There is a new trend developing amongst the adventurous teenagers and adrenalin junkies the world over – roof topping. Every month numerous buildings are infiltrated by this new breed of attention seeker. They range from your normal bored teenaged school children to the more determined adult YouTubers motivated by the ultimate thrill.
Roof Toppers try and outsmart security, outperform rivals and show that they have no fear. There are different outcomes from a successful raid. Some Roof Toppers prefer to just take panoramic pictures while others try to do death-defying actions like hanging over the edge of the building or even base jumping.
These invaders can severely undermine a building’s image or persona. For example, imagine the tenants of a building who are paying large amounts of money to landlords to secure a building, yet losing faith in the building’s security and protection due to Roof Toppers gaining access and media attention. The fallout of such an event could be catastrophic, particularly if the Roof Toppers die trying to get that perfect picture.
HOW DO THEY DO IT
There are several ways that the roof topper will try and gain access to the highest point of a building. The mindset of the Roof Topper is different from the public when thinking of breaking into a secured rooftop. There is a maze of building access points that they try and compromise and it depends on who or what their objective is as to how far they will go to get to the top.
Some Roof Toppers will try and open any fire stair and follow it all the way to the roof, while others will damage and destroy security measures like locks and door readers to gain entry to a building illegally to carry out their stunts and challenges. The most eager trespassers will disguise themselves in business suits with a backpack and get as far as they can and change into their base-jumping attire once they get to the roof.
HOW TO COMBAT THE ROOF TOPPER CRAZE
To help prevent an incident with Roof Toppers, building managers need to make their buildings secure from the basement to the rooftop. Security threat and risk assessments can provide the details by identifying weaknesses in the building’s integrity.
The process of considering scenarios based on the known exploits of Roof Toppers is an excellent way to identify potential vulnerabilities. Once vulnerabilities are identified controls can be implemented to help mitigate the risks.
STEPS TO STOP ROOF TOPPERS AND BASE JUMPERS
The process of a security threat and risk assessment should be performed by reputable security risk consultants to ensure that all the building’s vulnerabilities are identified and are up to date with industry standards and technology.
For further information on the impact of Roof Toppers and services we provide to help mitigate such risks do not hesitate to contact Agilient.
Brendan Cahill for the Agilient Team