Department of Transportation driving consistent security throughout its New Jersey facilities

The New Jersey Department of Transportation’s mission is clear: to provide reliable, environmentally and socially responsible transportation and motor vehicle services to support and improve the safety and mobility of people and goods in New Jersey.

Today, transportation officials say its facilities are well on their way to being models of state-of-the-art security. But that was not always the case. Nearly eight years ago, New Jersey’s Division of Motor Vehicle Services—commonly called the DMV—was reassigned to the Department of Transportation from the Division of Law and Public Safety.

At that time, it became apparent that the security at both DOT, and what is now the Motor Vehicle Commission’s satellite offices, was inconsistent. While employees at both agencies’ Trenton headquarters used cards to gain access into the building, employees at other locations used keys. Key replication was becoming a serious issue, with keys potentially falling into the wrong hands. People who weren't authorized to have keys might have been able to filter through buildings undetected and gain access to rooms and records.

The DOT needed to find a way to develop a keyless system that was foolproof for its executive office in Cherry Hill and DOT satellite offices in Freehold and Roxbury. The DOT began examining different measures in the summer of 2001. One of the Motor Vehicle Commission’s 45 agencies is located on the ground floor of the DOT’s headquarters in Cherry Hill.

Since the headquarters of both the now MVC and DOT required employees to use cards to access the buildings, a solution was needed that was beneficial for satellite offices. John Caola, vice president of Caola Co. Inc. of Trenton, N.J., and the DOT’s longtime locksmith, strongly recommended a product from Kantech Systems Inc., a Montreal-based company that is a division of Tyco’s Fire & Security Services. Kantech designs and manufactures integrated access control systems for small, midsize and large businesses.

“The system is user-friendly and is a Windows-based program that had network communications capabilities,” said Caola. “The system also had multi-site location capabilities and also had operator functions so that each person could be the operator for their individual site.”

There are many benefits of using the Kantech access control system, Caola said. For instance, security officials don’t have to constantly replace the cards since the proximity swiping system allows for longer use and quick entry into the building. The DOT also has greater control in knowing that only active employees have access to buildings. As soon as an employee leaves the agency, the card is deactivated and he or she cannot gain access to the facility.

The Cherry Hill motor vehicle agency was equipped with the Kantech system in early 2001, while implementation in DOT’s Roxbury and Freehold facilities soon followed. Officials found the system to be user-friendly, durable, and flexible. The system allowed the nearly 400 employees in the Roxbury and Freehold facilities to simply wave the access card in the vicinity of the card reader. The so-called "proximity pass" eliminated the wear and tear on the magnetic stripe, which often deteriorated with regular use.

Additionally, the Kantech system enabled the DOT to institute flexible schemes and locking scenarios, such as routinely locking interior doors and opening interior stairways while leaving the rest of the building secure. For instance, the motor vehicle agency office in Cherry Hill stays open until 8 p.m. one night a week, and the security system allows DOT workers to secure the rest of the building while keeping the agency portion of the building open for customers.

The critical security implementation occurred at Cherry Hill, a three-story, 50,000-square-foot executive campus and southern regional headquarters for the New Jersey Department of Transportation. The Cherry Hill facility features many different areas with unique access requirements. In addition to the license renewals area, the DMV, and a lab multipurpose room on the first floor, the facility also houses a state-of-the-art traffic operations center manned by 20 senior engineers and dispatchers on the second floor, as well as an engineering department on the third floor. Despite a few challenges along the way, such as coordinating with the elevator operator to make sure that the switches worked with the Kantech access card, the installation went very smoothly.

“The installation of Kantech’s system was as easy as it comes,” noted Caola. “All of the controllers were centrally located and there was no high-voltage systems to deal with on any door. There was only low-voltage running that controlled locks, readers, and motion detectors or contacts.”

Most of the new product training was conducted by three site administrators, who worked closely with IT department personnel to ensure that the system was running properly and efficiently.

The implementation was tested often. For instance, if a security official in the Cherry Hill control center discovered that a door at the Roxbury site was not opening, he could reboot the computer network, electronically open the door and monitor the passageway using the Kantech system.

There are other advantages with the system as well. Due to the technology, there is little to no risk of a DOT employee gaining access to material or records that they should not see, providing greater internal controls. At the same time, customers visiting the Cherry Hill facility use the same door for entering and exiting, guarding against the chance they could steal license-making supplies.

By all accounts, the New Jersey Department of Transportation is more than living up to its mission.