Whenever I provide workplace violence or active shooter training, I usually begin the presentation by talking about denial factors that a lot of people and organizations tend to have. One of the leading denial factors is the ‘it couldn’t happen here’ or ‘it will never happen to me’ mentality.

Last Tuesday, April 3rd at about 1 PM, I was in the process of finalizing my PowerPoint presentation for a training session for a client headquarters facility when I received a call from my son who lives in San Bruno, CA. He said that he was on his way home from work when he noticed police and SWAT teams had his neighborhood locked down. It turned out that he was right in the middle of a lunchtime active shooter incident that injured three YouTube employees. It hit a little too close to home for me and reinforced the fact that it can happen to any one of us, at any given time or location.

The number of mass shootings around the country continues to climb. The YouTube office tragically was marked as the 58th event in 2018. There have been 11 shooting incidents at elementary, middle and high schools that have killed 24 people and injured more than 40 since January 1st.

The fact is that these shootings generally take place within a few minutes. Even with a two-minute police response (as in the YouTube incident), it takes just seconds for people to be injured or killed by a deranged person.

The answer is to find a way to prevent these violent acts before they occur. This means that we need to incorporate the concept of risk assessment as a part of our daily lives. Company offices and schools need to conduct these assessments, as they are an integral part of any risk mitigation program. The first step is to identify access point vulnerabilities and areas that may be inviting for someone to commit mass violence. The key to this is to utilize reputable security professionals that are experienced in anticipating threats, identifying vulnerabilities and examining existing dynamics to determine the likelihood of occurrence and the severity of the impact. Once this process has been completed, reliable controls can be recommended to make it more difficult for an intruder to assault innocent victims.

The second part of any crisis response program is to establish policies and protocols that reinforce and validate the risk mitigation controls that have been put in place. All stakeholders such as employees, students, supervisors, and managers need to receive training to identify and be actively aware of abnormal behavior that may indicate a potential for violence. Experience has taught us that in almost every event, an aggressor will display behavioral and physical indicators that include both overt and subtle gestures before an attack or violent act.

A critical component of security awareness training is to communicate a perceived threat properly. The most recommended way to accomplish this is to ‘say something when you see something’. The training should also include what to do during an active shooter incident or violent act. The goal is to eradicate the ‘it can’t happen to me’ mentality and change the way people respond to armed or violent intruder situations.

Having a sense of awareness and a response plan is important, as incidents of violence are growing. The more we practice situational awareness and plan for these types of events, the better prepared we can be to prevent these violent acts.

Most people today still envision personal protection agents as large, imposing figures in black suits, wearing sunglasses, covert earpieces and talking into their wrist during the movement of a high-level subject. Alternatively, perhaps they imagine Kevin Costner defying all odds to protect Whitney Houston’s life from a deranged stalker while she sings, ‘I will always love you’ in the 1992 movie, Bodyguard.

Although these portrayals of a protection agent were realistic for the times, in today’s world, a successful agent needs to have a much deeper knowledge and understanding of various threat risk components that did not exist a decade ago.

Our world is a different place today. With the rapid globalization of our economy and the expansion into foreign markets, executives are traveling far more frequently into more global regions than ever before possibly putting them into dangerous situations. High-profile and lone-wolf attacks against ‘soft targets’ have increased at a dramatic rate in formerly safe communities. This means that the executive protection agent must be at the top of his or her game in protection skills and situational awareness.

Those entering the field of executive protection today need to obtain basic training in all phases of protective services, advance operations, counter-surveillance and tactical medicine to become certified. They also must consistently develop and maintain a working knowledge of geopolitical events and have an understanding of international politics and the cultural differences we are exposed to in the rapidly changing, dynamic world we live in today. This is something not taught in your standard EP training schools.

Another paradigm shift in the protective services field is the use of technology. EP agents must be highly proficient in the technology tools that are now commonplace in the security world. The biggest challenge to any protection detail is having good communication and the most up-to-date information available. Cell phones, tablets, emails and SMS messages are required and vital communication tools for personal security details.

A wide variety of mobile device applications such as GPS mapping/tracking, group messaging and incident alert notifications for EP – PSD teams ensure that the most current and critical intel from trusted sources is delivered to all members of the protection team in real-time. This capability enables security managers and protection teams to make better decisions when anticipating and mitigating risk.

The internet and social media present yet another dynamic for the protection agent. With just a few clicks of the computer mouse, anyone can easily obtain detailed information on just about anyone from a wide variety of websites. Where a person lives, works or what they do socially is no longer sensitive information; it is effortless to obtain. This means that the agent needs to continually refine the necessary skill sets to conduct research on the Internet to protect their subject before it becomes a threat concern.

