Posts by Chameleon Associates
Better 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,…
Read MoreSecurity Attitudes in Israel
In Israel, security policy and procedures are well integrated into the fabric of its society. This manifests in a couple ways: There is a full acceptance of the fact of threat. This little country has been involved in cyclical wars for decades and its inhabitants are fully aware that it is a high value target…
Read MoreVideo Analytics
The global video surveillance market is booming, up 1.9 % in 2015, 3.9 % in 2016 and up 9.3 % in 2017. For a human, making sense of real time action reflected in an array of dozens of CCTV monitors is headache producing. It’s logical that computers can churn through data faster than we can…
Read MoreStay Ahead of the Threat
On September 11, 2001, every U.S. airline met the security requirements set by the government. Adherence to regulations did nothing to prevent the attacks of that day. Many corporate and government security administrators make the mistake of building their security system and its requirements only around past events, against those methods of operation that have…
Read MoreSAFE AND SECURE ENVIRONMENT
Maintaining a safe and secure environment for its employees, contractors and customers is critical to the success of the company. To this end, security officers working at any protected environment must be equipped with the necessary tools and skills to proactively recognize and respond to terrorist/criminal activity before it is realized. They must have the knowledge and…
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