Security Technology Executive

FEB-MAR 2018

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50 SECURIT Y TECHNOLOGY E XECUTIVE • Februar y/March 2018 • www. SecurityInfoWatch.com SECURIT Y MANAGEMENT Help You Stay Left of the Boom Security professionals must create an inclusive culture of awareness and preparedness to meet organizational threats By Scott Stewar t s a child playing the hand- slapping game I quickly learned that action is always faster than reac- tion. A clever kid may try to game the system a bit by anticipating the opponent's move and proactively moving , but that proactive move is an action itself, and not a true reaction. I am certain that most of you reading this now also learned this same lesson at an early age, either by playing athletics or other games. This observation we made as children has been confirmed by a number of sci- entific studies conducted at places such as the Force Sciences Institute. When it comes to an armed attack, studies have conclusively proved that action is ALWAYS faster than reaction. Once the knife is moving , the bullet fired or the bomb initiated, all law enforcement and security officers can do is react. Sometimes luck or the incompetence of the attacker – or perhaps a little of both combined with divine interven- tion – may save the target of an attack. But let's face it, it is always better to see the attack developing and take action to stop it before it can be launched. And like the aforementioned kid trying to gain an advantage in the hand slap- ping game, this leads us to the need to be proactive. Don't get me wrong , reac- tion drills are vitally important to any world-class security team. Attackers have an even better chance of success if security forces are not alert and well trained. However, it is always preferable to take action to stop an attack before it is launched rather than depend on react- ing to an attack in progress. With that in mind, let 's examine some of the basic elements that con- tribute to a good proactive protective security program. Education The first and most critical element is education. This includes teaching employees about the general and specif- ic threats that are facing them. General threats include things like workplace violence, criminality, intellectual prop- erty theft, protest activity and grassroots terrorism. A specific threat would be information that a certain actor is plan- ning or has threatened a particular type of activity against a specific target. Such Proactive Security Programs A

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