SIA New Member Profile: Fortified Estate

ballistic-resistant guard house

New Security Industry Association (SIA) member Fortified Estate specializes in luxury residential security, focusing on physical security components to protect walls, windows and doors. The company’s products range from bullet-resistant blankets to rifle-stopping windows. Fortified Estate is headquartered in Canton, Massachusetts, and has a footprint of customers, including homeowners, businesses and government agencies, across and outside of the United States.

SIA spoke with Jon Knight, chief security officer at Fortified Estate, about the company, the security industry and working with SIA.

Tell us the story of your company.

JK: Our company was founded from a desire to bring cutting-edge physical security products to homeowners and small business. We really focus on structure hardening. From our team’s military and manufacturing experience, we were aware that the knowledge of true protective fortification was inaccessible to a lot of people who wanted to be secure. Creating physical secure solutions that elegantly use the best components from around the globe has been our goal.

What solutions/services does your business offer in the security industry? And what makes your offerings/company unique?

private school building renovated with ballistic windows and doors

JK: When the average person nowadays searches for security, they generally are thinking in terms of technology, such as camera systems or cyberattack prevention. The people who are thinking about physical barriers are still generally doing so in terms of technology like access control or basic locking systems. We however, deal with high level fortification and structural target hardening. This generally is executed in terms of a whole building or home’s perimeter or on the smaller scale through building a panic room.

Our primary products are sophisticated products like blast-resistant windows, ballistic wall panels and panic room doors. While many work with the technology, of software we work with the technology of physical products like Kevlar or ultra-high-molecular-weight-polyethelyne. Almost every product we provide is either designed (and often certified) to be bullet-resistant or forced entry-resistant.

What’s something we might not know about your company – or something new you’re doing in security?

JK: You might not know how custom and discreet a lot of these security upgrades can be. Residential and commercial clients often think that a safe room or ballistic entryway will be clunky and mismatched. This isn’t the case anymore. Typically, the aesthetic is highly luxurious. Almost all of our work is fully custom. Ballistic windows are cut to size and can even be operable. Doors are totally custom-designed to fit the aesthetic of the location.

What are your predictions for the security industry in the short and long term?

Residential entrance with forced entry-resistant door

JK: I think there’s been a lot of outcry from the public that security efforts come after a tragedy has already occurred. In a lot of cases there’s not that much that could have reasonably be done. A terrorist attack is a black swan event where each possible permutation (e.g., on a bus, at a specific shopping mall) is of miniscule probability, but the combined probability of so many options leads to a significant risk. Still, many security solutions are based on damage mitigation than actual prevention. After enough tragedies, and new tech, that’s starting to change, and this presents a great opportunity.
 
Video cameras are, of course, a great example. Unless one has a team of camera operators, they traditionally only really help in piecing together an already occurred crime; however, with the advent of artificially-intelligent cameras, businesses, governments and homeowners are becoming able to identify threats, such as weapon detection.

Further, organizations and homeowners are increasingly investing in the type of secure areas that we can provide. They are investing in safe rooms and secure entryways that can stop a feared firearm attacker straight in their tracks. They are beginning to truly focus on strong protection during the critical minutes between when an attacker initiates their attack and the police can arrive. People who truly provide preventative solutions have a compelling offer.

What does SIA offer that is most important to you/your company? And what do you most hope to get out of your membership with SIA?

JK: SIA offers something that is core to our business mission. It allows for us to gain and share knowledge of the best practices and technologies within the security field. Our goal has always been to allow access to the previously opaque knowledge on high security products previously accessible to only the select few. We are able to make sure that commercial and residential clients are able to work with the best products and solutions that their hard-earned investment can buy.

The views and opinions expressed in guest posts and/or profiles are those of the authors or sources and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Security Industry Association (SIA).