Category Archives: Security/Doors

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Recognizing signs and doors for Indoor Wayfinding for Blind and Visually Impaired Persons

Mouna Afif, et al

 

Abstract:  Indoor signage plays an essential component to find destination for blind and visually impaired people. In this paper, we propose an indoor signage and doors detection system in order to help blind and partially sighted persons accessing unfamiliar indoor environments. Our indoor signage and doors recognizer is builded based on deep learning algorithms. We developed an indoor signage detection system especially used for detecting four types of signage: exit, wc, disabled exit and confidence zone. Experiment results demonstrates the effectiveness and the high precision of the proposed recognition system. We obtained 99.8% as a recognition rate.

Wayfinding

Fire Doors and Fire Windows

Clery Act

The Clery Act has been amended by the Stop Campus Hazing Act. Institutions must now include hazing incidents among their reported campus-safety statistics and include policies concerning hazing, reporting, investigation and prevention in their Annual Security Reports.

Institutions must also develop a Campus Hazing Transparency Report identifying student organizations found responsible for hazing violations. The report includes the organization, a general description of the violation, sanctions and relevant dates. Where violations have occurred, the report must be published on the institution’s website and updated at least twice annually.

2026/2027 Guidance


Update: February 26, 2025

The federal requirement for a school safety plan is outlined in the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, commonly known as the Clery Act.  The Clery Act requires all colleges and universities that participate in federal student financial aid programs to develop and publish an annual security report that includes certain safety-related policies, procedures, and crime statistics.

The Clery Act requires that schools include specific information in their security reports, including:

  1. The school’s crime statistics for the previous three years.
  2. Information about the school’s policies and procedures related to campus safety and security.
  3. Information about crime prevention programs and services offered by the school.
  4. Information about the school’s emergency response and evacuation procedures.
  5. Information about the school’s policies and procedures for addressing and reporting incidents of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking.
  6. Information about the school’s drug and alcohol policies and prevention programs.

While the Clery Act only applies to colleges and universities that receive federal student financial aid, many states and school districts have adopted similar requirements for K-12 schools to develop and implement comprehensive safety plans. These plans may include many of the same elements as Clery Act-compliant security reports, such as emergency response protocols, crime prevention programs, and policies for addressing incidents of violence and harassment.

Example Reports:

Clery Act Reports by School

University of Michigan Ann Arbor Annual Security and Fire Safety Report 2024

Michigan State University: 2022 Annual Security & Fire Safety Report

Davenport University: 2022 Annual Security and Fire Safety Report

Central Michigan University: 2022 Annual Security & Fire Safety Report

Related:

Record-Breaking $14 Million Fine Imposed for Noncompliance with the Clery Act


March 2020 Update

The most recent changes to the Clery Act were made in March 2020, when the Department of Education published the final rule amending the Clery Act regulations. The changes include:

  1. Expanding the definition of sexual harassment to include quid pro quo and hostile environment harassment, which aligns with Title IX regulations.
  2. Requiring institutions to report stalking and domestic violence in addition to existing crime categories.
  3. Adding hazing as a reportable crime category.
  4. Requiring institutions to compile and publish hate crime statistics for all categories of prejudice, including gender identity and national origin.
  5. Requiring institutions to include specific policies and procedures in their annual security reports, such as those related to prevention and response to sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking.
  6. Requiring institutions to provide survivor-centered and trauma-informed services to individuals who report or experience sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, or stalking.
  7. Requiring institutions to include information about prevention and response to cyberbullying and electronic harassment in their annual security reports.
  8. Allowing institutions to provide annual security reports electronically and requiring institutions to make their crime statistics publicly available on their website.

These changes aim to strengthen the Clery Act’s requirements for campus safety and to better address sexual harassment and other forms of violence on college and university campuses.

Clery Act Appendix for FSA Handbook

Every new federal law involving paperwork creates an uncountable number of trade associations and compliance enterprises.  A simple web search on “Cleary Act” will reveal half the internet full of pages for more information.  Our focus is on the user-side — i.e. making inquiries and pushing back on the gaudy proliferation of regulatory requirements, the integrity of purpose of the law notwithstanding.  We maintain this title on the standing agenda on all of our Security colloquia.  See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

K-12 School Security

Life Safety Code

Today at the usual hour we sort through the NFPA stack for fire safety system aspects during renovation, alteration, or rehabilitation of buildings.  Two sections come to mind:

Chapter 43 (NFPA 101): Building Rehabilitation

 

NFPA 241: Safeguarding Construction, Alteration, and Demolition Operations
Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.

Educational and Day-Care Occupancies (July 23, 2025 Second Draft Transcript)

The Life Safety Code addresses those construction, protection, and occupancy features necessary to minimize danger to life from the effects of fire, including smoke, heat, and toxic gases created during a fire.   It is widely incorporated by reference into public safety statutes; typically coupled with the consensus products of the International Code Council.   It is a mighty document — one of the NFPA’s leading titles — so we deal with it in pieces; consulting it for decisions to be made for the following:

(1) Determination of the occupancy classification in Chapters 12 through 42.

