01Entry point

Physical Security &
Construction Surveillance

From the threat basis to the fence line to the inspector's walkthrough — including the part almost nobody covers properly: who was watching while it was built.

Discuss a facility Standards we work to

The Marquee Capability

Construction Surveillance Technicians

Secure construction is the one phase where the facility is defenseless by design. The walls are open, the trades are uncleared, and every drawing is a target. A CST is how that phase stops being a gap.

A CST is a cleared security specialist, on site, whose only job is the integrity of the build. They are not an inspector for the general contractor and not a quality-control function for the architect. They answer to security.

What that looks like day to day: control and escort of uncleared workers, inspection and control of incoming material, continuous observation of the installations the standard actually cares about — penetrations, conduit runs, acoustic and RF treatments, slab and deck work, door and hardware sets — and contemporaneous documentation of every deviation.

The failure mode a CST prevents is expensive and specific: a space that fails inspection because of something now sealed inside a wall, discovered when the accrediting official arrives. That is not a punch list item. That is demolition.

CST Support · At a glance

Role: Cleared, security-reporting construction surveillance
Reference: ICD 705 · ICS 705-01/-02 · IC Tech Spec
Phase: Pre-construction planning through pre-inspection
Coverage: Continuous, shift, or milestone-based
Products: Daily logs, deviation reports, photo record, close-out package
Adjacent: Construction Security Plan (CSP) development

Read: do we need a Construction Surveillance Technician? →

On clearances and authority Personnel and clearance requirements are set by the cognizant security authority and the program, and vary by project. We scope CST coverage against your specific requirement rather than a generic staffing model — and accreditation decisions always rest with the responsible government office. Our role is to make sure that when they inspect, there is nothing to find.

Also In This Discipline

Everything upstream and downstream of the build

CST coverage is one phase of a longer arc. We work the whole thing, and you can enter at any point.

AStart here

Threat & Vulnerability Assessment

A structured, standards-referenced review — not a walkthrough with a clipboard. We build a design-basis threat for the facility, then test everything against it: site and perimeter, standoff and approaches, access control and screening, detection and camera geometry, insider and contractor risk, and response under a stopwatch. Fixed fee, prioritized and costed roadmap, weeks not quarters.

Security Design & Engineering

Owner-side design for new builds and retrofits. Basis of design and protection objectives that flow into the A/E contract; perimeter, standoff, barriers, lighting and CPTED; layered access from fence line to white space; vendor-neutral ACS, VSS, and IDS specification and review; and commissioning that tests what got built against what was promised.

ICD 705 / Secure Space Support

Feasibility and siting, Tech Spec design details for wall, ceiling and penetration construction, acoustic and RF performance, door and hardware selection, Construction Security Plan development, accreditation document packages and pre-inspection walkdowns, TEMPEST coordination where the program requires it, and honest triage when an existing space has fallen out of compliance.

Program & Owner's Representative

Security master planning that sequences capital against risk rather than vendor enthusiasm; post orders, access policy, visitor control and incident response; guard force and integrator contract oversight with real KPIs; inspection readiness run to the checklist your customer or cognizant office will actually use; and a standing, fractional senior security function reporting to ownership.

Why Owner-Side Matters

Everyone else at that table is selling something

Integrators sell systems. Contractors sell change orders. Staffing firms sell hours. On a major build the security scope gets negotiated among parties with their own economics, and value engineering happens to the line items nobody is defending.

An owner without independent security counsel discovers the gaps at commissioning — or later, from an incident report or a failed inspection. We hold the security intent from basis-of-design through acceptance testing, and we answer only to you.

When Owners Call

Typical starting points

A secure build is starting — and someone asked who is providing construction surveillance
Pre-design or site selection — a threat and requirements baseline before architects begin drawing
Pre-acquisition — security due diligence before a facility, campus, or site changes hands
Customer or program pressure — a federal customer, prime, hyperscale tenant, or underwriter asked hard questions
Post-incident — an independent review after an intrusion, theft, sabotage concern, or near miss
A space failed, or is about to — an accredited area with standards drift, or a first inspection approaching
Honest doubt — the security program grew by accretion and nobody can say what it defends against

Questions

On CST and physical security

What does a Construction Surveillance Technician actually do?

A CST is a cleared security specialist who stays on a secure construction site while uncleared trades work. They control and escort uncleared personnel, inspect and control incoming material, watch the specific installations that ICD 705 and the IC Tech Spec care about — wall and slab penetrations, conduit, acoustic and RF treatments, door and hardware installation — and document any deviation as it happens rather than at inspection. The point is that the construction record is witnessed by someone who answers to security, not to the schedule.

When do we need CST coverage?

Whenever uncleared workers are inside a space being built or modified to a secure standard and the accreditation depends on the integrity of what went into the walls. That is standard practice for SCIF and SAPF construction under ICD 705 and program-specific requirements, and it is increasingly written into commercial secure-space projects by customers who intend to put sensitive work in the room.

When should we bring you in on a new build?

Before the drawings are frozen — ideally at site selection. Security decided in design costs a fraction of security retrofitted after commissioning, and some requirements — standoff, hardening, secure-space adjacencies, RF and acoustic performance — are effectively impossible to bolt on later.

Do you sell or install security systems?

No. We specify, review, and test; we do not resell hardware or take integrator referral fees. That is what lets our recommendations be trusted on the owner's side of the table.

Next Step

Building, hardening, or fixing a facility?

Ten minutes before design freezes — or before uncleared trades walk in — is worth more than any report we could write afterward.

Start a conversation

Prefer to talk? 866.960.7475 · info@orbitalfederal.com

Physical Security &Construction Surveillance