasing camera surveillance at their centers. Westfield plans to place the blueprints of each of its centers on CD-ROMs and give them to local police and fire departments, and to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In the event of any incident, such as a hostage or terrorist situation or even a plane crash, the police will already know where doors, air vents and other key spots are located.

“It will save lives if the fireman knows where to go in, rather than having to wait for a security guard who was hired yesterday to tell him,” said Moshe Alon, president of Los Angeles-based Professional Security Corp., a consultant to Westfield. Alon, who served in an elite unit of the Israeli army, and then with the Israeli Secret Service, has provided security services to high-profile executives and celebrities, including Elizabeth Taylor.

The blueprint program, originally scheduled to be completed by 2004, has now been moved up to a 2002 completion. Westfield also is encouraging its department store anchors, which own their property, to participate as well. “Are we going overboard? In some markets, we might be,” Schroder acknowledged. “But who would have thought a building in Oklahoma City would have been a target?”

No one expects U.S. shopping centers to institute the same kind of security procedures now utilized at Israeli centers; there, shoppers’ cars are searched as they enter garages.

“To put in [the United States] what is in Israel wouldn’t be feasible. Basically, we’re moving to a different level of alert,” Alon said. Metal detectors at entrances also would not be practical; they only detect metal, Lusher points out, and would, therefore, miss bombs made of other materials.

“And are you going to stop everyone with palm pilots?” he asked. More to the point, Americans likely wouldn’t stand for it. And many threats, he noted, cannot be avoided. No one on the ground can stop an airplane from crashing into a building like the World Trade Center.

“We are not ready to live in a totalitarian society. But it is responsible to examine security and see what you can be doing better,” Lusher said. “Let’s use our heads, but not lose our heads.”

© 2008 ICSC. All rights reserved. | Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy | Contact ICSC | ICSC Home |