Malls tighten security How much security will shopping-mall patrons buy?
Ala Moana, Kahala and others
tighten their proceduresStaff and wire reports
From erecting concrete barricades at entrances to increasing foot patrols, the nation's shopping centers are shoring up defenses against terrorist attacks. But property managers and security personnel admit that in trying to fortify malls, they walk a fine line between reassuring customers and not scaring them off.
Mall traffic plummeted in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, but it quickly returned to pre-attack levels. With the softening economy, that's still down more than 5 percent from year-ago levels, according to RCT National Retail Traffic Index. Now with the Christmas shopping season around the corner and an apparent hoax on the mainland about a Halloween threat to malls making the e-mail rounds, efforts to strike the right balance are taking on a new urgency.
At the 145 malls managed by General Growth Properties -- including Ala Moana Center and Virginia's Tysons Corner Center, just a few miles from the Pentagon -- delivery vehicles will have their manifests checked to make sure they have legitimate business on the premises. Outside service workers must show identification and require escorts to work sites.
Retailers and janitors are receiving training on spotting unusual items. In addition, General Growth plans to secure emergency generators and fuel supplies with fences and locking gas caps.
It also intends to change the locks on all doors to electrical closets, transformer vaults and roof access. On top of all of that, the company is erecting concrete or steel columns at mall entrances to prevent cars from crashing in.
For David Levenberg, corporate security director of General Growth, it's a dramatic shift in focus since Sept. 11. Instead of worrying about just customer service and theft, he must now protect giant buildings from terrorism.
"We are concerned about the number of people who gather at shopping centers," says Levenberg. "We are trying to be responsible without creating panic."
Dwight Yoshimura, Ala Moana's general manager, confirmed that the center is taking extra security precautions in wake of the Sept. 11 attacks and in anticipation of the busy holiday shopping season.
For instance, the center has rescheduled many its in-house security workers' shifts to overlap, giving the mall a larger security presence at any given time. Mall managers have also instructed security workers to be more alert for any suspicious activity, Yoshimura said.
Albert "Spike" Denis, chief executive officer of Safeguard Services Inc., a local private security firm which has a number of retail and business clients, said some local retailers are periodically checking their air conditioning systems and monitoring their mailrooms, in wake of anthrax scares.
Retailers, especially the big malls, are also checking that deliveries are made by authorized vendors and their employees at their scheduled times, he said.
Security workers at Kahala Mall have been on a heightened sense of alertness, said Mel DeCosta, the center's chief of security.
During routine checks, security staff are taking a closer look at suspicious-acting customers as well as unattended bags and other objects.
Mall workers are also paying attention to areas in the mall where water may accumulate and allow mosquitoes to breed, given the outbreak of dengue fever in the islands, he said.
"We do have to pay more attention but we try not to be alarmist," DeCosta said.
"Recent events have put us in a position of balancing being the place that invites everyone in with our duty to respond and react," says Ken Hamilton, executive vice president of IPC International, which provides security personnel for some 300 shopping centers.
Wall Street Journal reporter Ann Zimmerman
and Star-Bulletin reporter Rick Daysog
contributed to this story.
