Areas That Can’t Be Public.
A police department facility is one of the most access-sensitive buildings in any municipality. In a single structure, you have areas that are entirely public — a lobby, a records window, a community meeting room — sitting alongside areas that must never be accessible to unauthorized personnel: evidence storage, detention holding, the armory, the server room, and command staff offices.
For the Des Moines Police Department, managing that separation had become increasingly complex. The facility had grown over the years, adding wings and repurposing spaces, and the legacy keycard system they’d inherited couldn’t keep up. Credentials were siloed, access logs were incomplete, and administrative changes — adding or removing an officer’s access — required a visit to an on-site server room and a process that could take hours.
A patrol supervisor described the core frustration: “We had officers who’d left years ago who technically still had access on paper. We just didn’t have an easy way to clean it up. That’s not acceptable in this environment.”
⚠ Outdated Legacy Credential System
The existing keycard infrastructure was years old, required on-site server management, and had no mobile access capability. Administrative changes required physical access to a server — making real-time updates during incidents or off-hours effectively impossible.
⚠ Stale & Unaudited Credentials
Former officers, contractors, and civilian staff still had active credentials in the system. With no streamlined revocation process, cleaning up access was deprioritized — creating a growing list of accounts that should not have had building access.
⚠ No Zone-Based Access Tiering
The old system treated the building too broadly. Civilian records staff could potentially access wings they had no business in. Detectives had credentials for areas only patrol should enter. There was no clean separation of access by role and zone.
⚠ No Real-Time Incident Response
During an active incident or a personnel matter, there was no way to lock down a specific zone or revoke a specific credential remotely. Any response required someone physically at the server — adding critical minutes to a situation that demanded immediate action.
Every Zone Mapped.
Before a single reader was mounted, Fusion Security completed a full facility access audit with department leadership — mapping every door to one of three access tiers based on who legitimately needs to be there and what the consequence of unauthorized entry would be. The design came before the hardware.
Lobby & Public Areas
Main entrance, public records window, community meeting room. Open during business hours, locked on schedule after close. No credential required during operating hours.
Staff & Administrative
General offices, break rooms, locker rooms, report writing areas. Credentialed staff and officers only. Time-restricted — automatically locked outside of shift hours.
Investigation & Command
Detective bureaus, command offices, briefing rooms. Role-specific access — not all officers have access, restricted to assigned personnel and command staff.
Evidence & Property
Evidence intake, storage, and chain-of-custody areas. Extremely limited access — logged on every entry with full audit trail. Any access outside authorized hours triggers an immediate alert.
Armory & Equipment
Weapons storage, tactical equipment, and specialty gear. Highest restriction tier — access limited to authorized supervisors, every entry and exit timestamped and logged.
Detention & Holding
Booking, holding cells, and transfer areas. Separate credentialing from general patrol — access limited to officers with specific booking and detention duties, with no overlap into administrative zones.
Built for High-Stakes Environments.
Fusion Security deployed a full PDK cloud-based access control system across the facility — covering every entry point, internal zone transition, and restricted area. The PDK platform was chosen specifically for its true cloud architecture, which means the entire system is managed remotely in real time, with no dependency on an on-site server that can fail, be compromised, or require physical access to administer.
Every credential is tied to a specific role and access tier. Officers see only the doors their assignment requires. Civilian staff cannot access restricted zones under any circumstance. And every single entry — across every door in the facility — is logged automatically with a full timestamp and user record.
Changed on Day One.
Within the first week of the PDK system going live, the department’s administrative sergeant had completed a full credential audit — identifying and revoking dozens of stale accounts that had been sitting active in the old system for years. What would have taken days under the legacy platform took an afternoon in the PDK dashboard.
Full Credential Audit — Completed in Hours
The PDK dashboard gave the administrative sergeant a complete view of every active credential in the system — who had it, what doors it opened, and when it was last used. Stale accounts from departed officers and expired contractors were identified and revoked in bulk within hours, something the legacy system had made effectively impractical for years.
Credential Audit — Full System Visibility on Day OneEvidence Room Access — Every Entry Logged
The evidence room was configured as a highest-restriction zone with mandatory logging on every entry. Chain-of-custody documentation now includes automatic access records — who badged in, exactly when, with no manual logging required. Any access outside of authorized hours sends an immediate alert to the evidence supervisor’s phone.
Restricted Zone Logging — Chain of Custody SupportPersonnel Matter — Credential Revoked Remotely
During the first month of operation, an officer was placed on administrative leave. Command staff revoked building access from the PDK app in under 30 seconds — before the officer had left the parking lot. No server room visit. No IT ticket. No gap between the decision and the action.
Instant Revocation — Real-Time Response CapabilityNew Officer Onboarded Same Day
A new officer completed academy and reported for their first shift. Their credential was built in the PDK dashboard — assigned to the exact zones their role required, active only during their assigned shift hours — and delivered to their phone via email before roll call. No physical card to cut. No IT department involved. Done from a desk in minutes.
Role-Based Credential — Shift-Scheduled, Delivered by EmailAfter-Hours Contractor Access — Controlled Remotely
An HVAC contractor needed access to the mechanical room outside of business hours for an emergency repair. Rather than issuing a master key or sending a supervisor in to meet them, command issued a time-limited credential remotely — active for a four-hour window, restricted to the mechanical room only, and automatically expired when the job was done.
Temporary Time-Limited Credentials — Contractor Access ControlMobile Bluetooth Unlock — Officers badge through any reader hands-free using phone Bluetooth — no card fumble during a response
In-App Remote Unlock — Open or lock any door from anywhere — command can respond to access needs without being on-site
Role-Based Zone Access — Every credential tied to a specific role and zone tier — civilian staff cannot access restricted areas under any circumstance
Shift-Based Scheduling — Credentials automatically inactive outside assigned shift hours — policy enforced by the system, not by trust
Instant Lockdown — Lock any individual door, zone, or the entire facility from the app in seconds during an active incident
Real-Time Restricted Zone Alerts — Immediate push notification to command on any access to evidence, armory, or holding areas outside authorized hours
Full Audit Log Export — Complete timestamped access records for any door, user, or time period — exportable for IA investigations or compliance
Temporary Time-Limited Credentials — Issue contractor or visitor access for a defined window only — expires automatically, no manual revocation needed
No On-Site Server — True cloud architecture means no single point of failure and no requirement to physically access server infrastructure to make changes
Battery Backup — System stays fully operational during a power outage — no gap in building security when it matters most
Encrypted Communication — All credentials, logs, and system data encrypted in transit and at rest — NDAA-compliant hardware throughout
Multi-Device Management — Full system management from any phone, tablet, or desktop — command staff aren’t tied to a single workstation
Every Entry Accountable.
Since PDK went live, the Des Moines Police Department facility has complete, real-time visibility and control over who is in every part of the building — at all times. The stale credential problem is eliminated. Restricted zones have never had an unauthorized access event. And the administrative burden of managing a complex, multi-role access environment has been reduced to minutes per week.
“The first thing we did was pull a full credential report. We found accounts that had been active for years from people who hadn’t worked here in a long time. We cleaned all of it up in a few hours. That alone was worth the whole project.”
For a government facility where access accountability isn’t optional, PDK delivers something the legacy system never could: complete, real-time visibility over who is in every part of the building — and the ability to act on that information instantly, from anywhere. In a police department, that’s not a convenience. It’s a requirement.
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