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Personal Preparedness – Kids Version

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We recently did a blog post about tech readiness and personal preparedness. As always, we believe in preparedness as a critical aspect of safety and security. Personal preparedness is a mindset that you can take from your home into your place of work, your place of education, your place of worship, when you’re overseas, and when you’re out and about running errands. It’s also  something that you can teach your children (in an age appropriate way, of course).

The Department of Homeland Security’s readiness website, ready.gov, has a great resource for kids.

On the site you can find games for your children, plans you can fill out as a family, activities kids can do to learn emergency procedures, pages to learn the facts about various types of emergencies (e.g., flood, fire), and state-specific information about your state’s hazards and readiness programs.

Teaching your children the basics of  emergency preparedness is important. Don’t leave it to the schools or other organizations – take some time and do the responsible thing.

 

Personal Preparedness – Tech Readiness

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We are big believers in personal preparedness here at Invictus Consulting. Since we all rely on our phones for everything, why not use it for emergency preparedness too?

Nationwide Apps:

  • FEMA
  • Hurricane: American Red Cross
  • Emergency: Alerts (American Red Cross)
  • Tornado: American Red Cross
  • Flood: American Red Cross
  • Earthquake: American Red Cross
  • CodeRED
  • NOAA

Statewide

States have their own Ready organizations. Ready.gov is the Department of Homeland Security’s disaster readiness portal, but each state has some version of this, so use a search engine to search “ready [state name]” to find your state’s version. Some states have an app (like Ready Georgia), so look into that too for your state.

County-wide

Many counties around the country also have alert and warning systems. Usually these systems require you to sign up with your phone number and you’ll receive text message alerts. With that said, we’ve run across a whole gamut of county-specific alert systems, so search for your county’s system and follow their directions to get plugged in.

Other Considerations

ICE – This acronym stands for In Case of Emergency. There are apps that you can download (search your app store for “ICE”). Alternately, you can add “ICE” as one of your contacts in your phone’s contact list. Emergency responders know to look for ICE in a person’s contact list to find emergency contact information. If you go this route, put your emergency contact’s name, phone number, email, etc. in the ICE contact.

Don’t forget tech chargers! Make sure you have chargers in the car, at work, and of course at home. Portable charging packs should also be in your emergency provisions stash.

And finally, make sure you have important documents like your insurance, proof of residence, medical records, etc. backed up to the cloud and available electronically.

 

Armed vs. Unarmed Security Guards

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Here at Invictus Consulting we understand that placing an armed security officer in your building or on your campus is undesirable for some organizations. Whether it is a financial decision or a culture decision, having an armed guard presence isn’t always a possibility, and we respect that dec

ision.

We believe that having an armed presence is beneficial to the safety and security of an organization’s people, particularly if the armed guard is an off-duty police officer because they become an on-duty police officer if they use their weapon and liability then shifts to their local precinct.

With that said, Security Management Magazine recently ran an article explaining the benefits of unarmed guards and the critical role they can play in mitigating deadly attacks. The article makes some great points, and we recommend reading it for yourself. Some of the salient points include:

  • Armed guards are no guarantee that a shooter won’t be successful (armed guards were present at the Pulse Nightclub, Las Vegas, and Parkland, all of which had heavy casualties)
  • Unarmed officers can observe warning signs (pre-attack indicators [PAINs]) of potential attackers and implement security measures preemptively
  • PAINS include (but are not limited to):
    • repeated entries into a door
    • parking in a fire lane or on a sidewalk
    • muttering to oneself
    • clothing not appropriate for the weather / event
    • continual adjusting of clothing
    • excessive attention to carried object
  • Professional and nonthreatening behavior from an unarmed officer is likely to elicit cooperation from suspects
  • Unarmed officers are still trained in how to respond to a violent attack even though they are not armed
  • Unarmed officers can escort a potential threat off the property or out of the area
  • Armed or unarmed, the presence of trained, engaged, and aware security can go a long way in disrupting a potential attack

We encourage you to read the article for yourself. What’s important to understand is that an unarmed security officer that has been trained and does their job well is a valuable asset in keeping people safe.

Happy Star Wars Day

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Happy Star Wars day everyone – May the fourth be with you!
In honor of our favorite trilogy, we’d like to share a stormtrooper / security parallel.

StormtroopersWe sometimes come across clients who have the mindset that if their security risks are written down on paper, they are somehow more liable were disaster to strike.

We liken this to an ostrich with its head in the sand – if I can’t see the problem it must not exist!

This is an illogical mindset, and it can do your organization more harm than good. Having a risk assessment done for your organization, campus, building, etc. does not increase your chances of disaster. Do you think a tornado cares if you’ve written an emergency plan? You write the emergency plan for tornadoes to be proactive, not to outsmart the tornado. The same holds for an active shooter. You do a risk assessment and write an emergency action plan to be proactive and to be ready in case such a tragedy were to occur.

Some people feel that having a risk assessment done and writing and emergency action plan for an active shooter somehow AIDS AND ABETS an active shooter. Listen, you are NOT outsmarting an active shooter by NOT writing an emergency action plan – that is just flawed logic.

