Gallagher: A Global Leader in Perimeter Security

HAMILTON, New Zealand — Back in the ’30s, an inventor named Bill Gallagher devised a way to keep his horse from using a car as a scratching post by installing an electrical circuit that delivered a shock whenever the horse touched the vehicle. The invention sparked an idea to create an electrical fencing system.

By the 1940s, Gallagher had launched a growing business that was propelled in the 1960s when Gallagher’s son, Bill Junior (now Sir William Gallagher), took over on the Gallagher shop floor and grew the company with animal management systems. The technology for the electric fencing helped the company break into the security business, offering perimeter security and intruder alarm systems.

Gallagher — through its animal management and security divisions — sells products to clients in 130 countries. Its security business offers solutions to several industries in addition to correctional, including health care, government, education and commercial.

Gallagher’s Perimeter Security

Perimeter Security is a prominent sector for Gallagher. Its perimeter security technologies are founded on two principles: deterrence and detection. For any industry, the company offers two main security perimeter options — electronic fencing and non-electronic technology.

The company offers full-height, wall, gate-roof or fence-top installation options. Users can independently manage different zones, and the system can be used as a stand-alone perimeter security system or integrated with an existing alarm panel. Electronic fencing delivers a short, high-voltage pulse delivered down a live fence wire and is not life threatening.

For its non-electrified perimeter security, the company uses special sensor technologies. These can complement electronic fencing such as reporting wire tension in real time, detecting vibration or movement of the fence structure, or monitoring circuits that operate the perimeter system.

“[Gallagher’s] Integrated Perimeter Solution really streamlines all aspects of security through integrating perimeter, access control, intruder alarms and business management systems via one intelligent platform called the Command Centre,” said Craig Malins, senior product manager of perimeter security for Gallagher. “This world-leading solution has been the choice for many customers and sites around the world, particularly in the corrections market as its helping them comply with health and safety standards and regulation compliance all while giving them full visibility of where staff, visitors and vehicles are mobile around their sites. The systems capabilities are almost endless.”

Correctional Market Offerings

When it comes to correctional facilities, Gallagher offers a perimeter security system that is based around four features. Its electronic fences actively deter attempts to breach the perimeter by delivering a safe, non-lethal shock. Its passive deterrent will deliver alarms even when the high voltage is not turned on. Detection helps to generate alarms and provide information for an appropriate response. Finally, intruder alerts show the zone under attack with full video available.

The company also provides a special sensor system that measures the kinetic energy released within a structure when it’s disturbed and signals an alarm when certain parameters are exceeded. Disturbances can include sawing, unbolting of panels, shaking and climbing, for example. The sensor can be applied to a number of places such as fences, walls, ceilings and rooftops.

Gallagher has installed perimeter fences in a number of correctional facilities, including Fox Lake Correctional Institution in Fox Lake, Wis.; Brooks Correctional Centre in Muskegon, Mich.; and Old West Virginia Penitentiary in Moundsville, W.Va. The company specializes in a number of other correctional and security areas and manufactures a variety of systems and technologies that can be paired with its perimeter security. These include access control systems such as key readers, intruder alarms and command centers that can control the entire facility site.

Latest Moves

The company’s presence in the U.S. is growing, and more correctional facilities are becoming familiar with what the company can offer. In April 2014, for the second year in a row, Gallagher won the Govies Government Security Award for its integrated perimeter security solution. The award honors outstanding government security products. In 2013, the company also won a Govies Platinum award for its Gallagher Personal Identity Verification (PIV) Solution.

“The next generation in taut-wire technology, the Z10 Tension Sensor and K20 Tensioner Link System, was released to the market in late 2013,” Malins said. “The two products connect to the Gallagher Integrated Perimeter Solution, which has created significant global attention, including the Best Perimeter Protection Product/System at the 2014 Govies – Government Security Awards and the same title for the 2013 Government Security News (GSN) Homeland Security Awards.”

The Z10 helps customers overcome shortcomings in conventional taut-wire technologies to provide disturbance detection, according to Malins.

“Controlled and monitored through Command Centre, any unnatural disturbances to the fence wire immediately notify security personnel creating an effective, multi-technology perimeter solution. A unique feature of the Z10 is automated detection capability monitoring; this instantly alerts the operator if an individual fence wire is no longer capable of detection within an acceptable range,” Malins continued.

The K20 was developed in line with and complementary to the Z10, and helps reduce installation time and complexity for Gallagher’s perimeter fencing. This, according to Malins, helps to lower operational costs and improve ongoing fence performance.

“It provides a higher level of security than traditional electric fence technologies through more effective anti-climb measures, increased tamper resistance and elimination of redundant/parallel fence elements,” Malins said. “Using pivoting mount technology and a single connection circuit point, it allows the K20 tensioner components to easily cope with a variety of installations — ideal for the often complex needs of the corrections market and others including military, utilities and more.”

In March 2015, Gallagher introduced new products that integrate mobility with perimeter and correctional facility security for its international customers. One of them is the Command Centre v7.30. The product incorporates a mobile application to allow guards to spend more time out on patrol as well as graphical activity reporting to provide a visual representation of events and alarms.

“What this means for perimeter security is enhanced reporting features for operators to help them easily identify and report on security system performance including perimeter technologies. We have also created an app that mobilizes the workforce so they can monitor and acknowledge perimeter alarm zones, and check and override zone statuses remotely,” Malins said.

The company also rolled out its Controller 6000 Starter Kits, which is an all-inclusive kit to help with alarm management. Its third-latest release is the T20 Terminal, designed to act as an access control card and PIN terminal.

What led up to all these updates in Gallagher’s perimeter security market?

“A known weakness in traditional taut-wire solutions is the need for regular, timely, physical testing to check their capability of generating attack alarms,” Malins explained. “This issue sparked our initial idea for a product that was capable of continuously measuring the wire tension and generating alarms if wire tension required adjusting. Furthermore, with the commoditization of fence hardware, the current technology was not improving nor providing customers with increasingly better solutions. This is why we created the Z10 and K20.”

The two products, according to Gallagher, are easier and faster to install and maintain while being robust, reliable and secure. Plus, they are installed at the same cost as traditional market fencing. Their features benefit both the installers and the end users in the corrections market.

“The two products had obvious synergy due to the shared host structure (a fence), and having the sensor operate on the electrified fence to create a barrier with a very high probability of detection (POD), low false alarm rate (FAR) and effective deterrent,” Malins said. “In terms of our latest Command Centre v7.30 platform release, we ensure new features and enhancements are always developed based on what our global customers need to meet business requirements. Mobilizing the workforce was a major industry trend that led us to creating the app.”

Gallagher: Fast Facts
Headquarters: Hamilton, New Zealand
CEO: Sir Bill Gallagher
Specialties: Perimeter security, access control, integrations, intruder alarms
Number of years in business: Over 80
Year of Establishment: 1938
Number of countries that carry its products: 130
Locations: America, Asia/Middle East, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, U.K./Europe