The Military Access Control System (MACS™) represents Baywood Technologies’ response to Jacksonville Naval Air Station’s desire to automate visitor registration and to streamline the identification and authorization of personnel accessing the installation under varying force protection conditions. Further enhancements to the initial system leveraged the functionality of NAS Jacksonville’s physical access control system to provide distributed enrollment and access assignment and data maintenance.
Overview
NAS Jacksonville is host to over 100 tenant commands with more than 35,000 government employees (military and civilian). NAS Jacksonville grants access to over 500 non-DoD visitors and vendors each day. The events of September 11th highlighted the need for a quick and accurate method for identifying essential personnel and their vehicles to expedite entry onto the base. Additionally, the ability to more closely supervise, verify, and approve visitor access to the installation became of primary importance in mitigating the threat to facilities and personnel.
Baywood Technologies’ solution to the requirements outlined above was the development of the MACS program. The MACS program design is two-fold in nature; the system is used to log and track installation visitor information as required under DoD/OPNAV instructions, and to maintain authorized access information for all personnel assigned to NAS Jacksonville and its tenant commands. The MACS program is designed as a repository for all assigned personnel information; therefore, physical access control functionality is significantly leveraged when the MACS program is integrated with NAS Jacksonville’s physical access control software. Tenant command personnel enter information into MACS via a web browser. MACS subsequently updates the installation’s physical access control system based on specific security directives, thereby eliminating the need to enter information separately into the two systems. The system passes information with regard to an assigned person’s name and security access authorizations to the access control software and the panels operating access control hardware (gate operators, magnetic locks, etc.). MACS also updates hand-held devices used by sentries and roving patrol personnel to interrogate both personnel (Common Access Cards) and vehicles (vehicle ID devices).
The synergy achieved as a result of this integration allows NAS Jacksonville to significantly expand the number of “enrollment” stations from what was a single enrollment point centrally located to several hundred secure enrollment points through the use of web technology. Subordinate command personnel can add, delete, and modify their personnel records and schedule visitors onto the installation using MACS’ secure, web-enabled interface as necessary. Additionally, while each command manages their personnel access profiles and visitor scheduling through the MACS program, NAS Security personnel have a full range of tools available to them for managing and querying the information found within each system. Visitor Center personnel, as well as law enforcement officials, can compile visitor data, personnel background information, and vehicle citation data from the MACS program. Although tenant command customers represent the primary user group for the MACS front-end integration, only NAS Security personnel have access to the actual AMAG physical access control software for the purposes of issuing flight line badges or monitoring assigned personnel access to the base.
An example of this workload distribution can be seen in the badging process now employed at NAS Jacksonville. Using a badging module, Security personnel no longer have to input personnel information when issuing credentials to flight line personnel. Instead, security personnel simply access information previously inputted by squadron (tenant) security officers using MACS and subsequently passed onto the physical access control system. Similarly, changes in access authorizations are more immediate in that each command’s trusted agent, through the MACS web service, is entering them directly into the MACS system. Trusted agents cannot mistakenly grant incorrect or unauthorized access because each command can only assign those access points assigned to the command by the NAS Jacksonville Security Officer through MACS. This reduces the time required to enroll, assign, and approve access for tenant personnel from days to minutes as a result.
Empirical data has shown that the distribution of the enrollment and maintenance process workload from the Security Department to the trusted agents has resulted in more accurate and timely updates to both systems, while significantly decreasing the labor requirements on the Security Department. Gates previously manned are now automated. Distributing data input across over 100 tenant commands by implementing MACS, NAS Jacksonville has cut their Visitor Center staffing by 20%, resulting in reduced Security Department labor costs and significantly more accurate and consolidated personnel and visitor records available in a single database.
The system employed at NAS Jacksonville truly presents itself as an integrated solution for several different stakeholders within the installation security hierarchy, with varying levels of usage by the different user groups.