Don’t stick your head in the sand and cover your eyes and ears and pretend like your school, church, campus, building, organization is free from threats. Be proactive and be smart and be ready.

Budgeting for Security

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Security upgrades cost money. Money doesn’t grow on trees. We get it.

If it were up to us and money were not an issue, we would have all businesses and schools install the latest and greatest equipment to keep their people safe. But we live in the real world where money is not unlimited and where line items need to be justified. This is why having Invictus Consulting perform a risk assessment for your organization and crate a roadmap for you based on the results is one of the best things you can do before going in front of your board. Data can help just justify security-related budget items.

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Check Out Our White Papers

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Over the years we’ve written a handful of white papers on risk assessment and security. Check them out by clicking on the links below.

Security and Risk Assessment in the Education Sector: A Case Study

Security and Risk Assessment in the Water Sector: A Case Study

Workplace Violence: Understanding the Issue

Active Shooter Statistics: Understanding the Issue

Understanding Bullying: A White Paper

Common Issues Facing Independent Schools

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Emergency Planning

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Here at Invictus Consulting, we are all about emergency planning. Putting in the work before an emergency is critical. According to FEMA, “the number, type, and magnitude of decisions and problems that must be addressed during an emergency are a direct outgrowth of decisions that were (or weren’t) make during the planning process.”

It’s worth a detailed look into this statement.

  • Decision-makers – The statement above from FEMA assumes that the decision-makers have been identified and trained during the planning process. But it’s worth re-iterating that your organization must identify and train the decision-makers before an emergency. We have come across countless organizations that have decision-making duties written into their emergency action plans that have never actually told the people who are responsible that they’re the responsible decision-makers! On paper it all looks great, but in an actual emergency no one knows who is in charge, no one knows the guiding principles for making decisions, and chaos ensues. Your emergency response team needs to be identified and trained!
  • The number of decisions and problems – Think about how many decisions need to be made during an emergency. Obviously the type of emergency dictates some of this, but all emergencies require decisions, and if some of the decisions can be made beforehand, that will ease the burden of decision-makers during the emergency. Also, the more decisions that can be made before an emergency will put decision-makers in a better position to deal with additional (often unforeseen) problems that arise.
  • The type of decisions and problems – Obviously the types of decisions and problems vary with the types of emergencies. A tornado barreling towards a school will require different decisions and pose different problems than a breached levee threatening to flood an entire city. This is why it is so critical for each organization to plan ahead. Tabletop exercises are one way to help decision-makers understand the types of decisions and problems they might face during an emergency. A written emergency action playbook for each type of emergency is another way to help decision-makers with their tasks during an emergency. Training is crucial here, as is a clearly defined hierarchy of who makes what decisions.
  • The magnitude of decisions and problems – Training and planning ahead help prepare decision-maker understand the magnitude of their task and the magnitude of problems they may face during an emergency. Training for various emergency scenarios is essential, since the magnitude of problems that arise from closing a school early due to an impending snow storm are vastly different from those that arise from closing a school early due to an active shooter. Think about the magnitude of decisions involved in evacuation for two organizations, one with dozens of employees housed in a single building and one with thousands of employees housed in numerous multiple-story buildings on an extensive campus. The magnitude of decisions for something like an evacuation are simply not the same, and this is why organization-specific planning is fundamental to the safety of your people.

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Include Everyone in Your Emergency Training

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Here at Invictus Consulting we strongly believe in the value of training all of your people in emergency scenarios. Having a solid emergency action plan with different playbooks for different scenarios (e.g., tornado, active shooter, kidnapping) is the first step. The second step is actually training your people on what to do during the various scenarios. We’ve  come across more organizations than we’d like to admit that actually have an emergency action plan but have never bothered to share it with their employees let alone train their employees on it.

Here’s the thing about training your people on your organization’s emergency procedures – you have to train ALL of your people. For schools, this means not only your teachers and administrators but also your cafeteria staff, para-pros, secretaries, school nurse, playground attendants, and any other staff member that would potentially be on campus during an emergency. For offices, this means not only your employees but also your Board of Directors, C-suite people, warehouse staff, temp people, and any other people that may be in the building or on the campus during an emergency.

Don’t assume that ancillary staff members, support people, or executives don’t need training. Even if these people are part-time staff or only on campus irregularly, they should still be trained. By excluding ancillary staff from training you risk two things. If an emergency were to occur while they were on campus or in the building, they wouldn’t know what to do. Obviously that’s a problem. But the second risk is that the people who haven’t been trained may either get underfoot in their confusion and panic, or they may attempt to do something that conflicts with your organization’s pre-set emergency procedures and thusly create confusion for those employees who have been trained.

We can’t suggest this often enough – you need to train your people; you need to train them frequently (multiple times throughout the year); you need to train them in different formats (e.g., live drill, tabletop exercise); and you need to audit your drills to close any gaps or reverse any problems that arise. By doing these things, your chances of making sure that ALL your people have been trained properly is greatly increased.