(2) Determination of whether a building or structure is new or existing.

(3) Determination of the occupant load.

(4) Determination of the hazard of contents.

There are emergent issues — such as active shooter response, integration of life and fire safety systems on the internet of small things — and recurrent issues such as excessive rehabilitation and conformity criteria and the ever-expanding requirements for sprinklers and portable fire extinguishers with which to reckon.  It is never easy telling a safety professional paid to make a market for his product or service that it is impossible to be alive and safe.  It is even harder telling the dean of a department how much it will cost to bring the square-footage under his stewardship up to the current code.

The 2021 edition is the current edition and is accessible below:

NFPA 101 Life Safety Code Free Public Access

Public input on the 2027 Revision will be received until June 4, 2024.  Public comment on the Second Draft 2027 Revision will be received until March 31, 2026.

 

Since the Life Safety Code is one of the most “living” of living documents — the International Building Code and the National Electric Code also move continuously — we can start anywhere and anytime and still make meaningful contributions to it.   We have been advocating in this document since the 2003 edition in which we submitted proposals for changes such as:

• A student residence facility life safety crosswalk between NFPA 101 and the International Building Code

• Refinements to Chapters 14 and 15 covering education facilities (with particular attention to door technologies)

• Identification of an ingress path for rescue and recovery personnel toward electric service equipment installations.

• Risk-informed requirement for installation of grab bars in bathing areas

• Modification of the 90-minute emergency lighting requirements rule for small buildings and for fixed interval testing

• Modification of emergency illumination fixed interval testing

• Table 7.3.1 Occupant Load revisions

• Harmonization of egress path width with European building codes

There are others.  It is typically difficult to make changes to stabilized standard though some of the concepts were integrated by the committee into other parts of the NFPA 101 in unexpected, though productive, ways.  Example transcripts of proposed 2023 revisions to the education facility chapter is linked below:

Chapter 14 Public Input Report: New Educational Occupancies

Educational and Day Care Occupancies: Second Draft Public Comments with Responses Report

Since NFPA 101 is so vast in its implications we list a few of the sections we track, and can drill into further, according to client interest:

Chapter 3: Definitions

Chapter 7: Means of Egress

Chapter 12: New Assembly Occupancies

Chapter 13: Existing Assembly Occupancies

Chapter 16 Public Input Report: New Day-Care Facilities

Chapter 17 Public Input Report: Existing Day Care Facilities

Chapter 18 Public Input Report: New Health Care Facilities

Chapter 19 Public Input Report: Existing Health Care Facilities

Chapter 28: Public Input Report: New Hotels and Dormitories

Chapter 29: Public Input Report: Existing Hotels and Dormitories

Chapter 43: Building Rehabilitation

Annex A: Explanatory Material

As always we encourage front-line staff, facility managers, subject matter experts and trade associations to participate directly in the NFPA code development process (CLICK HERE to get started)

NFPA 101 is a cross-cutting title so we maintain it on the agenda of our several colloquia —Housing, Prometheus, Security and Pathways colloquia.  See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

 

Issue: [18-90]

Category: Fire Safety, Public Safety

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Josh Elvove, Joe DeRosier, Marcelo Hirschler

More

ARCHIVE / Life Safety Code 2003 – 2018

 


Fire and Life Safety in Stadiums

Watch & Night Operations

Watch & Night Operations

Impedance Grounding for Electric Grid Surviability

Bleachers, Folding Seating & Grandstands

“View of the Colosseum” 1747 Giovanni Paolo Panini

 

Play is the making of civilization—how one plays the game

more to the point than whether the game is won or lost.

 

We follow development of best practice literature for spectator seating structures produced by the International Code Council,  the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA 102),  the American Society of Civil Engineers Structural Engineering Institute (ASCE SEI-7).  There are also federal regulations promulgated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.  (Note that some of the regulations were inspired by the several regional building code non-profits before the International Code Council was formed in year ~ 2000)

The parent standard from the International Code Council is linked below:

ICC 300 Standard on Bleachers, Folding and Telescopic Seating, and Grandstands

The development of this standard is coordinated with the ICC Group A Codes.  We have tracked concepts in it previous revisions; available in the link below.

2024/2025/2026 ICC CODE DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE

As always, we encourage our colleagues with workpoint experience to participate directly in the ICC Code Development process.  CLICK HERE to get started.

Issue: [15-283]

Category: Athletics & Recreation, Architectural, Public Safety

Contact: Mike Anthony, Jack Janveja, Richard Robben

Virtual reality technology in evacuation simulation of sport stadiums


LEARN MORE:

Standard for Bleachers, Folding and Telescopic Seating, and Grandstands ICC 300-2017 edition Public Comment Draft – October 2017

ANSI Coverage / ICC 300-2017: Standard for Bleachers, Folding and Telescopic Seating, and Grandstands

 

National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security

Standards Mississippi

Community Risk Assessment

First Draft Meeting Minutes | January 13, 2026

Château de Meudon

We have advocated education community risk management concepts since 2007; primarily in NFPA Standard 1300 — Standard on Community Risk Assessment and Community Risk Reduction Plan Development (formerly NFPA 1600).  The content of this title is close-coupled with FEMA’s National Incident Management System.   

