Market experts on the pages of CRE.Retail magazine answered important questions about security in modern shopping centers. Since the beginning of May of this year, many Russian shopping centers have received reports that they have been mined. The information swept like a wave through dozens of objects in Moscow, Yekaterinburg, St. Petersburg and other regions.
Oleg Chubko
In this regard, the editors of the magazine decided to find out how much safer our shopping centers have become over the past year, whether anything has changed since the infamous "Winter Cherry", and what the regulatory authorities are now doing to improve the situation in the country. Oleg Chubko, Head of Communications and Signaling Systems Department at Metropolis, spoke about some of the security aspects.
How it should be?
In fact, the security of the mall is ensured at the design stage. The object undergoes several checks, which should guarantee compliance with all security measures, in particular, an examination at the design stage and an examination before receiving an act of commissioning. For example, today it is impossible to open a new facility if it does not have metal detector frames installed at the entrance.
At the same time, the situation is complicated by the architectural features of the building (the presence of multi-light spaces and atriums), the increased range of evacuation routes, the mass congestion of people, and many other factors.
Therefore, in order to create the most safe working conditions for a shopping center, it must be provided with everything necessary: an automatic fire alarm; warning system and management of evacuation of people in case of fire; automatic installation of water-based fire extinguishing; smoke exhaust and emergency lighting systems, etc. An important role in this matter is played by the access control and management system, burglar alarm and video surveillance system.
By and large, the security of the mall is ensured at the design stage: in many cases, problems are formed at this stage, and it is difficult to fix them later - both technically and financially.
There are changes, but not in everything
The events surrounding the "Winter Cherry" have shown that even large and popular facilities often neglect safety issues. And the shopping center in Kemerovo was not an exception to the rule, and, unfortunately, a sad but logical outcome. The use of non-certified, usually combustible and toxic materials in the decoration, blocking escape routes, the unsuitability of the building's architecture and a number of other similar factors ultimately led to this tragedy.
One hundred percent security is, unfortunately, an unattainable result in principle, but it is certainly necessary to strive for it. It is unrealistic both physically and legally to check what visitors bring into the territory of the mall in their bags and backpacks, the law on private security activity does not allow much in this regard, and there are thousands of them. Do not discount the low qualifications of security personnel. One of the ways to improve anti-terrorist security is the use of video analytics tools. The experience of holding the Olympic Games in the city of Sochi, the World Football Championship in the Russian Federation, shows specialists that this is a very powerful tool, by means of which the effectiveness of countering various threats is greatly increased.
Read the full material in CRE.Retail.
