I start work at WPAFB sometime next week. (Paperwork is done, just need start date.) So, security will consist of guards with guns that have bullets that enter and exit you from three different places. 
ID cards and pins to get into the building, lots of super secure stuff. The phyisical security is good, the network security is not so good, because the idiots in control of the bases network listen to buerocrats rather than network security experts, nuf said.
I work for the school system, in a new school every week. Board employees are supposed to wear their badges at all times, but I’m subcontracted so I have to show my driver’s license and leave my car keys at most schools plus wear the nifty stick-on badges-in most schools.
Many of the schools have metal detectors, cameras, and only one entrance is unlocked. Some schools keep all doors locked and you have to be buzzed in. A few have guards or policemen stationed somewhere on campus.
The surprise lock-down drills are creepy. Especially when you have this huge desire to flee, but someone else is holding your keys!
FCM, do you work on the west side of the mighty St. Johns, then?
Last company had keycards, two different cards managed by two different companies, depending on where you go.
One client had secure magnetic fobs for access to the premisis, and a seperate fob for access into or out of the server room. The fobs were of the proxmity type, so no cardswiping, just do the “security hokey-pokey” (thanks, Blackclaw!) The server room had time alarms on the doors… If the door stayed open more than 15 seconds, it sounded local alarms and an alarm at the local police and at a private security company. If the same fob was used twice on one side of the door without being used once on the other side, the alarms again would go-off.
One of my other clients has airlocks (small airlocks!) that resemble old-style pneumatic message tubes. The floor in the airlock is pressure sensitive, and you have to stand in a small square just big enough for two feet. The floor weighs you, and if you try to exit the building while differing significantly in weight from when you entered, you get stuck in the lock. If you move your feet while in the lock, you get stuck in the lock. The locks are designed to make it essentially impossible to smuggle two people through at a time, or to haul away more than a pound or so of material. Oh, did I mention the camera in the lock…? I was much amused to watch one of my colleagues screw-up the process, and get stuck in the lock. It required a visit from 3 seperate, highly amused armed guards to get him out.
I can’t talk about security at my current employer, but it’s a large Pharma with much very valuable information on site. Suffice to say, security is as tight as you’d want it to be, including (amazing as it may sound) IT security.
Security at the school where I work (at least, for the next few days) is not too impressive, but it seems like the computer security is better than the physical security (mostly worried about our computer-savvy Silicon Valley kids doing something to the network, I guess). It’ll be interesting to see whether I retain access to some buildings when I check out later this week. I suspect because of some recent changes they’ll forget to collect some keys and things from me unless I remind them. I’m also pretty sure they won’t bother to change the burglar alarms.
Three years ago I worked at a Naval Air Station, and I wasn’t terribly impressed with the security there. Several times they had to open a back gate onto a public highway to let contractors’ vehicles in, and no guards were posted at that back gate. Access to the rest of the base from there would have been easy. I was also a bit disappointed by the security around explosives and ordnance.
We had a student get our whole group in major trouble by winding up on the runway in her car, and once a co-worker and I were in the restricted area during a missile test after no-one told us we weren’t supposed to be there.
I really hope their security has improved a lot since I left. 
Oh yeah, just to echo FairyChatMom, the base had a large seashore, but I’m not sure whether that was guarded at all… I would certainly hope it is now.
My Dad volunteers at the Air Force museum as a restorer and tour guide. (I live within twenty miles of it or so.)
Sometimes folks touring the museum forget they are on an air force base so when they act unruly it’s not the local police that haul them away but Air Force military police. Unfortunately, my Dad’s already had to demonstate this for some unruly teenagers. I hear Air Force MPs have their sense of humor surgically removed…
Security? What’s that? I work on a university campus: security consists of our police force and panic boxes/phones scattered about. It’s better than nothing, but the placement of the panic boxes (and lights!) leaves much to be desired. (Although we do have a security escort service, available upon request.) Thankfully, most of the problems here are involving petty theft.
And while yes, some rooms have alarms on them (labs, etc.) umpty-million grad students have the pass #'s for them… Beyond that, it’s no more secure than needing a key to open your office door. Can’t really make it more secure than that though, given the circumstances (and lack of money): could you just imagine the look on most student’s faces when told they have to go through three layers of security to get to the comp labs? (And what the tuition would look like in order to pay for that?)
<< Fear me, for I have a… a… FORK! >>
So pathetic it would be funny, if it weren’t a recipe for disaster.
