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Bus Terrorism Security January 14, 203 The American Bus Association has developed an Anti-Terrorism Action Plan and accompanying High Threat Security Video Series and training materials for members. As a feature of the plan, ABA has added to the site a colored graphic indicating the U.S. government's current security threat level, which links to an explanation of motorcoach-specific security measures related to the particular threat level. On the new Security Information page, members may download the full version of the plan and an order form for the videos. Non-members may view an extract of the plan. |
New York Banks' Security Need Tightening
New York Police say banks need to tighten security
A rash of unarmed bank robberies in New York City has prompted Police
Commissioner Ray Kelly to blame security lapses. The banks are staying open
longer hours and using fewer security measures such as bulletproof glass and dye
packs hidden in money.
"As banks become more customer-friendly, they are also becoming more
robber-friendly," Kelly told The Associated Press. "Some in the banking industry
take the position that robberies are simply a cost of doing business. That view is
unacceptable."
Kelly also pointed to lax surveillance systems inside the banks, especially with the
use of degrading video tapes that do not provide usable images. He specifically
cited one bank camera that was blocked by a Christmas wreath.
So far this year, 36 New York City banks have been robbed by assailants using
only a note to demand the money. The figure is nearly three times as many
robberies as were reported in January 2002. |
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Cargo Security = National Security, CEO says November 5, 2002: Security Beat Access Control & Security Systems
Addressing cargo crime on a broad scale can have a far-reaching impact on the
overall security of the maritime industry, American Science and Engineering Inc.
CEO and president Ralph Sheridan said in a presentation at the International
Maritime Security Summit last week. Sheridan presented technology solutions at the Washington, D.C., event
sponsored by the Maritime Security Council. He discussed the role of inspection
technologies to scan containers without slowing the flow of commerce.
"The anonymity of sea containers hides a $650 billion problem of cargo crime that
spans drug smuggling, trade fraud, cargo theft, weapons smuggling and illegal
immigration," Sheridan said. "By addressing the broader problem of cargo crime,
the industry can: improve the likelihood of finding terrorist threats; create a
deterrent effect by making cargo off limits to crime and terrorism; and achieve a
substantial economic benefit with the reduction of smuggling, theft and trade
fraud." F00D SECURITY A HOT TOPIC IN WASHINGTON August 13, 2002 - from Security Beat (Access Control Magazine)
Tim Hammonds, president and CEO of the Food Marketing Institute, believes agricultural economists have much to add to the current
discussions of food security and agricultural policy.
To help agencies collaborate with the food retailers in close contact with agricultural producers, Hammonds and the leadership of the Food
Marketing Institute (FMI) is working with the FBI to create the Food Industry Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC). ISAC
allows federal agencies to take information they have learned and distribute it to food industry members to determine if it represents a
viable threat to food security and American agriculture.
"There was a lot of activity in Washington, D.C., after Sept. 11," Hammonds stated in his keynote address, given July 28 at the annual
meeting of the American Agricultural Economics Association in Long Beach, Calif. "The FDA, the USDA, and the Office of Homeland
Security all had different plans for food security but they weren't sharing these plans with each other."
"Agriculture is especially vulnerable as an economic target," Hammonds continued, "but no one should underestimate the level of
preparedness of the food industry against an attack."
MALL LANDLORDS, TENANTS RE-EXAMINING SECURITY
It should come as no surprise that shopping center security has become an issue at the forefront of the minds of landlords and tenants alike. Some of the more significant issues surrounding security include (1) whether or not the landlord has a duty to provide security, (2) at whose cost security will be provided, and (3) the adequacy of the security being implemented.
Whether or not a landlord is required, in the first instance, to provide shopping center security is a matter of state law and largely a function of common law principles. This means that a landlord's duty to provide security will not, in most cases, be clearly set out in specific laws, code sections and regulations. As a general rule, courts have imposed duties upon landlords to provide shopping center security in situations where there was a history of criminal activity at the center in question.
