This is the first article in a series titled “Developing a Security Mindset.” The theme of this blog will be to write stories that highlight the human, social and organizational issues that can cause security to deteriorate or go awry, either in your company, your building or your personal life.
We will discuss the technical aspects of security too, but we have found through our decades of experience doing physical security assessments and threat assessments, etc., that when things go wrong it can usually be attributed to one of three things: poor policy, poor training and/or poor supervision. The opposite is also true. If things go right, it’s because you have good policy, good training and good supervision in place. You need all three of those critical elements to be working for you and working for you at the same time.
In these blog posts we will offer our expert guidance and advice, gleaned from half-a-century of real-life experience in public and private security and safety, to try and help you “Develop a Security Mindset.” The good news is it’s easy to do. The bad news is that things that are easy to do are also easy not to do.
Many people want to believe that “it can’t happen here.” Even after it has happened all over the country (and the world), the mind wants you to believe that your little piece of heaven is some sort of safe haven. Sadly, we must inform you that it is not. When we instruct police and security officers, which we have done for decades throughout the country, we always make them write down this mantra, “Anytime, Anywhere, Anyone.”
We also emphasize the slogan made popular by the NYPD, which advises “If you See Something Say Something.” We change that a little to, “If you See (or Hear) Something Say Something.” It’s a great slogan because it works. And it works because information and communication are the lifeblood that sustains both police and private security operations. It can prevent terrible things from happening or it can quickly neutralize bad things from getting worse if they do happen.
In future articles we will expand on these general principles and make them more specific. We will discuss case studies of real-life incidents and show how things went wrong and how you can learn from them so you don’t repeat the same mistake. We will also show you how things went right so you can replicate it. No need to reinvent the wheel.
If you want to communicate with us as we proceed don’t hesitate to drop us a line at: [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you. We’ll also do our best to answer any questions you may have related to security, safety, emergency management and/or investigations.
