RiskUKSeptember2017

In the Spotlight: ASIS International UK Chapter
Security Management Academy’s parent
company, the Chelsea Group, runs a number of
very large projects in some very dangerous
areas, primarily in the Middle East and Africa,
and we’ve seen the principles work in practice.
Believe me, if your life depends on the early
detection of abnormal behaviour exhibited by a
driver approaching a road block in Iraq or
Afghanistan, then you do find yourself looking
very closely indeed.
We’ve adapted these detection techniques for
the current UK threat environment and are
delivering short and focused training to
companies using similar risk containment
principles based on behavioural profiling and
early alert. There’s reassurance that the
necessary measures will not be difficult to
implement, nor the associated training too
onerous for security staff to assimilate.
Ability to observe
While the technique can be taught, the aptitude
of security staff not only to assimilate the
training, but also to apply the technique is
wholly and importantly dependent upon their
ability to observe.
For those of us former police or servicemen
who have worked on surveillance or
reconnaissance patrols, the ability of an
individual officer to truly ‘read the street’ is a
relatively rare art. Typically, it’s very much the
case that only certain officers have this innate
skill. There are those who can scan a busy
street or a railway station and intuitively detect
different body types or unusual activity and
there are those who cannot, no matter how
long they ight diligently stare into the space.
Therefore, there will only be certain security
personnel who possess this ability and they will
need to be identified through training and
assessment, rather than trial and error, if their
function is to be truly effective.
We’re often asked how best to identify these
key individuals such that companies can put
them forward for training. It’s a perfectly
reasonable question to pose, you might think.
However, the only really effective means of
selection is through practical role-play. To avoid
a classic ‘chicken and egg’ situation, companies
will need to put a number of their security staff
through the process in order to find out who’s
good at ‘reading the street’ and, just as
importantly, who isn’t.
Make no mistake, the job involves full-on
surveillance which will challenge even the most
diligent of operators, with long spells of
boredom interspersed by false alarms and
frequent interruptions, so these individuals will
need to be carefully chosen if they’re to be
effective. Once the ‘gifted’ individuals are
identified, they can then be taken to the next
stage of learning before eventually being
deployed as part of the security team.
Composition of the team
The ideal structure of an effective commercial
security operation will include a specialist
detection and response team with observers
and responders clearly identified, properly
trained and working in close unison for best
effect. They will rehearse regularly and ensure
that the gap between the identification of
abnormal behaviour in the street and the
sounding of an alert is as small as possible,
enabling the response team to sweep up their
staff and customers and move them, at a brisk
jog, to a previously identified safe haven.
Rather than ‘Run, Hide, Tell’ I would suggest
that ‘Spot, Sweep, Secure’ would be a worthy
commercial equivalent. You read it here first. I
would hope that, even if they don’t necessarily
appreciate this strapline, security companies
might take on board the subtle shift in
emphasis from prevention to detection, putting
into action the necessary selection and training
required to establish effective countermeasures
in the light of the current – and very
real – threats posed by today’s terrorists.
*TheSMA is one of ASIS UK’s
recognised training partners
for the Certified Protection
Professional (CPP), Physical
Security Professional (PSP)
and Professional Certified
Investigator (PCI)
qualifications
“If any one of a number of unhinged social outcasts with
little or no history of wrongdoing decides to rent a transit
van and drive it into a crowded street market, there’s
nothing we can do to prevent such an attack”
51
www.risk-uk.com