It would be good practice for landlords to include in all future leases, broad, specific provisions providing for the reimbursement of security expenses. Particularly in today's climate and the obvious fears of virtually all Americans, landlords are unlikely to experience much resistance from tenants in expressly including such expenses as reimbursable common area costs.
Whether or not a duty to provide shopping center security exists, to the extent landlords provide security, they must make sure to provide it adequately. What is adequate may depend upon the types and levels of security being provided at comparable projects.
This article is abstracted from "Rethinking Security," in the December issue of Shopping Center World, a sister magazine of Access Control & Security Systems, and its Web site
Inventory shrinkage — a combination of employee theft, shoplifting, vendor fraud and administrative error — cost American retailers $32.3 billion in 2000.
According to a recent National Retail Security Survey, which analyzed theft incidents from 116 of the nation’s largest retail chains, retailers lost 1.75 percent of total annual sales to these problems. That percentage is up from 1.69 percent in 1999.
Retail security managers attribute more than 46 percent of losses to theft by disgruntled workers. Shoplifting, by comparison, represented 31 percent of losses. The remainder is attributed to clerical error and theft by vendors.
Translated into dollars, employee theft costs retailers $14.9 billion annually. From Security Beat
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Air Seychelles Speedily Resumes Regional Flights After Mid-flight Knife Incident 9-09-02
Air Seychelles, the international airline of Seychelles, pressed on with its regional flight schedule today barely hours after an early morning
incident in which a man brandished a knife at a crew member on a Mumbai-Maldives flight. The man was handed over to airport authorities in Maldives after the incident which took place 25 minutes before landing, and seven hours
later flight HM017 took off for Seychelles after a thorough strip-down and full security checks. Meanwhile the Seychelles Civil Aviation Authorities have engaged its counterparts in India and Maldives to carry out investigations in the
incident.
The airline’s Executive Chairman, Capt. David Savy, says: “The crew did exactly what they’ve been trained do to. What I
cannot understand is how the man got through the security net in Mumbai.He added: “This incident never got to become a hijack. It happened in the cabin of the aircraft well away from the cockpit
and the man was then dealt with promptly and effectively”. The 737 Boeing aircraft was kept on the ground for seven hours in Maldives for a thorough strip-down and took off just
before noon Seychelles time (0900 GMT) for the three-hour journey to its final destination in Seychelles.
AGGRESSIVE SECURITY AT SHOPPING MALLS CAN CAUSE PROBLEMS
Two young men were detained at a national retail store in Dearborn, Mich., asked to hand over the sweaters they were wearing and then were handcuffed. The men hadn't stolen the sweaters or anything else. In another Dearborn store, Frederick Finley, died after retail security personnel restrained him in a headlock. He was shopping with his girlfriend's preteen daughter, who was suspected of shoplifting. And in separate Texas incidents, two men died after one was allegedly hog-tied and another placed in a chokehold by a store security officer.
Such high-profile cases in which customers are falsely imprisoned or killed by overzealous security personnel aren't limited to Michigan and Texas. Retailers in numerous states are contending with lawsuits - racial profiling, false arrest and wrongful death - stemming from aggressive store security personnel trying to thwart shoplifters.
It's no surprise retailers want to curb shoplifting.
They lost just over $29 billion in 1999 to inventory shrinkage - 32.7% of which was attributed to shoplifting - according to the 2000 National Retail Security Survey (authored by Richard C. Hollinger, University of Florida, Gainsville).
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Can Preventing Child Maltreatment Also Prevent
Delinquency? 8-16-01 "Preventing Delinquency Through Improved Child Protection Services" (20 pp.) (NCJ 187759) reviews the links between |
childhood maltreatment and juvenile and adult offending and examines the role of child protective services in delinquency prevention and intervention. (OJJDP) Access full text here |
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Keeping School Doors Few and Secure 7-31-01
The most effective way to prevent doors from becoming a security problem at schools is to have as few doors as possible.
