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School Safety

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A recent article by the Associated Press had some good points about selling security equipment to schools. “Many proponents of hardening a school like an airport or police station have backgrounds in law enforcement or the military. Some have little experience or qualification.” One person interviewed for the story had sold $500,000 worth of security equipment to a school to later say (after he was no longer selling security equipment) that the same school could have paid a fifth of the price for the same level of security upgrades.

Listen, technology and gadgetry are not going to solve all of your security problems. Here at Invictus Consulting we believe that your school’s culture of safety can go a long way toward protecting your faculty, students, and staff. Having an emergency action plan that your faculty and staff have been trained on is such an important part of school security. We believe that security plans for intelligent threats should be as commonplace as fire evacuation plans – everyone should know what to do in case of an emergency, everyone will have practiced what to do, and lives will be saved because of prior planning and training.

Beyond an emergency action plan, a culture of security means that faculty, students, and staff have been trained to keep all exterior doors locked and closed; children do not open doors for strangers (even though this goes against a polite culture in parts of the country); parents and other visitors are aware that they need a reason for their visit; visitors have their identification checked against offender databases; visitors are escorted while they’re on campus; and a record is created for each instance of a visitor on campus (i.e., there is a record of exactly who is on campus, when they were there, how long they were there, when they left, who they came to see, etc.).

There are 5 layers of security on any property: outer perimeter, visual perimeter, access control, alarms, and policies and procedures. Your emergency action plan and culture of security would be considered the innermost layer of security – your policies and procedures.

But the other four layers of security are also places where schools can implement cost-effective solutions that improve the security of their people. Lots of schools we assess actually already have some measures in place – fences, gates, cameras, intercom systems, burglar alarms. It’s just that a lot of these systems are mismanaged or not used effectively or to their fullest capabilities. Before you upgrade to a half-million dollar security system, look at your current security measures and see if things can be managed better (e.g., fix broken fences, learn how to use video analytics in your camera system) or used more effectively.

We absolutely believe in the efficacy of physical and electronic security measures. Card readers, cameras, door prop alarms, systems integration – these are all effective and important aspects of security. But don’t mistake expensive equipment for a cure-all to security issues.

Guest Post on Wildfire Safety

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Thanks to Oliver at disastersafety.info for a guest post today.

I know hurricanes are making a lot of headlines lately (and for good reason), but in a lot of areas of the country, the weather is dry and prone to wildfires. Since there seems to be an abundance of information being spread on hurricane and flood safety right now, I wanted to take a few minutes and share some important wildfire safety information.

The Ultimate Guide to Wildfire Safety
https://www.homeadvisor.com/r/wildfire-facts-and-safety/

Prepare for Wildfire – Pack a To-Go Bag
https://www.unce.unr.edu/blogs/livingwithfire/2018/07/26/prepare-for-wildfire-pack-a-to-go-bag/

Disaster Preparedness for Pets
https://www.freshfromflorida.com/content/download/11447/144978/Disaster%20Preparedness%20for%20Pets.pdf

Tips for preventing wildfires for farmers
https://www.dakotafarmer.com/safety/tips-preventing-wildfires

Prevention, Protection, and Evacuation: Fire Safety for Farm and Livestock Owners
https://www.redfin.com/blog/fire-safety-for-farm-and-livestock-owners

What YOU Can Do While Traveling to Wildfire Regions
https://www.travelingmom.com/travel-tips/wildfire-safety-tips/

Helping Children After a Wildfire: Tips for Parents and Teachers
https://www.nasponline.org/resources-and-publications/resources/school-safety-and-crisis/natural-disaster/helping-children-after-a-wildfire-tips-for-parents-and-teachers

How to Recover From A Wildfire
https://aerindustries.com/guide-to-wildfire-damage-recovery/

 

 

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Budgeting for a Director of Security

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We’ve recently talked about budgeting for security and what to expect from a security director here on the Invictus Consulting blog. Today I want to direct your attention to a recent report in Campus Safety Magazine about salary and benefits for campus protection professionals (i.e., campus police officers, chiefs of security, directors of security, nonsworn officers)  from K-12 schools, universities, and hospitals.

