Access Denial Systems: Interaction of Delay Elements*

The major components of a security system include detection, assessment, access delay, and response. For the security system to be effective, these components must operate together to assure that they are complementary and there are no vulnerabilities. This paper briefly addresses how these security system components interact and then discusses the delay components in more detail. Delay is used to impede the progress of an intruder while allowing the assessment and response components a reasonable amount of time to function. Current security systems obtain access delay either through on-site guards and/or denial hardware elements. On-site guards are costly; we will attempt to show that improved delay hardware may be costeffective. Access-delay hardware consists of physical barriers, activated- delay dispensables, and associated command and control components. Options for each of these hardware-delay elements are presented with emphasis on new or improved technology.