The City of Coral Gables

The City of Coral Gables Access Control System (ACS)  project is a good example of our commitment to providing a cost effective, integrated enterprise level security solution for a very large municipality.

The challenge of any implementation of a security access control system is to strike a balance between identified risks of potential losses of property and/or private information and the creation and maintenance of a secure environment that does not negatively impact civic personnel in the execution of their duties and public access by citizens. With this in mind, compliance with federal guidelines on Personal Identity Verification (such as FIPS-201 and FISMA-2002) and corresponding credential management standards is imperative.

Known as “The City Beautiful”, municipal operations span 20 departments with over 2000 employees at more than 2 dozen facilities located throughout the City.

The City’s access control system was in need of upgrade as more facilities were being added and access for city personnel was distributed between several buildings located within City boundaries. MSS professionals worked with City department managers and staff in the design of the clearance structure of the security credentials each employee would need in order to perform their respective duties, while insuring that public access would not be affected during open hours.

Close coordination between City Hall, Public Works and the Coral Gables Police departments was required to insure cardholder database integrity and accuracy, as well as for photo processing, access level and clearance determination and issuance. Micro Security applied a state-of-the-art SoftwareHouse Ccure 800 software and access control system on a secured Windows 2K3 platform. The Ccure 800 connects to over 200 proximity readers via 26 SoftwareHouse apC panels located throughout the City at various facilities. The selection of the Ccure 800 system fulfills the City’s federal security requirements of Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12). This system provides the City of Coral Gables an access control infrastructure that is scalable to fit their current and future needs.

One of the major technical tasks going into this project was providing a seamless transition during the system software and hardware upgrades from their legacy environment. MSS, having a very strong technical background in computer enterprise network and hardware systems, was able to integrate the new systems into the existing security network with no stoppage of City operations.

The system is monitored 24 hours a day by Coral Gables Police Communications staff, with live video being distributed via Ethernet connections to various administrators throughout the building.

Micro Security maintains these systems via a 24 x 7 x 365 Technical Support services contract.