High-Tech Systems for Keeping Your Keys Safe

By LYNN M. ERMANN

Printed in The New York Times - September 7, 2000

WHEN three apartments in an Upper East Side building were burglarized this spring, it was clearly an inside job by someone with keys, detectives from the 17th Precinct decided.

The question wasn't who had access, but rather, who didn't.

The field of potential suspects included friends, relatives and housekeepers with copies of the tenants' keys; members of the building staff, all with access to the not-so-well-guarded master key; former building employees and housekeepers who had kept keys; and contractors working inside the apartments.

At another co-op where a burglary occurred, investigators identified 24 people who had entered the apartment in question on a single day. "They had an army of people in there -- the carpet guy, the electrician, the plumber, the contractor, the painter," recalled Stephen Davis, the managing director at DSFX International, a security consulting and investigation firm.

These circumstances, while hardly the norm, are persuading managers of upscale buildings across the city to invest in computerized key-tracking systems, once used solely to monitor commercial property, including large office buildings, airports and even prisons.

While the number of burglaries in affluent neighborhoods has actually decreased, the risk grows as more people gain access to keys. A variety of computerized tracking systems - the KeyWatcher is the best known - provide a way to control access and follow a key's path to help ensure that it does not fall into the wrong hands. Tenants can monitor distribution of keys and request paper trails when they want to know where a key has been.

With the KeyWatcher system, there are no spare keys floating around the concierge desk. A copy of the key to a given apartment is locked inside a metal compartment and cannot be retrieved without a code. The tenant can give different codes to the housekeeper, dog walker or contractor, granting each person access only within certain hours. Another layer of security is provided by an outer box that can be opened only with a code given to building employees. "You can basically customize" both boxes, said Mary Ellen Orsini, an account executive for Morse Watchman, the Connecticut company that created the system.

The new system offers "100 percent accountability for the control of keys, a win-win situation for building staff and residents -- no finger pointing at staff, and residents feel safe," said Neal Garelik, the president of the Excel Security Corporation, which installs computerized tracking in residential buildings in Manhattan.

Who benefits most? Certainly homeowners worried about losing elaborate entertainment systems or fine art collections. But manufacturers are also responding to two trends that affect many other residents: a construction boom that has strangers going in and out of buildings and the large number of households where both spouses work.

Residents who hire renovation workers and then disappear may make the mistake of assuming that the interior decorator or contractor is overseeing the traffic. But one industrial designer in Manhattan said he knows of situations where "the interior designer gives the key to the builder, the builder gives the key to the floor guy, the floor guy gives the key to the guy who does the buffing..."

And on lunch break, anyone can make a copy.

Tenants are not the only ones asking for high-tech security systems. So are building managers concerned about liability. Under a New York City law, tenants must give keys to landlords or owners when requested, and the buildings must protect the keys, a task usually left to the superintendent. The keys help employees enter an apartment during an emergency, but they also bring employees under suspicion when a theft occurs. (In one building, the management insisted on bringing along a camcorder when building employees had to enter an apartment while a tenant was out.)

Buildings that can't afford to invest in the new systems can still step up security and help take the pressure off superintendents. The consensus among resident managers is that a tenant should never leave a key at the front desk or doorman's station permanently. And no matter how long keys are left, a logging system should make a note every time someone takes out the key. Open drawers should be replaced by a locked cabinet next to the doorman's station.

Tom Yee, an account executive at Charles H. Greenthal Management in New York, said his firm tries to discourage tenants from keeping keys at the front desk, which he said offers "no control as to who we're supposed to be allowing upstairs.' If relatively few residential buildings -- probably around 100 -- use key tracking, the reason is mostly cost. Intellikey can run $700,000 for a large residential complex. The KeyWatcher costs between $5,000 and $10,000 or more, depending on the number of keys held in each metal box.

Right now, the systems are not widespread enough for insurance companies to offer special credits, although "you're going to see a lot more of these systems," said Mr. Davis of DSFX. Other security experts say that the recent building workers' union settlement will lead to more computer training, and that new custom software will appeal to many building managers.

Building employees, while a bit put off at first by computer tracking, generally concede that these systems have made their lives easier. At the Newport East, at 370 East 76th Street, which uses the KeyWatcher system, the resident manager, Joseph Pino, is finally getting some sleep. "I don't have to come downstairs at 2 a.m. in my pajamas to get out the keys every time a resident is locked out," he said. If a resident forgets a code, Mr. Pino can find the information on a computer in his apartment.

If key tracking seems to work well in ultramodern, ultralarge buildings, it doesn't always jibe with the old-school co-ops. "It's such a defensive way to live," said Seena Gershwin, who has lived in her East 50's co-op since 1979. This summer, the building, which tenants say has always had a feeling of family and community, changed all the locks, got rid of the master key and installed KeyWatcher, requiring everyone to use new keys and memorize access codes.

Terence B. Hoey, a security consultant, pointed out that the key systems are "only as good as other security measures." A key tracking system seemed to offer irrefutable proof that contractors had stolen a Rolex from a client's apartment -- actually, not one Rolex but three: it was stolen, replaced, stolen, replaced and then stolen a third time. But the contractors suspected insurance fraud, and when the building installed a camera in the hall, it caught the porter sneaking in seconds after the contractors left.

One day, just as tenants get accustomed to key tracking, they may enter the lobby to be greeted by a salutation from a computer that has scanned their eyes and faces. Keys by then will probably be obsolete.

When High Tech Isn't an Option

FOR most New Yorkers, computerized key tracking isn't yet an option. Alex Tilliros, a locksmith, chortles when people ask him what they can do about security. "Lock the door," he said -- and he wasn't entirely joking. Mr. Tilliros, who works for Abbey Locksmiths Inc., is constantly amazed at how many people leave doors either unlocked or on automatic lock alone. (To test for the latter when he's called for an emergency, he likes to slide a piece of aluminum between the door and the frame, which pops it open a large percentage of the time.)

Here are some ways you can help make sure your keys are not getting into the wrong hands.

First, find out how the superintendent stores duplicates before you hand them over. There are some low-tech systems that work well for keys that are to be used only in emergencies. One is to seal them in an envelope and sign over the seal.

If you live in a building with a doorman and need to leave a key for someone in the lobby, ask that it be put in an envelope with your last name on it and tucked away out of sight in a locked drawer.

"Many robberies and thefts have occurred because people will leave a key with an apartment number on it, and that is almost an open invitation," said Alexander Wolf III, a senior property manager at Cooper Square Realty. He describes what can happen:

"Someone comes to the front desk, sees a key marked 4D and then pretends to wait for the tenant. After a bit, he says to the doorman, 'The lady in 4D isn't here yet. She said she'd leave a key for me.' Then he walks upstairs and cleans her out." LYNN M. ERMANN