High-tech gatekeeper guards state offices

Backers call gear an anti-terror tool; critics call it ploy to spend federal funds

RALEIGH -- Before members of the public can do business at some state government buildings, they will first be photographed, screened and scanned by a new computerized guard.

The device, a touch-screen kiosk, scans a visitor's driver's license, takes a photo and prints a unique badge for the visitor to display -- all in less than a minute. The LobbyGuard system can screen visitors against a database of people who are considered security risks. And the electronic records of the visit, including the photograph, are stored on a secure server.

The State Capitol Police, which is responsible for security at 150 state government buildings covering 5 million square feet of office space, billed the system as a necessary anti-terrorism tool in justifying the purchase. The division used more than $22,000 in federal Department of Homeland Security grants this year to buy three kiosks, software and supplies. And Capitol Police Chief W. Scott Hunter said he wants to apply for more grants for more kiosks.

Homeland Security money -- hundreds of millions of federal dollars -- flows freely to communities across the nation. The spending has led to criticism that small cities and towns are gearing up for terror attacks that are unlikely to ever happen. The Department of Homeland Security has worked to better distribute the money on a need basis.

In purchasing documents and memos, officials pitched LobbyGuard as an anti-terror tool -- a device that would allow authorities to track visitors to a building if it were the target of an attack. Hunter said in an interview that the system would also help his officers protect the public and state employees from crime. LobbyGuard allows the police to flag at the front door potentially risky visitors who might wish to harass a state employee or official, Hunter said. It replaces the paper logs that the police were already using to monitor activity at state buildings.

"We're not there to keep people out. We're there to just regulate people coming in," Hunter said.

The state government complex is hardly a hub of crime. In the past year, the Capitol Police wrote eight incident reports or citations for suspicious activity, according to Capitol Police records. Most of those incidents involved panhandling.

Hunter said the records don't reflect the cases of unauthorized people roaming the halls of state government buildings.

To enter state buildings, visitors need some form of photo identification, which hasn't changed from when the police kept paper logs. Once signed in, visitors are often allowed to roam unescorted.

Beyond paper

The kiosks are currently in the Administration, Albemarle and Archdale buildings. The buildings house many state departments, including the Governor's Office.

"The sheer volume of visitors that you have in these buildings, you need something more than paper," said Kevin Allen, president of LobbyGuard Solutions, which is based in Raleigh.

Allen said the system was created by a Raleigh software company that didn't have a receptionist. The company set up a computer, camera and printer in the lobby for visitors to check themselves in. So many visitors began asking about the system that its creators decided to market it, Allen said. Sales have tripled each year since 2005. LobbyGuard now has more than 500 customers, Allen said.

The current self-contained kiosk with a touch screen, a built-in camera and a printer has been around since 2006. Several Wake County schools and the state Department of Public Instruction use the system to screen visitors against sex offender registries, Allen said.

Is the risk real?

But inevitably, when supporters list the benefits of LobbyGuard, they mention its usefulness in the event of a terrorist attack.

"We hope to God that we never, ever need that," Hunter said. "Is my concern here in the North Carolina government complex international terrorism? No. It's not. It's domestic terrorism."

Veronique de Rugy, a critic of anti-terror spending, said the state's use of federal terrorism money to buy LobbyGuard fits a nationwide hysteria over terrorism.

"What's the probability of the city of Raleigh, no offense, being attacked by terrorists?" asked de Rugy, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University outside Washington. "This is the perfect excuse for politicians, whether at the federal level or state and local level, to get some money and spend it on stuff."

Hunter said the kiosks give the police more sophisticated tools to provide security.

"The question is, do you use pencil and paper and remain in the paper generation," he asked, "or do we move to the technology generation?"