Recently the National Fire Protection Association Standards Council moved to consolidate its community risk management titles as described below.  

“NFPA 1660 is in a custom cycle due to the Emergency Response and Responder Safety Document Consolidation Plan (consolidation plan) as approved by the NFPA Standards Council.  As part of the consolidation plan, NFPA 1660 (combining Standards NFPA 1600, NFPA 1616, and NFPA 1620) is open for public input with a closing date of November 13, 2020.”

Thus, NFPA 1600 is being sunsetted as a separate consensus product, its substance rolled into the new NFPA 1660.  CLICK HERE for the new landing page for NFPA 1660.

Two links below provide a sense of the back-and-forth in the technical committee meetings:

1600_F2018_EMB_AAA_FD_PIResponses

1600_F2018_EMB_AAA_SRReport

Discussion about school and university security are noteworthy.

As described on its title page, this product will be reconfigured as NFPA 1660 Standard on Community Risk Assessment, Pre-Incident Planning, Mass Evacuation, Sheltering, and Re-entry Programs.   The title suggests that NFPA 1660 is being developed to meet market need for conformance and teaching tools.  You may track movement in the concepts in the links below; many of them administrative:

Emergency Management and Business Continuity

Mass Evacuation and Sheltering

Pre-Incident Planning 

NFPA 1660 will likely require one or two more revision cycles to stabilize

Public consultation on the Second Draft (NITMAM) closes September 9th.  You may submit public input directly to NFPA by CLICKING HERE.  We will have hosted several Security colloquia ahead of this deadline during which we will drill into technical and policy specifics.

University of Tennessee

 

We maintain this title on our periodic Security, Disaster and Risk colloquia during which time  our thoughts on the economic burden of the expanding constellation of risk management standards will be known.  Thoughts that we are reluctant to write.   See our  CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

Issue: [13-58] and [18-151]

Category: Security, Risk

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Robert G. Arno, Jim Harvey, Richard Robben

MORE >> Disaster Resiliency and NFPA Codes and Standards

ARCHIVE / Emergency Management and Business Continuity

 

Flood Abatement Equipment

Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie | Dutch East India Company

FM Global is one of several organizations that produce technical and business documents that set the standard of care for risk management in education facilities.   These standards — Property Loss Prevention Data Sheets —  contribute to the reduction in the risk of property loss due to fire, weather conditions, and failure of electrical or mechanical equipment.  They incorporate nearly 200 years of property loss experience, research and engineering results, as well as input from consensus standards committees, equipment manufacturers and others.

In July FM Global updated its standard FM 2510 Flood Abatement Equipment which should interest flood barrier manufacturers, standard authorities, industrial and commercial facilities looking to protect their buildings from riverline flooding conditions.

The following updates were proposed and mostly adopted:

  • Modifications to the opening barrier protocol to include water performance testing at lower depths;
  • Additional tests that apply to open-cellular rubber compounds (i.e., foam-type rubber) which are commonly used as gaskets on flood barriers need to be added to the Standard to sufficiently assess their quality;
  • Addition of adhesive testing. Many barrier designs use adhesives to bond the gasket material to the barrier. Adhesives are not addressed under the current protocol;
    Modify the flood abatement pump section to clarify approval of pump packages vs. wet-end only;
  • Additional requirements for electric drive and submersible flood pumps;
  • Modifications to backwater valve section to be inclusive of all types of “backwater valves” besides the traditional check valve.
  • Additional requirements for waterproofing products for building penetrations. Products in this category include collars, plugs, elastomeric seals, and types of putty.

This standard also contains test requirements for the performance of flood barriers, flood mitigation pumps, backwater valves, and waterproofing products for building penetrations, as well as an evaluation of the components comprising these products to assure reliability in the barrier’s performance.

While there are a number of noteworthy colleges and universities that have grown near rivers and lakes — twenty-five of which are listed HERE — severe weather and system failures present flooding risks to them all.

Another Data Sheet — I-40 Floods — was updated in October.   Both Data Sheets are available for download at the link below:

FM GLOBAL PROPERTY LOSS PREVENTION DATA SHEETS

You will need to set up (free) access credentials.

You may contact FM Global directly: Josephine Mahnken, (781) 255-4813, josephine.mahnken@fmapprovals.com, 1151 Boston-Providence Turnpike, Norwood, MA 02062

Our “door” is open every day at 11 AM Eastern time to discuss any consensus document that sets the standard of care for the emergent #SmartCampus.  Additionally, we dedicate one session per month to Management and Water standards.  See our CALENDAR for the next online teleconference.   Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.

Issue: [Various]

Category: Risk Management, Facility Asset Management

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Jack Janveja, Richard Robben

Property Loss Prevention

 

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