I haven’t been in large office buildings much the past few years, but having started classes at UC Berkeley’s extension campus in downtown SF I am now going to one several times a week. And the security is ridiculous.
Call it a sign of the post 9-11 times, I suppose. Every person who enters the building is supoposed to sign in and show photo ID. Fine, but you’re talking about a building where both Berkeley and SFSU hold classes. At peak times you’ll have several dozen students lined up at the desk trying to get in before class starts, and two harassed, overworked guards trying to check everyone in. Someone ‘unauthorized’ can get in with no problem by scrawling something illegible on the paper and waving their wallet in the general direction of the guards. There’s no metal detectors or bag checks, so it’s not in any way a deterrant. It’s more of an annoyance to the students who are standing there checking their watches and wondering if they’ll get to class on time.
Seems to me this is just another example of a vast trend in America — doing something to look good although no actual result is being produced. The building management’s insurance company likely insisted on it, and if they didn’t, then some of the major tenants’ insurance companies probably did. After all, if a terrorist decided to bomb a classroom of people studying accounting and there was no building security someone might get sued. So now there’s a desk and some people and a nice set of policies to point to in case of an emergency. Not that a spiky haired kid and an overweight older woman behind a desk could really do anything about anything except possibly call 911.
Now maybe there’s hidden cameras with facial ID working to provide some accurate security, in which case I take it all back, but even in the unlikely possibility that there is, why go through the farce at the desk at all?
What’s even more annoying is I have to go through this three or 4 times a week for the next couple of months.