But many schools already have been built with numerous exterior doors. Schools could consider disabling or eliminating doors,
but in many cases, because of fire codes, institutions must make sure those doors are operable and provide students with a
safe exit. So the type of door installed and the features with which it is equipped can make a difference in whether a door
is jeopardizing security at a school.
Here are some suggestions from the School Facilities Division of the California Department of Education:
This article is excerpted from the July issue of American School & University, a sister publication to Access Control & Security Systems Integration. To read the whole article,click here
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Tiny Chips to Thwart Counterfeiters 7-10-01 Bad news for currency counterfeiters. Hitachi announced that it has developed the world's smallest RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification ) integrated circuit chip called the "meu-chip", which is thin enough to be embedded in paper ...specifically in bank note paper. |
The implications for this are vast, assuming of course tha
Hitachi can get the price down. In theory, all bank notes
could be fitted with one of these chips, which is accessible
at the 2.45GHz frequency and is only 0.4mm square. With the
ID information being stored in ROM (Read-Only-Memory) during
the manufacturing process, it would make counterfeiting of
notes extremely hard, as each note contains a unique id,
that could be cross checked in seconds.
It also opens a whole new chapter on privacy issues, as the
anonymity of cash is rolled back. For more information, visit
Hitachi From stateofscience- a Buongiorno By Mail production |
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Atlanta Housing Authority Using Digital Audio 7-03-01 The Atlanta Housing Authority (AHA), the fifth largest housing authority in the United States, is installing the NiceVision digital video and audio recording solution in its central command center. AHA's mission is to provide quality, affordable housing for the betterment of the Atlanta community while being a self-sustaining provider and a catalyst for community revitalization. AHA accomplishes its mission, in part, by designing and managing its housing so it is part of each community where it is located. As part of a special program to provide enhanced security for elderly and disabled residents, AHA has installed 316 CCTV |
cameras to cover 21 buildings (AHA headquarters included) with on-site monitoring at a security post and in each on-site manager's office, as well as simultaneous monitoring at the AHA command center in downtown Atlanta. "For the analog recorders to record 24/7 at a high enough frame rate, security personnel would be absolutely overwhelmed in a sea of tape cassettes," said Eli Gorovici, vice president of global sales for NICE Systems, the Ra'anana, Israel-based supplier of the system. "So, AHA settled on digital video recording from NICE to provide record-on-demand from the central command center. Any of the more than 300 cameras can be fed into a digital recorder at any time to create a record of what had transpired at any of the multiple sites." |
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NIJ "Smart Gun" Solicitation NIJ is soliciting proposals to advance the state of the art of "smart gun" technology. "Smart guns" employ a range of technologies that disable the firing of a weapon by anyone other than the recognized user. Effective "smart gun" technologies can reduce death and injuries to law enforcement officers who are assaulted with their own |
weapons. The deadline for this solicitation is July 26, 2001. For further information concerning this solicitation, go to the Funding Opportunities section of the NIJ Web site |
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Testing the Capabilities of Facial Recognition Systems
June 2, 2001 - NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF JUSTICE (NIJ) |
The test provided the counterdrug community and other government agencies with information to use in determining the best use of facial recognition technology in the field. The results also provide a blueprint of needed development efforts for the government and the vendor community, and provide an example for future evaluations of biometric technology. CDTDPO has published an executive overview and the full report, both available on the Internet. For further information concerning the Capabilities of Facial Recognition Systems, please visit at the What's New section of the NIJ Web site. |
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Unfortunate Guard Sterotypes
(May 30, 2001)
The revelations came after museum officials hired a detectice firm to look into security at the museum, which was hit by the theft of two Constable works in 1998.
