Managing and Mitigating Public Disorder
ABSTRACT With the increase in public frustration due to the pandemic, economic repercussions and racism, the threat of public disturbance, vandalism, robbery and looting are real in many cities and businesses in the Western world. Legitimate demonstrations are being held worldwide against the incompetence of the authorities in dealing with the COVID-19 epidemic and the resulting economic situation. We as security professionals must treat this threat in the same way as we treat other threats, analyze the associated risks and prepare the means to minimize the threats and risks accordingly. Deployment of covert police forces in the crowd [...Read More...]
Security Aspects of the Second Wave
As we enter the third quarter of 2020 and see some countries starting to experience a second wave of COVID-19 infections, security and business continuity professionals face challenges that would never have been considered possible less than a year ago. Over the past few months, the entire world has been trying to find ways of fighting this virus with drugs, vaccines and epidemiological research, whilst at the same time identifying and treating cases with the purpose of preventing the spread of the virus and stopping the chain of infection. Many measures are in the process of development and testing, [...Read More...]
Making Sense of COVID-19 Testing
As security professionals, we look to technology and physical elements to provide solutions for threat mitigation. This may be in the form of bollards, blast shielding walls, CCTV or detection equipment such as metal detectors, millimeter wave scanners, X-ray machines, explosives trace-detection machines, and computed tomography. If we treat COVID-19 as another threat on our list, as discussed in our previous briefing, then it is appropriate for us to look at the state of detection solutions for the virus so that we can understand if and how the threat can be mitigated. Much has been written in the media [...Read More...]
Managing the COVID-19 Threat in Mass Transportation
The world's raging coronavirus pandemic has forced those in the public transportation sector into a difficult period of dramatic decision making. They must balance their national or local remit to provide public transportation services with the need to meet the ever-changing regulations and requirements placed upon them as a result of COVID-19. This sector is a critical enabler for economic revival and the overall survival of business entities whilst at the same time it is made up of legal and fiscal entities subject to similar economic pressures of lower sales and restrictions on their employees and customers. Over the [...Read More...]
The Influence of COVID-19 on Personal and Community Protection
The unprecedented impact of COVID-19 is being felt globally as it spreads and causes panic across the entire world. This is evident in the reactions of governments, communities and individuals and the business world has also changed overnight, dragging the world's stock markets to extraordinary lows and almost completely halting global air traffic. The crisis has severely hit the service industry in general and the tourism, hospitality and restaurant sector in particular and has resulted in tens of millions of unemployed and in anyone who can work from home to do so. Nevertheless, mankind and modern society are strong [...Read More...]
Vigilance and Security at Places of Worship
The October attack on a synagogue in Halle (Germany) follows the Poway (California) synagogue attack in April and the Christchurch (New Zealand) mosque attack in March. These attacks and their outcomes provide us with valuable insights into the modus operandi of assailants who are targeting places of worship, and the level to which each attack was mitigated by: Protection measures in place Vigilance of the targets Response of the people in the building Reaction of passersby and the authorities This briefing serves to analyze this attack in the context of the ongoing threat against Places of Worship around the [...Read More...]