Do gated apartments really help anything?

The people who run the apartment complex I live in decided to get the gates working. I’m generally not in favor of these things because I don’t think they do anything. If a burglar wants to get into the apartment complex the worst they have to go through is to wait for someone else to open the gates and then go in behind them.

I can think of about five reasons off the top of my head why they suck.

1) These gates use a key card. If, say, you have your card in your wallet and lose the wallet, you’re screwed. If you leave it in your car and, say, go out drinking and take a cab home then you’re screwed. Or any variation of this.

2) Recently we lost power to the apartments. During business hours, the gates are open. However, there was one gate that was still closed and when I tried to go out that way the gate wouldn’t open. So, what if power is lost early on a weekday? Or on the weekends? Then everyone inside is stuck in, and people who want to get home are stuck out. At least until the power is restored (took four hours the other day).

The other three are specific to how the gates and card readers are set up here, so I won’t bother going into that.

But, do you feel safer in a gated apartment complex or do you think it’s a waste of money and only hassles the people that live in the complex?