Codenamed Operation Angel, the investigaton put an undercover officer on the guard force for four months in 1999. On one occasion, the investigator noted "the pungent odor of cannabis" coming from the guard booth. Jim Close, the museum's assistant
director, said steps have been taken to prevent further incidents. (from ART TALK, June/July 2001)
Identity Theft
(May 10, 2001) |
But before you shell out money for one of them, be aware that nothing can totally insulate you from identity theft. And some services that purport to help protect consumers are actually schemes to fraudulently obtain personal financial information. It typically takes 14 months before a victim discovers identity theft; then it can take years to resolve, according to a survey by the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse and California Public Interest Research Group. In 45% of the cases in the study, it took nearly 2 years to resolve the identity theft. The most common problem stemming from identity theft is lost time from work. In addition, 36% said they were denied credit or a loan because of the fraud, the study found. Tips for guarding against identity theft: Before revealing personal identifying information, find out how it will be used and if it will be shared with others. Pay attention to your billing cycles. Follow up with creditors if bills do not arrive on time. Give your Social Security number only when absolutely necessary. Ask to use other types of identifiers. Restrict the identification information and the number of cards you carry to what you actually need. If your I.D. or credit cards are lost or stolen, notify the creditors by phone immediately, and call the credit bureaus to ask that a "fraud alert" be placed in your file. Order a copy of your credit report from the three credit-reporting bureaus every year. Make sure they're accurate and include only those activities you've authorized. Keep items with personal information in a safe place; shred them or tear them up when you don't need them anymore. (Source: Federal Trade Commission ) |
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The Drug War
The "war on drugs"
goes on and on. Whether it's a good project or not depends upon where you're
coming from. Let's face it - if you're an employer, you sure don't want
your employees to be zonked out on drugs when your success depends on workers
who have your best interests at heart. I'm not one to try to regulate a
person's personal life, but when it comes to what he or she may do that
is counterproductive to my needs as a business owner, then we're in a different
venue.
Anyhow, we hear an awful lot of talk
about the "war on drugs" being a dismal failure. Federal and State agencies
interdict some traffic, once in a while we hear about a really big drug
bust, but on the whole, everyone knows that these illegal drugs are still
widely distributed. And being a nation of
great technological achievements, there's always something new coming out.
But that's not the point. The point is, even if we're "losing" the "war
on drugs", the "war on drugs" is still a resounding success!
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Look, like any war, the "war on drugs" is good for business, especially those in drug testing, law enforcement, and so forth. For the government, the "war on drugs" is good for those who want more control over the general population - you know, keep the people in line with property confiscation, for instance. And like public education, government funded programs, and, hell - even crime prevention, failure means success. Why? Because success is measured in the maintaining or increasing of budgets. What happens if public education succeeds, for instance? Why, the money for special programs for poor students disappears. What happens if the "war on drugs" succeeds? All of that money that goes to agencies involved in the war effort" dries up. Governments respond to failure by pumping into the failing program more money, so heck, the more we fail, the more we get. Sounds almost like Internet stocks. |
Are You Ready? This question may
invoke fear because you don't have an answer, or inspire confidence because
your organization is prepared for multiple contingencies. Sadly,
for many, their only plan is to "play it by ear - and hope for the best."
For some, such a strategy will prove benign; for others, catastrophic!
Hopefully, some businesses will take a second glance at their security
profile and determine if any vulnerabilities can be reduced, albeit at
the last minute. Though Colorado police have arrested another unibomber\type
saboteur, others like him remain at large. J.E. Christensen was captured
for his elaborate scheme to cause the crash of comnputers controlling the
fire command centers of several local casinos. Once done, he would
detonate multiple incendiary devices resulting in the ignition of large
fires in hotels. This stuff is right out of a movie plot, except this time,
it was to be for real. Final advice: Take nothing for granted,
be assertive by being pro-active, and apply every available resource at
your disposal to fortify your organization and protect yourself.
Nonemployees are Biggest Threat in Nonfatal Workplace Violence - Schools First
A by-industry study of workers' compensation claims for nonfatal workplace violence injuries finds criminals or clients are far more likely than employees or acquaintances of employees to commit violent acts in the workplace, and that schools suffer the largest number of nonfatal incidents.