Some takeaways from the report:

  • $77,500 is the median annual pay rate for campus deputy police chiefs, associate security directors, and directors of emergency management
  • Pay ranges from $30,000 to $150,000 for directors of security
  • The pay rate has increased in the past 5 years
  • Different regions of the country have quite different ranges in pay – those in the west earn more than their counterparts in other parts of the country
  • Minorities and women are making gains, albeit small ones, in representation
  • Only a third of officers carry a weapon (and only a tenth of women officers are armed)
  • Larger campus size generally equates to a larger salary for a director of security
  • Departments with 51-75 employees tend to have the highest pay for a director of security
  • Understaffing is a concern in the majority of organizations surveyed

Statistics and surveys/polls can be boring, we get it. But if your organization is looking to hire a Director of Security, or hire an off duty police officer, or you’re just getting started thinking about adding money to the budget for security personnel, a report like the one from Campus Safety Magazine is an invaluable place to start.

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The Coming Storm – An FBI Production

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Back in 2015 the FBI created a training video for law enforcement personnel. The video depicts a (staged) active shooter event including pre-attack warning signs (a video made by the shooter), scenes of the event itself, scenes of first responders responding to the events, scenes of other players such as parents, and post-event fallout such as student reactions and media relations. The second half of the video is a discussion of lessons learned after recent active shooter events – what’s most important is that this part of the video is not staged, these are actual law enforcement executives who lived through the various events and are able to legitimately discuss the event and lessons learned.

The intended audience for the video originally was law enforcement, first responders, and FBI agents. The video was originally released only to law enforcement and first responders, but it is now available in full on YouTube. While the active shooter event is staged (and “softened” a bit), the actions of the responders, the fallout after the event, and the lessons learned are all valuable tools. We recommend watching this video, even if your role is not specifically security-related – everyone can learn from the video, and it’s a great starter for a discussion about security at your place of employment.

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Averted Acts of School Violence

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What is “averted acts of school violence” and why is it important?

According to Campus Safety Magazine, “an averted school violence incident is a violent attack planned with or without the use of a firearm that was prevented either before or after the potential perpetrator arrived on school grounds and before any injury or loss of life occurred.”

It’s important because there is some evidence to suggest that for every incident of school violence that does occur, there are significantly more incidents that are prevented. By understanding some of the tactics used to successfully prevent an incident, schools can incorporate lessons learned into their own emergency preparedness policies and procedures.

According to a report by The Police Foundation, some of the lessons learned from averted school shooting incidents include a number of things schools can do including:

  • having a strong and pre-established relationship between a school and their local law enforcement
  • teaching student to recognize and report concerning behavior they see or hear from other students  (peer discovery of the plot accounted for more than half of the averted incidents studied by The Police Foundation)
  • teaching parents to monitor their students’ social media accounts
  • teaching parents to keep their guns in a locked and secure location at their home
  • having faculty, staff, campus security, and other adults at the school develop and maintain a rapport with the students at the school, and teaching these adults to recognize when students are being bullied or are acting in unusual ways
  • continual drilling and updating of the school’s emergency action plan

Incidents of school violence can be averted, and school administrators should do everything they can to   prevent such events. Tips like those above combined with a risk assessment, improvement in security systems and policies, and training of all involved can help make schools a safer place for faculty, staff, and students.

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The Forgotten Victims

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It seems that our society has become numb to school shootings. We hear about the big ones like Santa Fe High School where eight students and two teachers were killed this past May. But did you know there were at least five other school shootings within just a number of weeks of that shooting?

Campus Safety Magazine did a roundup of these events, and it’s a powerful reminder that school shootings are happening way too frequently.

  • Great Mills, MD – a 17-year-old shot two students (a 16-year-old who died and a 14-year-old who survived), with the shooter dying of a self-inflicted gunshot wound
  • Ocala, FL – a 19-year-old shot one student (a 17-year-old who survived)
  • Palmdale, CA – a 14-year-old shot one student (a 15-year-old who survived)
  • Dixon, IL – a 19-year-old fired several rounds at a group of senior students (no students were hit or injured during the shooting)
  • Noblesville, IN – a 13-year-old shot one student and one teacher (a 13-year-old who survived and a 29-year-old who survived)

These events all happened within a two-month time period; that’s less than ten weeks! And most likely you only heard about the Santa Fe incident where eight students and two teachers were killed. We are too inured to these events.

