Those Without ID Will Be Branded Terrorists
We’ve recently been required to have a picture ID visible on our bodies at all time where I work. This is a fairly logical security measure, although it seems kind of silly since there’s only a few hundred people who work there and I’m pretty sure everyone knows everyone else, at least by site. It’s mostly just a pain to deal with.
Why are we doing this? Apparently by doing so, it means that we’re a secure building now, and we can therefore get a higher priority for our stuff coming through customs. It makes sense from the company’s standpoint at least as probably around half of our goods go through customs at some point or another. Now customs knows that we don’t have any terrorists sneaking around the building. Or rather, we’ll have a picture of any terrorist.
Or not. The really funny thing is that the building is set up stupidly to implement this kind of thing and no one seems to care. There is a lobby that anyone can walk into and a receptionist must unlock a door for anyone to get any further into the building. This is a “safe” zone where no one needs ID because it’s isolated. This is only in operation during the day though, and even then no employees ever really go up there. Everyone who works there comes in through a door that leads to a hallway that goes to the main floor in one direction and the break room in the other. And that’s the problem. Anyone who so much as comes into the break room as access to the whole building, meaning they’re supposed to have ID. So if you’re delivering a pizza, and you come to the door (on 2nd or 3rd shift sine they can go to the lobby during 1st) no one is supposed to let you inside. They’re supposed to go get a supervisor who can then come and escort the person into the building and issue them a temporary ID. I haven’t seen this happen yet. Someone just lets them in, they wait for someone to show up and pay them, and then they leave. It’s only been a few weeks though. Maybe by winter we’ll have it down so they stand outside in the snow for a while.
The whole photo ID thing is a nice idea and all, I just don’t think it’s worth much. I was once at a rather large company where several thousand employees worked. They were all required to wear ID and show it to security guards stationed at each entrance. Of course, being so many people, they pretty much just walked in, flashed their badge, and were waved through. So even in a place so big that everyone doesn’t know everyone else, the method can become pretty ineffective. I suppose it’s better to have ID than not to have ID, but it probably shouldn’t count for much either.
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thats pretty much the case with most organisations i know of. i remember roaming around one of india’s top companies finance offices. no id, just a file in my hand.
and no one asked me a question. nada. the security guards actually saluted me at one stage too.
We at least have the advantage (from a security standpoint) of having uniforms. Anyone not wearing one is pretty easy to pick out as someone unfamiliar. Of course, it wouldn’t be that hard to get/make one if you were trying to get in (it wouldn’t be that hard to fake an ID either though).
The policy makes sense, it’s just rather annoying that it’s part of an anti-terrorism initiative. That and the fact that it means very little in the way of actual extra security. I have to imagine that we’re technically more secure with than we are without, but it just looks like more on paper than it is in reality.