Constituency office security: a best practices guide for parliamentarians.

• Author: Clark, Dennis

In this article, the author discusses the particular security challenges encountered when establishing and managing a constituency office. Drawing on the Legislative Assembly of Ontario's Investigative/Liaison Unit's best practices, he outlines steps constituency office staff can take proactively to secure their work places from potential disruptions.

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Constituency offices are an integral part of our political infrastructure. They are friendly, open, customer-service environments that must balance security needs with the needs of the public to have access to their elected members. However, in today's world the nature of constituency offices encountering increasing security challenges must be addressed.

These challenges are not far removed from those that are present at our legislatures. Whether the threat comes from a deliberate attack, accident or naturally occurring event, the response will be significantly aided by previous undertakings to put security measures in place.

I had the pleasure of observing an excellent presentation on the security of constituency offices while attending the Canadian Sergeant-at-Arms Conference in British Columbia. Representatives from the Ontario and British Columbia legislatures focused on their respective programs, which were established to provide security assistance to constituency offices. The discussions that followed the presentations were also most informative.

These discussions fit well with many of the articles published in a recent issue of the Canadian Parliamentary Review (Volume 37, No. 2), which explored interesting aspects of constituency life. This article focuses on another aspect of constituency life--the need for safety and security measures. Constituency offices are inherently inviting facilities that, in addition to everyday issues, must deal with persons with emotional and volatile concerns; there is also an increasing tendency for these offices to become a gathering point for demonstrators.

Ontario's System

Before becoming Ontario's Sergeant-at-Arms, I spent 30 years as a dedicated member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. When you spend as much time as I have in law enforcement you are apt to accept this difficult truth: what people think will never happen to them does indeed happen to someone almost every day. This reality makes a proactive approach to security an intelligent choice.

While it is not specifically the mandate of the Sergeant-at-Arms office to establish a...