In addition to their traditional responsibilities of preventing physical attacks on principals, protection agents must now expand their risk mitigation strategies in a rapidly changing world of business globalization, travel risk management, and social media. The abundance of readability available, easily accessible and even more detailed information on all of us will continue to grow thus generating even more vulnerabilities for those we have been assigned to protect.

It remains to be seen what other dynamics will impact security services as we encounter the challenges facing us in the next decade. However, the time-proven adage remains; when it comes to security, it is always better to be proactive rather than reactive.

I recently managed a complex event security operation for one of our corporate clients in a large U.S. metropolitan city. In preparing for the 2,000 company attendees that included high ranking executives and VIPs from around the world, the event planners had bought out a 25-story historic hotel, securing the massive lobby area, seven floors of meeting rooms, ballrooms and conference areas for a week.

Corporate event planners and a forty-five person support staff were responsible for facilitating logistics, scheduling the various conference sessions and arranging for the housing and catering needs of all attendees. My mission and responsibilities were to ensure personnel/attendee safety, protect assets, secure locations and develop event security response and risk mitigation strategies.

A key component of the FocusPoint risk mitigation strategy on these types of events is to conduct pre-event advance operations. Advance operations include those tasks associated with evaluating the venue (in this case, the entire hotel) to mitigate risk potential, and develop plans to address any security issues including threats to participants, theft of client property, emergency evacuation and medical support should an incident occur.

One sub-task of the advance operation was to identify vulnerable access points that would require security presence for access/credential monitoring. Additional security resources were also necessary to ensure that high-value and classified intellectual property displayed in all the conference rooms were secure.

The responsibility for the event security manager is to ensure that adequate resources are properly deployed to cover any risk contingency within an approved budget. In most cases, this would mean assigning a security guard or protection agent to vulnerable entry points and roving agents for credential monitoring. The cost for these resources can quickly become significant and challenging when dealing with tight security budgets.

Concerning the hotel event I mentioned above, traditional security staffing projections called for a minimum of 35 security/protective services agents covering a minimum of 12 hours per day. Considering the support need for five days of coverage, the cost for security personnel quickly exceeded $100,000.

During the course of my law enforcement and private sector security management career, I have continually sought to utilize technology to complement efficiencies and costs for traditional solutions. One solution that was implemented during the event was the use of RFID technology. While RFID tags are already being used for supply chain management, new techniques are continually being applied to support traditional security operations in a variety of ways.

To reduce security costs, RFID tags were embedded into event attendee credentials. Portable RFID readers were installed at all venue access doors, and small, mobile RFID antennas were positioned in all common areas to monitor and confirm that only credentialed guests were present. All attendees, VIPs, event staff and security personnel, were issued their assigned credentials upon arrival and check-in at the hotel with the instruction to wear their credentials at all times.

The RFID equipment immediately transmitted information to the command center whenever any individual not wearing proper credentials accessed the area or entered an access point. This information was then relayed via radio to our security response personnel assigned as rovers within each venue area. The individual was then escorted to the credentialing/check-in booth staffed by company event personnel to resolve the issue. Portable CCTV cameras also covered all access points and monitoring areas to document activities.

The effectiveness of the blended technology and traditional staffing model for this event resulted in greater efficiencies to quickly identify and resolve instances of non-credentialed persons within the venue and less intrusive contacts with event attendees. Also, during pre-event set-up activities, an expensive display device containing proprietary and sensitive information went missing from one of the exhibit areas before the physical security team was in place. A check of RFID monitoring records found that an outside vendor had mistakenly placed the device in a packing crate that was moved into the storage area. This resulted in a quick resolution to a potentially time-consuming investigation.

By incorporating cost-effective RFID technology into traditional security posting practices, I was able to reduce the number of security personnel needed and working hours by 68%, thereby generating substantial cost savings for our client. Properly implemented, the benefits of technologies blended with traditional security functions can greatly improve mission objectives and provide economic incentives in our industry space.

