Places you'd like to avoid from a tactical perspective, but cannot

The company I work for maintains an off-site server cluster in a co-location facility on the fringes of the city of Orlando. For non-IT geeks, a co-location facility is a place that offers cabinet space for computers with filtered power and redundant internet connections.

Ours is a nice facility, with excellent physical security (always a plus when you have ~$120,000 in hardware living there) on the center itself.

But the entrance to the data center is a different matter. It lives in a windowless back corner of a light industrial / office building, with the only access around the back of the building by the HVAC plant and generators. It is a very bad-guy friendly environment, with convenient hiding spots and lots of cover noise.

I had to go down to the center the other day to swap out a failed hard drive, and following my usual practice I drove past the entire utility "pen" behind the building, then returned to the side closest to the datacenter door and parked.

Every time I go down there, I think through scenarios and how I would respond to a threat while inside the "pen". It has a push button combination lock on the gates, but I've found them left unsecured before, so I have no illusions that the gates will keep anyone out of there. If anything ever happens in the pen area, it's going to be up close and personal - there is just no place to move to create distance in any reasonable timeframe.

It just doesn't give me a warm fuzzy when I go down there....

I use to baby sit a server farm in downtown O-Town underneath a financial institution. I hated the late night calls for service since it meant parking in a unlit parking lot hidden from the road by trees. I did like you, toured the whole lot and then came back and parked. We finally ended up putting a cam on the parking lot with a monitor in the server room so at least the trip back would be a little less unnerving.

I run a small internet streaming company on the side here in North Carolina and keep my equipment in a data center that sounds just like the one you are in.

It is in a non-descript industrial building and the only entrance is by the massive AC units and the redundant generators.

Lots of places to hide back by the entrance. Entry to the building uses a proximity card and then biometric hand scanner so once you are in your good to go security wise but I am nervous every time I enter especially at night.

Now my real job is Broadcast Engineering we fix radio stations all over several states. The studio locations are generally not to bad however there are a few exceptions to that rule. But the real places to go that are not so fun is the transmitter sites. They are generally isolated in the middle of nowhere and often way back in wooded areas where nobody could see you even if they happened to pass by on the road. Unfortunately we get to visit these sites a lot at night usually alone so it can be stressful to say the least.

I have run into some fairly strange people over the years at some of these sites but so far nobody violent thankfully. Although another engineer I know did have the unfortunate luck of finding a poor girl who had been tortured and killed dumped inside a transmitter site in Michigan so you never know what you might run into.

When we bought this office it was not a concern; since we've been in business, eleven years now, two gas stations and three little strip centers have popped up, and both gas stations and a nail salon in the strip center directly across the street from us have been the location of armed robberies. I really don't like coming and going from here in the pre-dawn or post-dusk hours, and I won't even come over here at late night anymore.

This is what I do for a living (manage often-abandoned industrial complexes). I wish I had a wiz-bang answer for you, but I have nothing beyond of the wisdom of what is shared here.

I do have a relationship with our local Sheriff, so they know me when I call in. I bring someone with me whenever possible (not always). I make sure my office knows where I am and how long I plan on being there. I wear good retention holsters and multiple high-capacity firearms.

... and I usually get the poo scared out of me several times a year. The good news is that it does wonders for your SA! :yup:

Places I'd like to avoid but can't? My job every night. I work from about 6-7 pm to anywhere from 12-2 am. The door has no way to look outside. The best I can do is poke my head out the back door to check on my car a few minutes before I leave. In the summer I have to keep one of the large garage style doors open for ventilation. Otherwise the place is an oven, no AC. I usually keep 3 other shipping doors open. They have trucks backed up to them but would not be very hard to get into. I go in and out of them occasionally for different reasons. I can see the Salvation Army shelter from the open door. Not the best part of town either. Lots of foot traffic. I had one guy pay me a visit asking for stuff a few weeks ago. I caught a guy that I think was trying to steal a quad 4 wheeler from down the road the other night. No other reason I can think of to be pushing a quad up the road at 11:30 pm. Once he saw that I had seen him he turned it around and coasted it back down the road. I've had folks just park themselves right outside the door. Had a guy banging on the back door asking for help. One of the drivers caught a guy asleep on the lift gate of his truck. Yeah, it's an adventure sometimes.

My job. It is a "guns free zone" or "weapons free zone", depending on how you would word it, but everyone has a box knife, you know, a knife with a razor blade, could be pretty dangerous. It is a 1,000,000 square foot warehouse, no drug testing or anything, lots of parolees with knives, yeah, I'd like to be able to carry.

Parking ramps. Night or day. Usually I can avoid but there are times.

Hospital parking areas at night. Again, usually I can avoid but there were a few times with my dad that it was a must.

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Originally Posted by cammo girl

...Hospital parking areas at night. Again, usually I can avoid but there were a few times with my dad that it was a must.

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That's a tough one, Cammo girl. 'Seems like the older I get, the more time I'm sitting in hospitals with family and friends. I hate walking out to those parking lots at night unarmed. If I get jumped in a hospital parking lot because of it being a 'no carry' zone, I'm gonna be ticked. Hopefully, I'll succeed in taking out my frustration on my attacker.

college campus in detroit....... I wish i could get just the professors to carry that would be better than nothing.

Every night I work (Chief of Security for a Downtown Hotel), I have to walk through the back alley that is poorly lit, a well known hang-out for bums, and has a history of violent muggings. It is a large open space with 3 seperate avenues of approach and lots of hiding spots. I have to walk through it quite often as I also perform the duties of Valet and our garage is on the other side of our block. I also smoke, and that's the employee smoke deck.

Did I mention that I work 3rd shift?

Not the most comfortable of environments...

Entering or leaving any military base.

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Originally Posted by Stevew

Entering or leaving any military base.

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Agreed, and I do that several times a day. The base I'm at now isn't in a "bad" area but I mostly just hate the fact that I can't carry.

It may not seem bad but I work in a public school. By law here, as in most states, I cannot carry. As an administrator I am constantly thinking of what scenarios can happen when it comes time to protecting my kids. I believe I can concealed, under my suit, and nobody would have a clue. I don't dare so I don't jeopardize 37 years in the business. I am just concerned because we basically advertise that we are not armed or protected.

SCHOOL-whenever I pick my daughter up.