Electrified security fences - towards a security standard

The Police Scientific Development Branch (PSDB) is developing standards to enable the specification of Perimeter Intrusion Detection Systems (PIDS) for particular security levels. The objective is to encourage perimeter security solutions to be developed to an appropriate and consistent quality. Electrified security fencing, the topic of this paper, is one perimeter security solution to be addressed by this work. This paper aims to highlight and discuss factors of importance in maintaining a consistent level of security for electrified fence installations. It outlines areas (these are underlined in the following text) that need to be considered by a performance standard or code of practice. The paper studies the vulnerabilities of corners and other, weaker parts of a perimeter. It discusses the fence topping applications and penetration-related issues and finally raise operational issues which affect the security of a system.