Posts by Chameleon Associates
First Female Suicide Bomber
It may seem that suicide bombers are an artifact of our modern age, a product of a world that has become more violent over the last century. While there is plenty of room to dispute whether violence is on the rise or descending, you may not be aware of the story of the first suicide…
Read MoreNew CCTV Operator Training
CCTV today is ubiquitous, so many businesses and municipalities (and homeowners) use cameras; they are everywhere. But when it comes to CCTV training, it’s almost always around learning to use the equipment itself. The training that exists is such as a camera…
Read More10 Benefits of Red Teaming
1 Red Teaming is an excellent training tool. It teaches skills to security officers that enable them to handle threats on an ongoing basis so that when the officer is confronted with ‘the real deal’ he already has experience under his belt. Without red teaming, the officer has neither the skills nor the experience…
Read MoreUpdating OSINT Cycles
In the wake of the information explosion and the dramatic changes in open-source intelligence we’ve experienced over the last decades, the traditional intelligence cycle used in OSINT is no longer adequate, some would say. Here are some of the issues: Information consumers are now also information producers, posting, blogging and tweeting with abandon. It’s worth…
Read MoreBetter Security Officers
Security officers are minimum wage workers. Their typically lower pay is often cited as a reason for high attrition rates and the unfortunate, sometimes disparaging impression that security officers are not up to snuff. Look at other minimum wage workers: dishwashers, cashiers, fast food preppers, janitors or product demonstrators to name a random grouping. In…
Read MoreThe Power of OSINT
Last Saturday, a devastating terrorist attack led to multiple casualties during a hate crime against a Pittsburgh synagogue. The man Robert Bowers, aged 46, accused of committing the attack had posted an online message on a social platform called Gab in which he announced his intention to attack. His Gab account showed that he had…
Read MoreSixteen Years of Predictive Profiling
Back in 2002, I was driving with a colleague to see a client in Palmdale, California, a couple hours’ drive outside of Los Angeles. This was only a few months after 9/11 when the country and the world were looking for an understanding of and solutions to the specter of terrorism. We were talking about…
Read MoreAge of Fear?
[S]ince love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved. —Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, 1513 Last week’s post concerned the ‘definition’ of terrorism. While usually politically motivated, terrorism as a phenomenon has itself become politicized. Terrorists and their supporters are of course…
Read MoreSafety Act
After an active shooter event or act of terrorism in the U.S., victims and their representatives often file suit against just about anyone they can. In the case of the Las Vegas shooting by Stephen Paddock, the concert promoters, the Mandalay Bay Hotel and bump stock manufacturers were all sued. Victims and their families of…
Read MoreUnder-trained Guards
Ask a private security company manager about officer training and they will tell you that of course, their guards are fully trained. What kind of training does the average security guard actually get? Although guard requirements differ somewhat from state to state, the curriculum covers basic laws that would pertain to the job, public relations,…
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