1. GPS personal travel tracking provides the location of travelers and assets from the time of departure to the time they return, at low cost
2. The use of GPS during travel takes the guesswork out of finding and assisting travelers when itineraries, plans or routes change
3.  GPS travel tracking allows you to warn travelers of hazardous or dangerous areas in real-time
4.  GPS travel tracking provides crisis responders the exact location in order to provide support to a traveler in the event of an emergency, disaster or terrorist act
5. GPS personal tracking delivers peace of mind with traveler-initiated alerts during emergencies

For more information on traveler tracking and travel security, please visit: www.focuspointintl.com

1. Executives need to avoid the “it will never happen to me” mindset that promotes complacency
2. Executives should conduct (or have their security) conduct proper travel risk assessments for each destination location on every trip
3. Executives should ensure they can be quickly located in the event of a critical incident during all phases of travel
4. Executives should always have a contingency action plan in place in the event of a critical incident
5. Companies should have a current travel policy in place for all executives

While I was serving in California law enforcement, community policing was being implemented into neighborhoods throughout the U.S. during the 1970s and 1980s. The idea was to establish a partnership with various entities such as businesses and schools in a joint effort to solve community problems and combat crime. At the time, I was assigned by our chief of police to implement a paradigm shift to community policing throughout our agency and community, and I spent the next year learning about this relatively new approach to policing.

The basic concept of community policing is to promote a wide variety of resources and strategies to mitigate potential situations that might create safety issues for the public. For example, crime, and the fear of crime as well as social unrest, are public safety issues that community policing sought to address.

To tackle these problems, community policing involves working partnerships with municipal agencies, private sector businesses, individual citizens, and the media to develop methods to keep communities safe and secure. The objective is to utilize a variety of resources and private sector entities to address crime, mitigate risk and pinpoint safety issues in the community rather than leaving it up to the police force.

Law enforcement agencies across the country today are facing manpower cuts and reduced budgets yet, still, carry the responsibility of ensuring that communities are safe and secure while reducing vulnerabilities against terrorism and many other hazards. This is an area where I strongly believe that collaborative public-private sector partnerships are just as vital today as community policing was in the 70s and 80s.

Back in the 1980s, police agencies and private sector security companies did not operate with mutual goals and objectives. Today, police are working with security companies on many collaborative issues and information sharing. Law enforcement managers and field officers now rely on trained security professionals to monitor locations, advise on potential crime trends and be the eyes and ears throughout every aspect of the community. For example, private sector entities actively respond to national emergencies and are retained to provide protective services and crisis response solutions to not only large corporations but also private citizen travelers when the need exists globally.

Partnerships between law enforcement and private technology companies have grown exponentially in a wide variety of areas including advanced computer and communications capabilities, CCTV, mobile cameras, drones, GPS tracking, robotics and forensics analysis. These partnerships have led to more efficient crime response, suspect identification, and crime resolution at greatly reduced costs compared to traditional policing methods used in the past.

If we take a good look at how collaboration is defined, we see that the concept of cooperating in partnerships can provide significant benefits to all participants and the citizens of a community.

These partnership benefits can start almost immediately once private sector entities and law enforcement realize they can accomplish their goals and objectives more effectively due to the mutual synergies involved. These advantages multiply and serve to achieve goals at significantly lower costs.

A close friend of mine recently told me he was traveling to the Middle East in the next few weeks and asked if I thought he would be safe and what risks he should be aware of.  I get these questions a lot these days.

Most business and leisure travelers plan how they will get there, where they will stay and what they will do without giving any real thought for security. Considering the number of business and leisure travel trips that occur each year, the fact is that a serious security related incident rarely occurs. Because of this, travelers develop a sense of complacency when it comes to security and tend not to have a backup plan when a crisis does occur.

Unfortunately, when things go wrong, unexpected events develop very quickly that can turn into a full-blown crisis resulting in serious injury or death. One very recent and tragic example is the Manchester Arena attack in England that targeted young concert attendees exiting the venue.

The lack of an action plan when something does go wrong greatly increases the risk that you could be negatively impacted or worse, become a victim. If you are a top corporate executive or high profile VIP, the chances are that a risk consultancy company like mine has already been contracted to create a critical incident response plan that covers proper advance work, robust protection services, counter-surveillance and rapid response extraction as a part of your travel risk management program.

However, what if you are not a high-level corporate executive or a VIP like most business or leisure travelers? What can you do to become less vulnerable if a crisis event occurs when you are traveling? The answer is to take the time to pre-plan the same way protection experts do. Following a few basic travel security protocols can go a long way and significantly increase your safety when you travel globally.

Situational Awareness

Everywhere you go these days, people are looking down at their cell phones and not paying attention to their immediate environment. Practicing the basics of situational awareness is the process of being cognizant of what is going on around you. Travelers must take care of themselves because, when push comes to shove, we are ultimately responsible for our safety.

