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Twenty-Five Years, One Mission: How NIH Security Has Evolved to Protect Our Community

​Twenty-Five Years, One Mission: How NIH Security Has Evolved to Protect Our Community

If you've noticed a new camera mounted above a campus roadway, or seen construction fencing go up around a guard booth, you've seen the latest chapter in a story that started 25 years ago. Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, federal facilities across the country have rebuilt their approach to safety and security from the ground up. NIH is no exception.

The Office of Research Services - through the NIH Police, Physical Security Management and a wide range of additional security programs - spent the past quarter-century layering in new protections, replacing outdated systems and building a security posture that can keep pace with modern threats. Some of these changes are visible the moment you arrive on campus. Others operate quietly in the background; in server rooms and control centers you'll never see.

This article walks through what's changed, what's changing right now, and why it matters to everyone who works at, visits, or depends on NIH.

A Reminder: What's Prohibited Inside the Gate

Before we delve into the changes, it's a good moment for a refresher on what doesn't belong on our campuses and in our facilities. The following items are strictly prohibited on NIH property:

  • Firearms
  • Explosives
  • Archery equipment
  • knives (with a blade length over 2.5")
  • Narcotics and controlled substances
  • Alcoholic beverages and open containers of alcohol

     

That prohibition applies even to legally registered weapons. There's no exception for a valid permit — if it's a weapon, it stays off campus.

With the rapid advancement of AI technologies, we continue to be vigilant in our review of acceptable and unacceptable uses on federal facilities. As a reminder, photography and videography on NIH property is limited, regardless of location or device, including restrictions on the use of AI-enabled smart glasses.

 

A few habits matter just as much as what's in your bag or on your person. Piggybacking through secured entrances and sharing PIV cards are both unlawful, not just against policy. Every credential that scans at a door is tied to a verified identity, and that chain breaks the moment someone holds a door for a stranger or hands off a badge.

Building the Infrastructure Behind the Scenes

Our Division of Physical Security Management (DPSM) has spent the past year rebuilding the physical and technical infrastructure that makes campus security possible in the first place. Call it the plumbing of the system: unglamorous, essential, and easy to take for granted until it fails.

Across the community, DPSM is tackling a long-overdue problem: Physical Access Control Systems (PACS) that have reached end of life. These systems control who can badge into which buildings, and modernizing them means every campus runs on current-generation technology instead of patched-together legacy platforms.

At Bethesda, two projects are running in parallel. DPSM worked with the Office of Research Facilities to repair and replace the vehicle "pop-up" barriers that control traffic flow at checkpoints. At the same time, the campus is converting its Video Surveillance System from old analog technology to modern Internet Protocol (IP)-based cameras, which sharpens image quality and gives security staff far more operational flexibility.

That upgraded camera system also runs License Plate Recognition (LPR) software, which lets Campus Police cross-reference plates against authorized national law enforcement databases for warrants and alerts. It's worth being direct about how this works, because questions about surveillance are fair ones: LPR data stays inside NIH-controlled systems. It isn't shared, sold, or transmitted outside NIH except when law, policy, or an approved law enforcement procedure specifically requires it. Think of it as a closed loop, not a feed to some outside agency.

At Poolesville, the upgrades have been substantial. The campus now has a temporary Commercial Vehicle Inspection Facility, new perimeter fencing, and multiple new camera and card reader installations — all working together to tighten access control at the perimeter.

At Rockledge I and II, DPSM completed construction of its own Commercial Vehicle Inspection Facility, adding another layer of vehicle screening to that campus.

At Rocky Mountain Laboratories (RML), the changes go deeper than hardware. RML implemented buffer zone protections required under Facility Security Level 5 — the highest classification in the federal system — along with upgraded vehicle and perimeter controls, better intrusion detection for the guard force, and improved signage and lighting.

Training and Technology for Worst-Case Scenarios

Infrastructure only goes so far. People also need to know what to do when something goes wrong.

This year, NIH expanded its emergency preparedness training significantly. RML employees received Active Shooter and Stop the Bleed training, while Bethesda-area employees completed Active Shooter training. These programs exist for one reason: to make sure the NIH workforce can respond effectively during an active shooter or mass casualty event, rather than relying on instinct alone in the moment.

The Emergency Blue Light Phone network — those call boxes positioned around campus for immediate emergency contact — went through a full maintenance and modernization push. In coordination with the Division of Emergency Management, every unit underwent routine inspection. When equipment failed or malfunctioned, the team tracked it down and fixed it.

The review didn't stop at maintenance. The team also assessed the entire network's coverage, identifying overlapping zones and eliminating redundant units. The result is a leaner system that cuts monthly operating costs without sacrificing coverage or reliability — a rare case of a security upgrade that saves money while improving safety.

Behind the scenes, the Emergency Communication Center and its backup, the Alternate Emergency Communication Center, are in the middle of a major migration project that improves the resiliency of the enterprise security system and brings NIH into compliance with data center consolidation policy.

NIH has also continued refining its Foreign National Access Management Plan, working with the HHS Office of National Security to enforce pre-registration, approval, escort and REAL ID requirements for foreign national visitors. It's a program that balances NIH's deeply international research mission with the government's obligation to know who is accessing federal facilities and how.

Watching the Watchers: Body-Worn Cameras

Security isn't only about keeping threats out. It's also about making sure the people entrusted with protecting the community are held to a high standard — and can prove it.

That's the thinking behind NIH Police's body-worn camera program. So far in 2026, those cameras have captured more than 11,000 recordings during law enforcement activities and interactions. Every one of those recordings is a contemporaneous, objective record of what happened — not a reconstruction built from memory after the fact.

That matters most when something goes wrong. If a complaint is filed about an officer's conduct, the relevant footage can be reviewed in accordance with applicable laws and procedures. Having real video evidence, rather than competing accounts, supports a review process that's fair to everyone involved — the officer and the person filing the complaint alike.

The footage also feeds back into training. Reviewing real encounters, not hypothetical scenarios, helps reinforce what's working, flag what isn't, and sharpen officer performance over time.

None of this works as a one-way street. Body-worn cameras protect the public by documenting police conduct, and they protect officers by preserving an accurate record of their actions in the field. That mutual accountability is the whole point — it's what transforms a surveillance tool into a trust-building one.

A Quarter-Century of Adaptation, Still in Motion

None of what's described above is the finish line. Security isn't a project NIH completes and closes out — it's a discipline the institution practices continuously, adjusting as threats evolve, technology improves and lessons get learned.

That's really what the last 25 years represent. Not a single sweeping change made in the aftermath of 9/11, but a sustained, often invisible commitment to getting a little better every year — fixing a barrier, upgrading a camera, retraining a workforce, tightening a policy.

The next time you visit a checkpoint or notice a new camera overhead, know that it's part of that same commitment. The goal has never changed: protect the people who make NIH's research mission possible.



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