Mechanical locks have been used for many years to reliably secure police custody suites. In the new custody suite built within the High Wycombe Police station, a new system has been used for the first time in a Police custody suite. The system uses an electronic token  and is also linked into the environmental controls for the suite. It also provides an audit trail of what happens to a particular cell. Custodial Review talked to Simon Teagle of CLCS about the system.

Simon, what is so special about the locks that have been fitted to the cells in the new custody suite here at High Wycombe?

How long has the Atlas® system been in existence?
ST Atlas® has been around for ten years, starting in the prison services in Jersey, followed by Ireland and Scotland; also in the privately run Harmondsworth Immigration Centre near London. The project started in response to the need to eliminate mechanical keys in prisons, as replacement keys proved too costly. Our prison system was designed to control more than 100 locks and therefore was not suitable, being too large and cumbersome for the smaller police custody suite. The Thames Valley police liked the basic concept, but they didn’t want a prison based system. We conferred at length until we understood their requirements and came to the conclusion that with minor developments and modifications, we could meet their needs with a system called ‘Atlas® Compact’ and that is being installed at High Wycombe.

So, what extra do these intelligent items do?   
ST  We started by just looking at the locking and unlocking functions, but then the police mentioned energy conservation, which opened-up further possibilities. Particularly, they mentioned the wasted heat used to warm an empty cell and could we programme the lock to control the heating accordingly? The answer to that was ‘yes’ and discussions followed with Mr Glen Ashby (Senior Project Liaison Officer) who made it clear, the level of integration and control they were seeking to achieve. CLCS provide an output via the Atlas® lock to enable the heating and ventilation to be activated when the cell door is closed and locked. Police cell doors are always open when the cell is unoccupied so a locked status output is a valid signal to say the cell is occupied and requires heating input to bring the cell area to the appropriate temperature under current guidance from the Home Office.

It might be a good idea to have a lock capable of doing other things, but its basic function is to lock a cell door and for that a big strong lock, with a sturdy key is required…that’s a given. If I were the Custody Manager, I would be edgy about fitting electronic locks to the cell doors even if it did save a few units of energy. It could go wrong, all the cells might spring open at once or a cell door might be stuck shut which could have fatal consequences in an emergency. How would you convince him?
ST I would explain that the mechanism is very simple and, in any case, there are clear contingencies to fall back on in the unlikely event of anything going wrong. The system is configured so that the locks will only unlock when a valid key is used and staff must physically operate the lock. So there is no risk of accidentally opening all the doors! The key we call a token, it’s made of plastic and is similar in appearance to a modern car key. An officer inserts the token into the lock and the mechanism ‘recognises’ the token as valid (or not), and electronically unlocks or locks the door; a one handed operation which traditional mechanical locks require two hands to operate, so this is seen as a significant benefit to custody staff. Once the detainee is inside, the cell the door is pushed closed and it deadlocks as soon as it touches the frame. To get a detainee out of a cell, the operation is exactly the same.

Interesting phrase ‘the token is valid’… How does the token, and the lock recognise each other?
ST The locks are hardwired to the server and information on what keys are valid for that lock are regularly downloaded to it. So it will work even if the data link to the server is not working, but in normal operation as long as the server is present, it will be ‘talking’ to the lock and, at the same time, be updating the lock with any changes to the permission and access rights.

So it’s the lock that holds the permissions and there may be many keys in the suite, but the lock will only respond to (say) numbers 1, 5, 7 and 9. How quickly could you alter that so (say) number 27 can operate the lock too?
ST You would need access to the server from a desktop, after that almost instantaneously.

What happens when the electrics fail?
ST If the electrics fail, as with all Chubb custodial products, there is a mechanical key that can be inserted into the lock, it will override the electrics and open the door. It’s a fully safe over-ride. We have specialised in locking for over 100 years and prisons, where the majority of our products are deployed, are very conservative places by nature. Risks are not encouraged and if a lock were to have a potential failure point, they will always be looking for layers of redundancy in their basic security system. So if anything goes wrong, say the cables get cut, or the power fails, they always have a mechanical key to fall back on. The system has a full battery back up which is designed to provide a minimum of 2 hours operation which is consistent with other systems such as fire alarms.

How many of these keys are there and where are they kept?
ST There are not many of them and they are kept in very secure locations; there will always be a set in custody and another set outside. The police themselves will formulate a standard operating procedure for the use thereof.

OK, we have covered the locking function. What other things can these locks do?
ST There are three different types of key that can be used in the locks. The first is the electronic token we have already covered, then there’s over-ride key and finally a basic mechanical key. The mechanical key will deadlock the lock and rule out locking operations electronically. The mechanical key would be used if the cell were a crime scene and needed to be isolated. In that case the custody staff would have no access to the cell because the senior investigating officer would be in possession of the key.

I assume the lock records an audit trail of usage- is that so?
ST The lock records the number of the keys and tokens inserted into it, and the time inserted, whether recognised or not. Broadly speaking, the lock will record and time any activity presented to it, even if it is locked-down mechanically. Also provided with the system is a GPS driven clock and we make that time stamp available to any other system in the suite. For example, the CCTV system makes use of it to synchronise the output. The benefit of Atlas® is that it gives the police a flexible operating environment. If they want to have very tight control on any given door, then tokens can be programmed to work only at certain times. If a key does get lost, it can be taken out of the system without risk to security unlike a traditional key; it’s a very robust system.

There is a saying in the Prison Service that an item designed to last six years will last six weeks in a prison. Is that applicable to this system do you think?
ST I can assure you that the tokens for prison locks typically last for ten years. It’s not widely known that some locks in a prison are operated 40,000 times a month. The tokens have an on-board power supply, it’s not a battery as such, and the chip is designed to last a minimum of ten years from the date of manufacture.

Any last words…?
ST We should mention that the lock is capable of controlling cell heating and ventilation, but that is not absolute. There are two inputs and two outputs that could be used for a multitude of functions (say) to drive a beacon, or LEDs of various kinds and all programmable. Our aim is to make the system as flexible as we can. For example, it might be an operational necessity for two officers to enter a cell together to deal with a young and/or a vulnerable detainee. In such cases the lock could be programmed so that two tokens need to be inserted within a few seconds of each other to unlock the door.

Thank you for taking time out to speak with the Review.

For further information on the system can you please contact Simon Teagle of Chubb Locks Custodial Services directly.  They can be contacted on
Tel. 01902 867730
email: simon.teagle@clcsltd.co.uk