According to Campus Safety Magazine, school resource officers (SROs), teachers, and students all did a good job at each of these locations of mitigating the number of people shot because they had been trained on what to do during an active shooter event. Active shooter drills are so important to keep faculty, staff, and students safe in the education environment. But don’t forget about all the levels of security that can be implemented before a shooter would have access to students – perimeter fences and gates, exterior cameras, closed and locked exterior doors, robust visitor management including video intercom for building access, interior cameras, interior door card access, and training of faculty and staff on how to look out for suspicious and unusual activity by their students. We mourn the loss of children and teachers killed while at school, and we hope that all schools will implement security measure to keep their people safe.

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Are You Making Decisions Based on Emotion?

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As we are all well aware, there have been a number of school and workplace shootings in our country in the past 12 months. Las Vegas. Parkland. Santa Fe. Capital Gazette. And those are just the big ones. Depending on what sources you use, what statistics you use, what criteria you use for defining a mass shooting event, the number of shootings for 2018 is anywhere from 28 school shootings, 1 school shooting per week on average, 198 mass shootings,  or 154 mass shootings.

Executives, board members, and other decision makers often look at statistics like these and panic, then install various aspects of an electronic security system (more cameras, a new card reader, a fingerprint scanner) that they think will help protect their own people from something like a mass shooting. Here’s the thing about thinking about your organization’s security from a fear perspective – you usually wind up with a Band-Aid solution that is a quick fix to a perceived flaw in your security.

Here at Invictus Consulting we absolutely believe in security systems. Cameras, card readers, scanners, door alarms, locks, fences, and security guards are all important parts of keeping your people and property safe. But making a hurried decision about any one of these things doesn’t necessarily keep your people and property safer than they were before. Adding a few new IP cameras to your existing analog camera system now means your people have 2 separate camera systems to deal with. Installing a fingerprint scanner that doesn’t actually interact with any other systems (e.g., your cameras) does little more than give a superficial image of improved security.

A collection of independently operating security systems and procedures can create extra work for your security people with little return on the investment. There is no all-encompassing answer to your unique security problems that can be quickly fixed with some security camera you saw on a commercial. Your organization’s security issues are unique to you – your location, your type of business, your clients, your size, etc. Your organization needs a security solution designed to work fluidly and integrated; cameras talking to card readers; door alarms integrated with your operations console; fingerprint scanners integrated into your visitor management software. You get the picture.

Please don’t let fear and panic dictate your security decisions. Don’t wait for another mass shooting to think about your organization’s security measures.

Read This Before You Budget for Security

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We thought it would be a good idea to look at the fundamentals of risk management to remind people what it is they’re trying to so when they talk about security.

Risk management means determining what your unique risks are and coming up with a plan to mitigate those risks. It may involve security guards, active shooter plans, security cameras, access cards / badges, fingerprint scanners, fences, locks, door alarms, mass notification, visitor management policies and procedures, and any number of other gadgets, devices, systems, policies, and procedures you can think of to mitigate risk. It’s overwhelming. It can get expensive. It can be time and resource consuming to put a risk management plan into place.

But it’s important to remember that risk management is built upon a pretty straightforward principle – protection of your people and your property.

We find that a lot of organizations first determine a budget for their security needs and then try to fit solutions into that budget. We think that’s a backwards approach because you wind up with a piecemeal security system where you’ve chosen products and solutions based on price rather than on the true needs of your organization.

At Invictus Consulting we believe the first step is to do a risk assessment to determine exactly what it is you’re protecting and how you can go about protecting it. Then, when it’s time to budget, you can prioritize the most important things first rather than purchase the most inexpensive items first or the items with the flashiest appearance that will give your people and your visitors the appearance of a security system.

By knowing exactly who and what you are trying to protect, as well as knowing what your specific threats and risks are, your organization can have a phased approach to security, budgeting for the most important things first. We understand it may takes a few years worth of budgets to get your ideal security system in place, and that’s why tackling the most critical things first is important. And that’s why identifying the most critical things first is important.

Another note to remember is that much of your organization’s security is about your policies and procedures regarding emergencies, personnel, visitors, etc. Often adjusting your organization’s policies and procedures is free – it just takes some time with the board and executives and some time to train your people. Tackling these types of things while you’re budgeting for a phased implementation of other aspects of your security system is a great way to make improvements without waiting for board approval.

Finally, it’s important to understand that, even if your organization had unlimited funds, you can’t possibly protect against every single threat and risk. Again, this is why a risk assessment is so important – it allows you to determine your biggest threats and risks and create a phased approach to implementation.