As a percentage of all claims filed by industry, the researchers found schools had the highest percentage of NFWV claims (11.4%) while banking had the highest percentage of cost (11.5%). The vast majority of claims in the banking random sample group (93%) were due to stress.
For more information,
contact Lobat Hashemi, Liberty Mutual Research Center for Safety and Health,
71 Franklin Road, Hopkinton, MA 01748)
Concealed Video Cameras Tell the Story
by Peter Clements
Many crimes against commercial property remain unsolved for lack of positive evidence. Many of them take place on premises elaborately and expensively guarded by sophisticated ultrasonic and infrared alarm systems, well secured doors and windows, and even closed-circuit television cameras and dog patrols. In some cases the police have a pretty good idea who is responsible, but are faced with false alibis and lack of proof of identity and have to abandon the investigation. It is in such cases as these that evidence recording cameras come into their own as a means of obtaining evidence and proof of the identity of criminals.
The concealed evidence recording camera, along with its remote control detection and activating system, can add as little as 2 or 3% to the overall cost of protecting premises and can pay dividends out of all proportion. It is always at the ready but is only activated when an unauthorized incident occurs.
Probably the biggest users of evidence recording cameras are banks and financial organizations. Football stadiums, local authorities, supermarkets, school, libraries and even private households are now following suit.
(For more information on this story, contact EPIC)
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NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF JUSTICE (NIJ) 2-16-00 * Video Surveillance Equipment Selection
and Application
Law enforcement and corrections personnel
often find
"Video Surveillance Equipment Selection
and Application
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BUREAU OF JUSTICE STATISTICS (BJS)
Indicators of School Crime and Safety, 2000
This report presents data on crime at school from the
perspectives of students, teachers, principals, and the
general population from an array of sources: the National
Crime Victimization Survey (1992-98), the School Crime
Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey
(January-June 1989, 1995, and 1999), the Youth Risk Behavior
Survey (1993, 1995, and 1997), and the National Household
Education Survey (1993). A joint effort by BJS and the
National Center for Education Statistics, the report
examines crime occurring in school as well as on the way to
and from school. The report is a companion document to the
"Annual Report on School Safety: 2000," which provides an
overview of the nature and scope of school crime and
describes actions schools and communities can take to
address this critical issue. The two reports respond to a
1998 request by President Clinton for an annual report card
on school violence.
Urban, Suburban, and Rural Victimization, 1993-98
This report examines the extent of criminal victimization in
urban, suburban, and rural areas using 1993 to 1998 National
Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) data. The report provides
information on trends in victimization by locality of
occurrence, victim and offender characteristics, and types
of victimization (personal or property crimes). Personal
crimes include rape and sexual assault, robbery, aggravated
assault, simple assault, and personal theft; property crimes
include household burglary, motor vehicle theft, and theft.
Data on murder by type of locality of occurrence are also
given. Murder data came from the Supplementary Homicide
Reports (SHR) of the Uniform Crime Reporting Program (UCR).
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Essentially, private investigators cater to a small market spread over a large continent, less that 22 million population, but with a growing commerce sector in banking, insurance and IT industries. This provides increasing opportunities for licensed investigators to carry out in the main insurance claims investigations. It was estimated by one of Australia's main PI associations that 75% of the work is insurance claims surveillance. Only a small portion covers the sphere of "private" investigation, however, there is a trend towards increased litigation, therefore an increased demand for factual, or legal, investigative work. | The last two years have also seen an increase in B2B work through the Internet. Local regulations in licensing vary from state to state, however, it is generally simple and easy to enter the profession with minimal expenditure to commence a business. It has been said that a private investigator's work is more difficult in Australia than the United States because of Australia's strict privacy laws and a culture of weeding out corruption that used to permit illegal access to personal data over the years gone by. Contributed by Australian P.I. Michael Hessenthaler ( investigatorATinvestigateway.com) (Michael's web site) |