My best advice is to practice being observant and aware of your surroundings to stay ahead of potential threats until it becomes a routine. For example, when I first entered my career in law enforcement, my training officer would spontaneously ask me, “if someone shot at you right now, could you communicate your exact location, what the person looks like and describe what the threat was?” I cannot tell you how much that training became very useful.

This does not mean that you need to constantly be paranoid or neurotic everywhere you go or at every moment of the day. However, when traveling, you may be in an unfamiliar area with unfamiliar people. The best advice is to trust your instincts, be cognizant of people around you and where you are at any given moment.

This should sound familiar to you because you practice this every time you drive your car. You choose which route you will take based on the flow of traffic, time of day, etc.

If something does not seem right, chances are, they are not. Consider the following when developing your potential action plans:

• Where am I? What is the area like around me?

Evaluation: When entering a public place, scan the area and identify exits and note obstacles that would be in your way if you needed to escape from the area quickly. For example, whenever I enter a restaurant, I take notice of the exits and try to choose a seat with my back to the wall so I can see who enters the area.

• Are the people around me acting in a normal manner? What is their behavior?

Evaluation: Before people commit acts, there are usually several advanced warning signals. Be prepared to leave the area if you see someone acting or communicating in a suspicious or hostile manner.

• What are people around me wearing? Is their attire typical for the area or weather?

Evaluation: Is someone wearing a heavy jacket when it is 85 degrees outside? What could be concealed in the jacket?

• Have I seen the same person or vehicle more than twice during my travel?

Evaluation: Individuals with criminal intentions engage in some form of surveillance before committing a crime or act of violence. If you scan your surroundings and see the same vehicle or person, there is a good chance you are being targeted. Recognizing this will afford you the time to take protective steps such as changing routes, locations or notifying authorities

• What are my instincts telling me?

Evaluation: Many victims experienced a sense or feeling of danger just before an incident and chose to ignore their intuition. It is best to follow your ‘gut’ instinct. If it is wrong, you may only be inconvenienced a bit, but it is still better than being a victim. 

Being cognizant of your surroundings and having a responsive action plan will greatly reduce the chances of becoming a victim and allow you to help others when it is needed the most.

By 2016, we saw Mexico’s large drug trade organizations (DTOs) splinter due to the arrest and deaths of many key leaders and gang members. Security experts thought that this level of fragmentation would continue to occur within drug cartel gangs throughout Mexico during the year. Many felt that this fragmentation would lead to fewer cartel-on-cartel battles that would result in reduced murder rates throughout the country.

While the government has seen successes in the removal of some of the most wanted criminals and DTO leaders, many of the DTOs have split-up and entered into other illegal enterprises which has caused increased violence as they compete for territory across much of the country.

Although there was hope for reduced murders, the fact is that 2016 homicide rates were substantially higher, even reaching their highest levels since 2012. Large DTOs and small criminal gangs aggressively engage in bloody battles for control in many states throughout Mexico. For example, cities like Tijuana, Juarez, Veracruz and even Acapulco have experienced significant increases in murder rates.

As crime groups split into smaller, more compact, regional entities, there was a significant exception. The Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) is a relatively new organization that appeared on the DTO scene in Tijuana in the past two years. CJNG initially joined the remnants of the Arellano Felix Organization, which dominated Tijuana before the Sinaloa cartel gained control there. The group then formed an alliance with the Sinaloa Federation in 2014.

The CJNG relationship with the Sinaloa group did not continue, however. When the cartel started to gain a foothold on smuggling operations in Tijuana and Mexicali, CJNG began working with the La Linea and Juarez cartel to take over drug trafficking routes in the Sinaloa territory that also included the Juarez-El Paso, Texas border crossing. By mid-2015, CJNG appeared to have become a dominant factor in many parts of Mexico’s ten states with a growing influence in other areas.

Even though there was initially a reduction in violence and homicides after President Enrique Peña Nieto took office with his promise to restore law and order, CJNG’s rapid and violent growth (including Eastern Europe, China, and North Africa) has contributed to the significant increase in homicides throughout Mexico.

CJNG and other criminal organizations continue to be very successful in exploiting governments, financial institutions, technology capabilities and global expansion strategies. With the incentive to supply the U.S. market demand by importing a stunning $64 billion worth of illegal drugs every year, it is easy to see how power shifts can quickly change.

