JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas –
Height of morning rush hour at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Jan. 21, main gate. A retired Air Force NCO hands his ID card over at 7:40 a.m.
Less than two hours later a Bexar County Sheriff is taking the man out of the 902nd Security Forces Squadron’s jail cell.
The handheld scanner pinged the individual’s card, revealing several pending charges in a neighboring state.
Department of Defense installation security has had a tough several weeks. Active shooting incidents Dec. 4 at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and Dec. 6 at Pensacola, Florida, took six lives and injured nine. At Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, Virginia, Nov. 30, a gate runner flew through the exit gate, striking a security vehicle and killing its Sailor occupant.
The 502nd Security Forces Group is responsible for JBSA security, security that starts at each installation gate.
Col. Jeffrey Carter, 502nd SFG commander, reported this month that unauthorized entry attempts fell for the third straight year at JBSA.
“There was a 35 percent drop from the 2018 totals with 56 breach events occurring at our gates last year,” he said. “By location, JBSA-Fort Sam Houston had over half (29) of those, which we attribute to the fact its roadway system is still designed as part of the surrounding city roadway system. People who are lost find their way to our gates there.”
The number of breach attempts was 86 in 2018, which fell from 98 in 2017.
“We’ve tightened up procedures for our expert military and civilian Defenders at the gates in how they deal with drivers that have no access rights,” Carter said. “The bollards, the flashing lights, the tiger teeth have all been effective.
“We’ve had some drivers with ruined tires from the tiger teeth trying to get in through the exit.”
Airman 1st Class DeShaunte London has spent two years at the Randolph gates as a 902nd SFS member. He chalks up potential gate breaches mostly to not being aware of the military’s vigilance.
“You have people that used to be in the military that try to get on with a VA card or say they used to be stationed here and want to look on base,” he said. “People say they forgot their ID card. You deal with pretty much every person you can think of.”
Smart phone apps seems to have made both some base employees forget the rules as well.
“The delivery service guys, like GrubHub, Door Dash, they can’t get a pass or get through because the person that ordered the food isn’t here to get them a pass,” London said. “People just order and think they’re going to get it, but no.”
Then there’s the folks like the gentleman on Jan. 21 who believed his retiree ID card wasn’t going to be linked to his criminal wrongdoing. Without fail, Carter says, anyone attempting to access JBSA gates with pending charges will be turned over to local police.
“The DBIDS (Defense Biometric Identification System) is going to flag anyone that has wants or warrants,” said Capt. Nathan Bratka, 902nd SFS operations officer. “It will flash red, list the record, whether charges are still pending. We had 87 instances of that at our Randolph gates in 2019.”
Employing multiple measures like technology, people, and deterrents like tiger teeth, speed humps and lighting, Carter and his Airmen keep JBSA gates secure.