If you presently work at a commercial building or museum doing building security you should immediately contact the United Federation LEOS-PBA to find out how we can help you and your co-officers improve your wages, benefits and working conditions under a United Federation LEOS-PBA union contract. 

 

The most common jobs in facilities management are found in building service and security guard occupations. Building service and security guard positions in Washington DC Capitol region are found in residential and commercial buildings, and public institutions, such as schools, airports and hospitals.

 

Over 25,000 are employed in building service and security guard occupations, making this one of the larger employment segments in the city.

 

Building Service Security Guards

 

Security guards in Washington DC Capitol region made a median hourly wage of $8.46 in 1998, with the middle half of all workers earning between $6.75 and $12.39 an hour.

 

The most significant single employer of security guards is the real estate industry, which employs guards in commercial and residential buildings. In addition, over half of the security guards in the Washington DC Capitol region are employed by firms that provide contractual protective services throughout the economy (public and private sector). In the Standard Industrial Classification system, these firms were included in the miscellaneous business services industry group.

 

This is significant in the sense that over half of the security guards in Washington DC Capitol region do not work directly for the institution in which they are placed, but instead work for contractors who in turn place them in retail and other settings.

 

Commercial office buildings range in size from less than 1,000 to more than 1 million square feet. About 2,000 buildings in the United  States (less than 1% of the total number) have more than 500,000 square feet of floor space, and about 7,000 (nearly 1%) have more  than 200,000 square feet. The amount of space in these larger buildings is significant: nearly 30% of all commercial office floor space is in buildings with more than 200,000 square feet.

 

Potential Indicators of Terrorist Activity
Terrorists have a wide variety of weapons and tactics available to achieve their objectives. Specific threats of most concern to commercial office buildings include:

• Improvised explosive devices
• Arson
• Small arms attack
• Assassination/kidnapping
• Chemical/biological/radiological agent attack
• Aircraft attack
• Cyber attack

Terrorist activity indicators are observable anomalies or incidents that may precede a terrorist attack. Indicators of an imminent attack requiring immediate action may include the following:

• Persons in crowded areas wearing unusually bulky clothing that might conceal suicide explosives.

• Vehicles illegally parked near facility buildings or near places where large numbers of people gather.

• Unattended packages (e.g., backpack, briefcase, box) that might contain explosives.

• Suspicious packages and/or letters received by mail that might contain explosives or chemical/biological/ radiological agents.

 

• Evidence of unauthorized access to HVAC areas of a building.

Indicators of potential surveillance by terrorists include:

• Persons using or carrying video/camera/observation equipment in or near the facility over an extended period.

• Persons discovered with facility maps, photos, or diagrams with critical assets highlighted or notes regarding infrastructure or listing of personnel.

• Persons parking, standing, or loitering in the same area over a multiple-day period with no apparent reasonable explanation.

• Persons questioning facility employees off-site about practices pertaining to the facility and its operations, or an increase in personal e-mail, telephone, faxes, or postal mail requesting information about the facility or one of its key assets.

• Facility employees inquiring about facility operations, equipment, assets, or security measures about which they should have no job-related interest.

• An increase in buildings left unsecured or doors left
unlocked, when normally secured and locked at all times