We have swipe cards that do double duty as door keys and time cards. Swipe slots on most outside doors and the server room. But other doors are easy to get in.
We have photo ID badges, but only certain people wear them (mine stays in the car just in case I need it). Most of the people have been there a long time, and know each other. Mine is falling apart, I’m not requesting a new one since I never wear it and it gets in the way. They’re just cheap laminated cards on a clip anyway. A former cow-orker created a perfect copy at home on his computer, but replaced his picture with Ronald McDonald. He wore it for weeks and only a few people noticed.
We have cameras on a few doors and in a few locations inside. People make a point to flip them the bird. Management claims to review tapes periodically and hold on to them for 30 days, but who knows. I’ve seen fights, gropings, sleeping, drinking, etc. in front of the cameras. No one has been fired for anything they’ve done in front of the cameras.
There is a security guard from 10pm to 6am every night. The guard walks around the building, checks a few doors, and drinks lots of coffee. The guard early in the week is about 75, and spends most of his time guarding breakroom nd his coffe cup. The late week guy walks around more but never stops or questions anyone. But he looks like a proper guard. The weekend guy is afraid of his own shadow. The one intimidating guard we had, who also knew who to keep an eye on, asked to be reassigned because he didn’t want to be around all the shenanigans going on at our place since management wouldn’t do anything about the troublemakers.
We had a bomb threat last year, our threat procedure was a complete failure. The threat was called into 911, so the cops had to come tell us about it. We evacuate, but not to the designated site. The first thing the guard did was move his truck to another parking lot for his own safety. The cops leave and say they’ll check back with us in 45 minutes to see if the situation changes. The guard and a few dept. heads had to search their areas. None wanted to do it, but finally did. No bomb. The safety coordinator was informed at home, and was drunk, and didn’t remember telling us to evacuate the building when he was called the first time. The caller was never found, even though he called 911, and hopefully the call was taped or traced. No changes to the procedure were made after this, so if it happens again we’ll probably go through the whole FUBAR ordeal again. Hope no one ever wants to seriously do us harm.
“And don’t even THINK of asking about the radioactive death monkeys…”
…black ops division of the MBA(Monkey Butler Agency).
Coming inot my place without authorisation will land you a more permanent stay there.
I.D’s. restricted access, alarm bells, personal alarms, razor wire,specific keys issued to specific users, visual id at the gate, searches.
…and yet one of our charges climbed right over the fence, you’d think he didn’t want to be in a jail.
Technically, I don’t have “a” workplace, since I mutated into a contracted consultant in mid-2001, but for the sake of it let’s refer to the two places where I get paid to show up:
Workplace 1: Small college campus. As Nightsong describes, basically a small unarmed security team, that mostly directs traffic, and regualr old alarms. (And yes: college campuses everywhere have a problem with lighting the public spaces). Network security, so-so
Workplace 2: State capitol complex. Well, not so much a complex as the capitol per se plus a bunch of buildings and/or office spaces within a half-mile radius that have been bought or leased to provide office space. Armed state police on patrol, posted at every major building. Metal detector at main entrances of capitol, hastily installed last September, and it shows (offline more often than on). Proximity cards to open staff-access doors at main buildings. ID card for chamber access, but I’ve never had it checked. Actual employees use biometric time-punch. Network security mediocre. Physical condition of some of the buildings a bigger hazard than any external threat.
I have a yellow dog.
Her hackles go up if someone comes over that she does not know. She can be bribed via milk bone.
I just know that Al Queda is going to storm my place one day with a hord of doggie biscuits. Don’t worry, I shall repel them with my weedwacker ( if I can get the thing started in the first 100 pulls.)
(Shirley, you crack me up!)
Are you still mad at me, Scott?
I am part of the security force here, along with the FSO. We all have badges. I can inspect any bag or parcel. We have key-coded entry and limited access after hours, depending on our position. We have Network security, but you’d have to ask the IT guy if it is perfect. I threaten to stip search cute male visitors, but I haven’t followed through, yet.
Well, it’s our middle name: National Security Agency.
Hey, Dubya came and visited us today. Last Presidential visit was 'waaaay back in '86, so it was a semi-historical event.
And there wasn’t any “semi” to the positive effect it had on the work force. Pumped up the troops, man.
I’m in the Air Force. Before coming to Korea I worked at the Pentagon.
Security for most of the general areas of the Pentagon is pretty much like that in the OP. Except we can back up our non-disclosure agreement with a charge of treason.