Applications for liability protections under the Support Anti-Terrorism by Fostering Effective Technologies (SAFETY) Act have steadily increased since its introduction as part of the Homeland Security Act of 2002. Over time, the Office of Safety Act Implementation (OSAI) at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) has recognized ways to improve the process.
DHS S&T OSAI in partnership with the National Institute of Building Sciences (the Institute) developed a set of best practices and a new online tool, Best Practices for Anti-Terrorism Security (BPATS), outlining a resource for building owners to evaluate their operations end-to-end before applying for SAFETY Act protections. This set of best practices, which can be used with the assessment tool, delivers a clearly defined checklist for commercial facilities to improve the quality of their applications and reduce the number of building owners needing to re‑submit applications due to gaps found during evaluations.
“With BPATS, our goal was to develop a comprehensive tool that security professionals could use to assess the anti-terrorism security of commercial office buildings. The output from their BPATS assessment should enable building leadership to take steps to enhance their building’s security and provide the foundation for a well-structured follow-on SAFETY Act application,” said Bruce Davidson, Director of S&T OSAI.
Commercial property owners and security professionals may request access to the BPATS tool here.
