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Re:Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S... by IkmoIkmo on Friday January 08, 2021 @03:36PM (#25690107)
In the Netherlands there are a few entry ways and they look a bit like this:

https://www.dormakaba.com/resource/blob/128222/7d74af646dce4...

They're configured one-way only, can be fully opened for high through-put or emergencies, but are otherwise single-person only. They can detect multiple people in various ways. The default for sensitive areas would be biometric (e.g. weight, some parlement members coming back from vacation a little overweight have had to get a manual override in the past). Of course bulletproof, and can be controlled at a distance by an operator.

It makes sense that not everything requires something like this, but the office of the speaker of the house of course should be in any situation. If she wishes to meet people in less-secure rooms it's entirely possible to create meeting rooms with fewer or even no significant entry or security controls if you wish, but your personal office, places where you store sensitive data etc... can't just have em behind a few wooden doors.

Of course some countries opted for the benefit of a modern building. The capitol is more than two centuries old, you can only retrofit it so much.

Re:Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S... by brudgers on Friday January 08, 2021 @03:43PM (#25690197)
The US Capitol belongs to the people. There are risks from that which fall on the people who serve there. In counties with monarchs there are different traditions expressed by the architecture of public institutions and the seats of power.
Re:Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S... by Fuzzwah on Friday January 08, 2021 @04:20PM (#25690667)
Just because something belongs to the people does not mean that 1,000 of them need to be able to rush into it.
Re:Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S... by t0mas88 on Friday January 08, 2021 @05:36PM (#25691426)
Dutch Parliament has a visitors entrance and is (in non-covid times) easily accessible to the public. But for obvious security reasons their private offices are behind these kinds of locked doors. Since a few years I think you have to go through a metal detector to be allowed into the public areas.

It makes no sense at all that the US Capitol doesn't have stronger barriers between the public areas and the private offices. Every bank or other large company has such a setup for information security reasons.

Re:Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S... by brudgers on Saturday January 09, 2021 @02:55PM (#25704047)
The offices are public areas because they serve public officials carrying out public office.
Re:Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S... by t0mas88 on Monday January 11, 2021 @09:27AM (#25729181)
But why does a public official's office need to be a public area? I'm sure you're not allowed to walk into it without an appointment, so having appropriate security barriers wouldn't stop them doing their job at all and would improve security.
Re:Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S... by IkmoIkmo on Friday January 08, 2021 @04:15PM (#25690615)
Without referencing any source I'll just assume you made that up. As far as I know there's no difference between say the French or German republic or the Dutch (symbolic) monarchy in this regard.

Dutch representatives are accessible by the people. They have a walk-in hour, you can call them, email them, write them, you can join hearings and meetings where they're present, they go out into the country to talk to citizens. But what you can't do is waltz into their office. This has obvious reasons in a post 9/11 world, and it has nothing to do with the fact the Netherlands has a king who has a purely symbolic function and does not participate in politics, no different from say France which is a republic, or Germany which saw a mob storm the Reichstag a few months ago and was easily held off by the police, which is also a republic.