All Security Practitioners are Investigators. The difference between crime and security investigators is that crime investigators are only summoned after the fact. Security must proactively find the crime before incidents or emergencies take place.

Considering that the economic situation is highly volatile that places the practitioners into a position of having to manage very desperate populations. When people are denied or incapable of serving their basic needs such as food, energy, water, shelter or their wants such as love, attention and acceptance then they could go on rampage. Let us add to that – today’s new needs such as drugs, drink, gambling or any other form of addiction besides medicines or medical equipment to live, then they are very capable of unimaginable deeds.

Security success depends on the level of situational awareness of the people on the ground and their reaction speed. Situational awareness therefore talks to the behaviour of the population, what motivates them to do horrendous damage.

Practitioners cannot afford to be misled, because they manage life impacting and deadly incidents. From the head of security down the line to the security officer on the ground should be able to identify a person of concern/interest.

Some may approach a person to determine the threat. Smart minded officers may attempt to extract reliable and all the truthful information, and they know that people lie, hide information of volunteer information for their own agenda.

The problem is keeping the team’s high level of attention of situational awareness. They may have problems at home or on the job, perhaps have ‘desirable’ eyes or simply suffering from boredom. The point is – the security system is compromised when staff are uneducated, naive and gullible.

Keeping the staff’s minds in theatre is a challenge that is paramount to overcome. The security industry has done its research and has advanced methodologies that easily be implemented. It is not the weapon that kills mains or causes havoc – it is people. Subsequently, the key to success depends on the level of situational awareness of the people on the ground and their reaction speed.

Regardless, of what one knows – any form of intellectual arrogance could cause the death of others. One must appreciate that there are millions that daily attempt to beat the security system (technology and workforce). In some cases, technology cannot detect the crime and in other cases is capable to doing such better than people. Both technology and the workforce should work in concert. This must be also stated ” the technology is only as good as the users”.

The NEW NORM dictates certain key points as in,

• Know how to profit protect self and clients.
• Know how to find the right clients and select the right people for the job. Security is only as good as its people!
• Security intelligence must be disseminated quickly to the right people on the ground in a simplified manner. Within minutes they should be informed of the threat, know what to look for and what SOP/s or unique protocols to use.
• Finding people of concern/interest quickly! ”Reduce the level of gullibility”. The staff on the ground should be educated on how to detect when people are being insincere, by using simple deception detection methods that fosters human instinct.
• Staff must have no fear of being teased or reprimanded when their assessments turn out to be false alarms. At least one should at least know and be grateful that the staff’s eyes were open at the time.

Any decision-maker that has the responsibility of selecting the and managing staff on the ground should be aware that their people could manage life impacting and deadly incidents. It is their responsibility to ensure that their subordinates and themselves are kept into the security intelligence loop of their location and field of interest besides weaponized with appropriate tools that ensure the retention levels required to fulfil their job functions.

It is a good idea from time to time to bring the core team into theatre along with like-minded practitioners (silo experts) that reinforce specific knowledge of the new norm that will induce the appropriate mentality to the job at hand.

If not now – then when – View