Apr
16
2025
From The Blog
Safety & Security Department Makes Progress on Goals in Q1
The Safety and Security department is responsible for regulatory compliance, commercial access, enforcement of KICA’s rules and regulations, incident response, emergency management, and coordination with law enforcement and EMS. In Q1 of 2025, the department made progress toward meeting goals in a variety of areas. The information below was taken from KICA Director of Operations Jody Forrest’s Q1 report to the board of directors. To watch this meeting and Jody’s report, log in to your member portal. (The report begins at 29:29 in the video.)
A HOLISTIC SAFETY & SECURITY DEPARTMENT
Envisioning a more specialized department, Jody moved some functions from the Livability Department to the Security team, creating the combined Safety and Security Department. With Adam Shubsda (meet Adam here) leading, a trifecta of managers will focus on Security, Service Experience, and Safety. KICA promoted longtime employee Darryl Smalls to fill the Security Manager role; Kim Grafing already manages the Service Experience group and the final manager, Robert Pfeiff, will fill the Safety Manager position in late April.
USING MEMBER GUIDANCE
The Security and Enforcement Committee resumed regular meetings and called for volunteers (apply to join!). The committee serves as an advisory committee to the board of directors. At the board’s April 14 meeting, the committee presented a recommendation to resume speeding enforcement actions on the island. The board approved the action, pending legal review.
Operational Items
IMPROVING TRAFFIC FLOW
- Permanent visitor access signs have been installed outside the gate to help direct the flow of visitors without a pass and member guests with QR codes. These signs will be of further benefit as we explore the expansion of the QR code process to renters. An extensive review of all rental activity on the island is currently underway.
PEDESTRIAN SAFETY
- In coordination with our Land and Lakes Department, KICA’s Engineering Department relocated the leisure trail at Governors Drive and installed the signalized crosswalk signs on Kiawah Island Parkway at Oyster Rake.
- Our patrol team monitored the Duneside neighborhood through March in an effort to create a baseline for traffic patterns. We will continue to monitor now that the Cape Club has opened. For the week ending April 13, only one vehicle was recorded going above 25 miles per hour. All others were within or below the posted speed limit of 20 mph.
GUEST, VISITOR AND COMMERCIAL ACCESS
- Automating KICA, KI Club & Resort Data – We have spent the last four months working with our IT consultant and developers at ABDi to automate the synchronization of data between Salesforce (our member and customer database) and ABDi (our gate access management platform). Testing is scheduled to be completed on May 15.
- The next phase of our security plan involves integrating the KI Club and resort access systems with our gate access software. Initial meetings with the resort’s IT staff have begun and integration meetings with software providers are anticipated prior to June 24.
- With new computers, staff was able to deploy ABDi’s (KICA’s gate access contractor) Traffic Viewer solution, streamlining KICA’s Customer Service Advisors’ access to see detailed decal information for each vehicle. This traffic viewer is also deployed to each of our security managers’ desktops, allowing for side-by-side comparison of camera and decal information remotely.
- The Commercial Pass Office has increased revenue of 26% over the same period last year. While revenue is not the goal of enforcement activity, it is an indicator of our success in identifying and preventing unauthorized island access.
ACCESS CONTROL GATES
- The physical maintenance and operation of the gate arms have been brought in-house to our Engineering department. The change has also decreased response times; we can now measure gate repair times in hours, rather than weeks.
- The gate arms were upgraded to include red LED lighting, which has nearly eliminated vehicle collisions with the arm and drastically lowered repair costs.
- RFID decal readers have been reprogrammed to turn red when cars approach to help with traffic calming. Previously, the light turned green which encouraged drivers to speed past the gate Security staff.
SECURITY AND OPERATIONS
- KICA’s entire network has been upgraded to increase network security, reliability and management. This is the principal foundation of all of KICA’s security infrastructure.
- We have added new computers at both the kiosk lane of the Main Gate and the V-Gate.
Q1 DATA REPORTING
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