Author: Steve Lasky - (about) Date: Aug 3 2011 - 5:01pm
Much like the coaching staffs he is charged to protect, New Orleans deputy mayor Lt. Colonel Jerry Sneed, USMC retired, says that good game preparation is the key to success. Speaking as a keynote at the second annual National Sports Safety and Security conference, Sneed, who became New Orleans' first director of Office of Emergency Preparedness and director of Homeland Security following the disaster of hurricane Katrina, considers himself the most politically incorrect member of the present city government. But there is no doubting his passion for protecting the citizens of his city from the war he says has been brought to America's doorstep.
“We are at war whether we like it or not,” he said to a crowd of more then 500 sports team and venue security personnel. “And there are three main ways they seek to attack us. They want to make a monumental statement to the world, they seek to destroy our economy, and they want to make us afraid to what makes everyday life enjoyable. So setting a large sporting event as a prime target fits right into that type of mindset.”
Sneed says it his team's job to make sure those statements aren't made in New Orleans, which is a tall order considering the city is a regular host to NCAA football bowl games, college basketball tournaments and of course the NFL Super Bowl. So how does he calculate winning security game plan?
It is a two-pronged strategy. First, his team makes sure it is prepared for all possible scenarios and two, the team ensures the response is appropriate to the event itself. As a a United States Marine for more than 30 years, Sneed was not always a fan of how the military employed its intelligence resources. But in his role in the private sector, he admits that shared intelligence is the only method the city can manage appropriate emergency responses.
Teaming with the New Orleans fire and police departments, along with with the Jefferson Parrish Sheriff's department, they use coordinated Incident Command Systems procedures to ensure coordinated communicate and a plan of attack.
“It is key that everyone is brought into planning at the same time. All parties can then understand their individual roles and how each role effects the success of the emergency plan,” Sneed says. “You have to find balance as you set up your plan, where you need to deploy your assets and finally how you initiate the plan to gain the logistical advantage.”
-Steve
The Security Check How Facebook is reinventing a neighborhood watch
Author: Geoff Kohl - (about) Date: Aug 1 2011 - 10:15am
In one of the nearby neighborhoods, there has been a string of home invasions that are apparently linked. The perpetrators all fit the same description and the M.O. is the same. These have been violent invasions, with victims pistol-whipped in their homes, and in some cases hog-tied (after being stripped naked). The police seem to concur that they are looking for the same set of criminals.
In response to this crime wave, that neighborhood has set up a Facebook page to serve as a crime watch service. They spread information about the crimes and they coordinate nightly social walks that are all about creating a neighborhood spirit and bringing a sense of ownership back to their streets. They divided their area into zones and use the Facebook interface to report in on suspicious activities, drug deals and even when the zone is all clear.
The group is going through its own growing pains. They have the vigilantes coming out of the woodwork who aspire to walk as gunslingers around their neighborhood, like some alternative wild west sheriff's deputy, but generally the effect is good. Law enforcement information is being dispersed; home security tips are being shared, and neighbors are meeting each other for the first time through this Facebook interface.
Many of those involved are young women, and while home invasions seem to have been the spark that created this fire, most persons in this neighborhood have experienced car break-ins or simple home robberies. While I've never lived in this neighborhood, I've visited friends there for a decade or more, and crime was always a fact of life. Now, in this age of digital information sharing, it's powerful to see a social network try to change the crime dynamics of a neighborhood. I throw this Facebook crime-fighting model out here on this blog as a hope that others might be able to adopt or adapt it for their own needs.
I want to try to distill a few "tips" from this Facebook neighborhood watch effort for anyone interested:
1. Share crime incident descriptions and descriptions of perpetrators
2. Divide your area into zones to create an even stronger sense of ownership
3. Connect with law enforcement using your Facebook group
4. Announce zone walks and tell the good news when the zone is clear
5. Besides meeting digitally, set up a time to meet in person. Real face to face meetings (not just Facebook to Facebook meetings) are good for community spirit
6. Use the Facebook wall to point out public safety issues (burned-out streetlights, street signs hidden by vines, abandoned cars, broken windows, etc.), and then take those issues to the city to get them fixed!
7. Involve local businesses, especially the service industry workers who are often the last ones going home at night after they clean up their restaurants and cars. These people can be your best eyes and ears.
To close this blog entry, I wanted to share a somewhat humorous post from that group's Facebook wall. This guy's interest in security and video surveillance is something I thought would resonate well with our industry professional audience:
"However, a note to all - be mindful about posting information that feeds details on your short coming in personal security. This is the very thing predators use to help them identify weaknesses. Myself I'm not so worried. We have DVR cams all over the house and yard and 12 men in the home. Even better is, there is not much in the way of real property value in the home. And yes mister bad guy our DVR runs with an FTP upload to an off-site server backup and the cable service is backed up with a fixed cellular thats on a 36 hour independent power supply - all in a self contained locker in the attic. All of this is monitored on a live remote to a mid-level security company and I can see it all on my smart phone too. Come to think of it - the security system is the most expensive thing in the home - carp. I need some new toys!"
-Geoff
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