The fragmentation of DTOs in Mexico will continue to present serious challenges in addressing complex transnational counterdrug operations in 2017. Foreign and American companies operating there have not been immune to criminal elements in the past. It would be wise for businesses to conduct not only vulnerability assessments to safeguard employees, facilities, and assets but to incorporate a comprehensive travel security management program in planning for 2017 and beyond.

Having worked in the protection and security industry for over 40 years, I am beginning to see an evolutionary change in the way these services are delivered as a result of technology enhancements.

When I completed my military service during the Viet Nam era, my first job was with a major computer entity in the late 1960s. This was when we saw tremendous achievements in technology where great minds created things you could not imagine living without today. These innovations included such things as the computer mouse, the world’s first video game console, dynamic random access memory, laser beams and the Unix computer operating system.

As I entered into my law enforcement career, I was fortunate to be a part of a paradigm shift from laborious manual processes and paper files stuffed into file cabinets to computer-aided-dispatch, automated vehicle locator systems and mobile data terminals in police units.  I have seen technology increasingly facilitate security services with GPS applications for protection details, computerized risk intelligence data analysis and enhanced wireless video/alarm systems.

Over the next decade, technology will automate routine cognitive work. Technologies such as genomics, nanotechnology, and robotics will take center stage. We have already seen how popular consumer technologies are such as robots, drones, and virtual reality and they have been slowly crossing over into the security industry over the past few years.

So, what does this technology trend mean for the security industry? While I do not think robots will ever replace humans altogether, the future does look like there will be an increased blend of robotics, data, and humans. You can augment a security or protection officer with technology but not necessarily replace them.

Robots that are equipped with sensors to detect people, objects, temperature changes or unexpected noises can help mitigate risk, increase security officer safety and cost less.

More and more start-up companies are developing robotic solutions. They are focused on building more human-like robots that can interact with humans rather than just capture data or be a physical deterrent. Currently, robotics is best used in environments with minimal human interactions. However, this will change as technology becomes more advanced.

Another trend is how virtual reality technology is changing the way we train police officers, security agents and even the general public for critical incidents or emergencies. Active shooter training simulations can be programmed for a specific training need and can capture a 3D rendering or a computer graphic image (CGI) of a wide range of environments (company office, manufacturing facility, or event venue); generate threat scenarios and take participants through active shooter training in a virtual world. This type of training can be presented in any location and on demand.

Virtual reality training for risk mitigation professionals and private sector security personnel will significantly enhance security contingency planning and response strategies. This training could also be beneficial as an annual mandatory training requirement for company employees or school campus faculty members.

Whatever the future holds, you can be sure that technology will, at a minimum, be an increasingly larger part of security contingency planning.

As we ended the Christmas holidays and entered into 2017, protesters blocked roads surrounding the Mexican and U.S. border due to the dramatic gas price hikes in Mexico. Some protesters burnt tires while others turned violent as businesses were looted and ransacked, and fuel delivery trucks were hijacked and destroyed. Over a thousand people, including police officers, were arrested during the first week of January alone.

The gas price announcement was made public on the first of January and called for the drastic adjustment of fuel prices to real market value rather than the significantly lower gas prices historically established through previous governmental gas subsidies. The news broke just as long lines were forming at gas stations, as the national oil company (Pemex) was unable to supply fuel due to oil refining problems and shortages. Many felt that this was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Protests, now termed ‘gasolinazo’, have spread dramatically while truck and taxi drivers have joined angry citizens to block main highways into Mexico City, causing transportation companies and trucking companies to cancel service. The owner of a major Mexican gas station entity has warned officials that it may have to close all of its gas stations due to security concerns.

In addition to fuel price issues, fuel shortages have drastically affected the economy of Mexico. With the increased demand, there has been widespread fuel theft by organized crime groups and breaks in supply chains.

All of these factors have a direct impact on companies operating and transporting products and goods from Mexico into the U.S. I have personally seen a significant increase from corporate clients requesting escort security, real-time route planning and GPS monitoring for cargo transportation to safeguard their trucks from protester demonstrations or hijackings.

The cost of transportation will increase. However, the concern on the minds of many government officials and corporate executives is how fuel hikes will affect the availability and price of food. It will cause a serious problem if the cost of living dramatically outweighs a minimum wage worker’s ability to meet their basic needs.

Those companies operating in Mexico with in-country or cross-border transportation requirements must place a priority on re-evaluating their security contingency plans and risk mitigation procedures in light of increased fuel prices and economic anxiety. The responsible solution will be for these companies to partner with trusted risk mitigation professionals who have a proven track record in conducting vulnerability assessments and the necessary resources to provide long-term travel risk management solutions throughout Mexico