At the risk of winding up on several CIA and NSA watchlists:

>>54279986
Shadowrun sourcebooks may have info you need. There have also been some history channel documentaries on presidential security, mostly based on older stuff.

There are guards everywhere, constantly in contact with each other via radio. If you don't have ID or aren't a known, expect to get checked. Metal detectors and cameras on all entrances. Guards have concealed carry, and those are just the ones you see

Air support is probably not far off and on stand by in case shit gets hairy, so choppers can probably be there in 10-15 minutes. Nearby buildings are secured too, so you can't smuggle a sniper rifle in across the street.

Add in magic and there's probably wards, patrolling spirits, etc.

The best way to sneak into one of these places is to be invited. As part of a tour group, or as an expected dignitary and his entourage, etc. Foreign ambassadors have their own security personnel when they visit washington, recently some got in trouble for kicking the shit out of protesters harassing them (it was some middle east guy)

>>54279986

Multiple layers of security until you get to the point where there is someone literally looking at a screen 24/7 ready to press a button at a moment's notice.

Depending upon the thing you're trying to protect you have to prioritize how strict the security is and whether it's worth the money to have people johnny on the spot ready to respond.

>>54279986
buildings constructed with security in mind - very limited entry points all easily watched and heavily guarded. Mantrap door configurations may be used. Doors and walls are far heavier than their appearance suggests.

everyone is either openly armed or concealing armaments. Body armor may also be concealed.

thorough checks on everyone scheduled to go in or out, unscheduled visitors are turned away unceremoniously and with force if necessary. Scheduled visitors are thoroughly inspected for concealed anything before being placed in a guarded waiting room. If they are deemed safe, they are escorted to their meeting. Meetings never take place in a location known to the visitor unless it is necessary, and even then the security may change the location at the last moment.

Armed guards following visitors and staff everywhere.

Nobody is allowed in a room alone for any reason - not even staff or guards, and not even in the bathrooms.

>>54280094
>Mantrap door
What did he mean by this?

>>54280116
a series of two doors with some distance between them such that someone can enter through the outer door only to find the inner door locked, and the other door locked behind them. Then they sit and wait until someone shows up to arrest them for trespassing.

>>54280116
Google it?

Think airlock, only for controlling the movement of people instead of well, air.

>>54280094
>Meetings never take place in a location known to the visitor

How does this work?

>>54280155
a room not known beforehand to the visitor as they would be escorted from a waiting room to the meeting, though I guess they could also put a bag over the visitor's head and shove them in a car like in the movies.

>>54280079
Not to mention that a part of the guards will be wearing civilian clothes, but conceal carrying has always.

depends on the location. In a place like the white house, the protocol would be centered around VIP protection. Secure the asset and keep them safe until reinforcements can handle the situation.

Very rarely are items of priceless value and living people of importance kept together. Nothing in the white house is worth the life of one of it's key officials and in many places the inverse is true (lourve, fort knox, St. peters basilica). If the party is trying to take an item where security is more concerned with it's VIPs, then it may be easier to acquire that item if shit hits the fan for the party.

A few questions to ask here before designing a location like this would be whether or not the location allows random visitors like a museum, or if it's admittance is tightly controlled like a jail. How does the establishment function on its most crowded moments versus it's emptiest ones? Places like the kremlin arent just buildings. they are organisms unto themselves.

Guests would likely never be left unattended and if magic is an aspect of your setting then it is possible that there is no corner of the building that isn't looked after and patrolled by an entity. coverage would be insane.

Let your players get creative and go oceans 11 on this quest.have them study old maps, bribe old employees and consult professional thieves for hints. Maybe they can get smart and find a way to snatch the item in transit or masquerade as someone else to get closer to the item.

To help flesh out the realism of the job, consider the notoriety afterwards that such a job would come with as well as just how large their window of success might actually be. In the case of the white house it would only take a matter of hours before the entire city becomes locked off and inaccessible. Your world might benefit from a similar level of realism.