Home > Articles By Issue > Safety & Security > Article June 2003

Connect The Dots

By Denis O'Sullivan, CPP, PPM 2000 Inc.

The U.S. Office of Homeland Security's request that citizens and organizations throughout the private and public sectors be "vigilant" about homeland security is ambiguous and not entirely understood by the general population. Underlying this cautionary note of vigilance is the basic realization that more police, guards, gates, and alarms cannot ultimately and totally prevent terrorist and other harmful acts-particularly in surrounding neighborhoods or high visibility public places.

Rather, a broader "process" is required. Communities of people (at work and in their neighborhoods) must become more aware of their surroundings and of possible threats. In that sense, homeland security is as much a challenge for local, state/province, and federal law enforcement as it is for facility management professionals.

What's Being Done?

Both public rhetoric and internal management pressure is being applied to encourage the break down of political and bureaucratic walls between and among domestic intelligence and law enforcement agencies. This is the only way to ensure the prompt exchange of information in a timely manner.

Over the past few years, most public and private sector organizations have taken the opportunity to re-visit their disaster preparedness and business continuity plans. [For more on disaster recover, see BOMI Institute article on page 20 of this issue.] While numerous organizations had such plans in place, a good many of them had gathered dust. And while there have been established protocols for communication and cooperation between private companies and local/regional law enforcement and public safety agencies, these protocols need to be reinvigorated and tested.

Most importantly, there is now the realization that incident information sharing and proactive programs are critical. Security and incident management within companies and communities is comprised of essentially the same building blocks:

• Detect, track, and manage. Organizational barriers are arguably the most deadly threat to public and private security. Incident tracking and management are key to homeland and corporate security.
• Anticipate and prepare. All organizations must assume worse case scenarios are feasible. Effective preparation requires planned response across public jurisdictions.
• Prevent and protect. Sustained vigilance is a challenge. Detection and tracking technologies and processes must be in place and operating 24/7 in order to provide an effective shield of protection.
• Respond and recover. Response to violence requires intense, real time incident management. This includes the dispatch of emergency personnel and equipment, the activation of back up systems, and the collection of data indicating the whereabouts of individuals.

It is important to recognize that these building blocks are simultaneous and ongoing processes that must be aligned, integrated, and energized by open and multi-directional communication. This is as much a technology challenge as it is a management and human behavioral challenge.

Built In Communication

Homeland and corporate security is about layers of communications and software. It is also about management and operations personnel synchronized to respond effectively to anticipated and surprise threats.

Detection and evaluation of threats must be at the epicenter of the security process. Thus, critical IT features must be designed in to maximize off-the-shelf technology. The most important features are:

• Open: Standardization of data files allows warehousing and sharing across jurisdictions and their respective repositories.
• Scalable and integrated: This is critical in the ability to connect many seemingly disparate "dots" particularly as the scope and scale of global commerce increases.
• Secure: This will help ensure controlled access, protect sensitive data, and repel hackers.
• Internet delivery: Internet based incident reporting, tracking, and management empowers all individuals and organizations. This means that a company employee or a citizen anywhere can report an unusual or alarming event.
• Customizable: End user incident communication and management applications must be customized to support local users and needs.
• Affordable and deployable: This may promote the wider adoption of incident communication and management systems.
• Analytics: Connecting potentially huge volumes of collected "dots" requires robust analytics, pattern recognition, and trend analytics depicted in clear graphic formats.
• Real time alerts and messaging: News must be instantaneously sent across jurisdictions, sectors, and geographies. Alerts must be received by wireless telephones, PDAs, paging devices, and more.

Information: The Ultimate Weapon

Social scientists and historians are already analyzing this new age of terrorism and crime. Coldly calculating, well educated, and technologically savvy, these new villains are more powerful than anything imaginable.

Contemporary threats have also changed the mindsets, tactics, and even the job descriptions of professionals involved in the protection of assets. New technologies are being evaluated, adopted, and integrated into the security operations of public and private organizations. Fresh approaches to cooperation, communication, and utilization of resources are proving more effective than fragmented practices of the past.

With each attack and response, it is becoming ever clearer that information is the most potent weapon to combat terrorism and other violent crime. Knowing something rather than nothing-and knowing it even a few hours or even minutes earlier-may be a vital element in mitigating the impact of disasters in the future.