Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Security at Suntec City

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Security at Suntec City

I visited an office in Suntec City. They asked to scan my NRIC but as it was lost, I gave them another card with the bar code. They gave me a visitor pass, just to get through the barrier.

I do not know the purpose of recording all visitors to the offices. There must be several hundred thousand visitors to Suntec Mall every day. They are not recorded. So, what is the purpose of knowing who visits the office? How does it enhance the security of the office? If there is a bomb, it is likely to occur among the visitors to the mall.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...: quite true, i guess if terrorist want to strike they will choose a more people place.

they should also step up security to the shopping malls area as well.

maybe the office tower have a lot of very important paople working there, so sercuity is even tighter.; May 11, 2010 8:52 PM
Anonymous said...: In medical terms, it is called the placebo effect.

Placebo effect is a cure in the mind. It is said belief is powerful medicine, even if the treatment itself is a sham.

Besides medical aspects, many other things people do can be attributable to the placebo effect.
In some instances it may even be hilarious or silly but because of their belief they do it.; May 11, 2010 9:17 PM
privacy said...: This is carried through from the 2003 SARs period where contact tracing was put in place.

It was never abandoned.
Reason being it would be easy for any busy body who is a tenant of the building to find out who came.
Some building landlords instruct the security company to record all visitors and their address.. its a data base that they get for free.

I never surrender my NRIC. its my drivers licence or my name card.
I tell the security that my NRIC has been reported lost.; May 11, 2010 9:29 PM
Anonymous said...: Kin Lian,

I think as we are nearer to YOG 2010 events,the security at variuos important/crowded centres
will be watched carefully.The Govt wants to make sure the safety of the sport personalities are taken care of and are preparing all the necesseary steps just in case there is another Mas Selamat incident.

footballer of East; May 11, 2010 10:42 PM
Anonymous said...: No. The actual reason is because there are sensitive financial companies located in Suntec Tower 1 & Tower 2. Israeli and American MNCs which would be an excellent iconic soft target :=); May 11, 2010 11:40 PM
J said...: It could still prevent small crimes in the offices I guess.; May 12, 2010 12:13 AM
Anonymous said...: Also Lehman Bros office is in Suntec. They have asked for extra
security precautions.
They are afraid of investors they had cheated.; May 12, 2010 12:46 AM
Anonymous said...: The real reason is to cover their arses.; May 12, 2010 2:41 AM
Anonymous said...: I work in Suntec Tower 2.

The original place where there is security is in Suntec Tower 5.

Later, they extended the security to all the towers.

I am not sure whether there is sensitive financial companies in Suntec Tower 1 or 2. I don't think so. There is a landbanking company though where they hired many telemarketers to call customers to buy land though.

I am not sure of the reason why they extended the security. My guess is to record all the persons coming in and out of the tower and to prevent unwanted salesmen who visit every floor in the tower selling products. According to the security in Suntec, there is very little crime in office tower. It is in the shopping malls where one has to be careful of pickpockets.; May 12, 2010 9:21 AM
Anonymous said...: The scanning of identity cards usually goes together with video recording of the security cameras.

That is why, these days the authorities could quickly identify suspects when some unfortunate incidents happened.

Perhaps, when they extend this to all MRT stations, scanning and video taping when you tap your fare cards, Singapore would be a totally police state!

Of course, you will need dedicated fare cards like those held by students, senior citizens etc.; May 12, 2010 9:46 AM