Remember, If It Saves One Life It's Worth It

Here's the list of the scary words the DHS looks for in our Facebook and Twitter communications...

As in other areas of our lives, we do well not to ask question we don't really want the answers to.  So it is with FOIA requests.  I'm so glad they narrowed the list of keywords lest we keep our robot overlords (Did I say overlords? I meant protectors!) busy night and day forever deciding which are the false positives.  Anyway, here's the list they'll admit they're using for our protection.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
Coast Guard (USCG)
Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
Border Patrol
Secret Service (USSS)
National Operations Center (NOC)
Homeland Defense
Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE)
Agent
Task Force
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Fusion Center
Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)
Secure Border Initiative (SBI)
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF)
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS)
Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS)
Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
Air Marshal
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
National Guard
Red Cross
United Nations (UN)
Assassination
Attack
Domestic security
Drill
Exercise
Cops
Law enforcement
Authorities
Disaster assistance
Disaster management
DNDO (Domestic Nuclear Detection Office)
National preparedness
Mitigation
Prevention
Response
Recovery
Dirty Bomb
Domestic nuclear detection
Emergency management
Emergency response
First responder
Homeland security
Maritime domain awareness (MDA)
National preparedness initiative
Militia
Shooting
Shots fired
Evacuation
Deaths
Hostage
Explosion (explosive)
Police
Disaster medical assistance team (DMAT)
Organized crime
Gangs
National security
State of emergency
Security
Breach
Threat
Standoff
SWAT
Screening
Lockdown
Bomb (squad or threat)
Crash
Looting
Riot
Emergency Landing
Pipe bomb
Incident
Facility
Hazmat
Nuclear
Chemical Spill
Suspicious package/device
Toxic
National laboratory
Nuclear facility
Nuclear threat
Cloud
Plume
Radiation
Radioactive
Leak
Biological infection (or event)
Chemical
Chemical burn
Biological
Epidemic
Hazardous
Hazardous material incident
Industrial spill
Infection
Powder (white)
Gas
Spillover
Anthrax
Blister agent
Exposure
Burn
Nerve agent
Ricin
Sarin
North Korea
Outbreak
Contamination
Exposure
Virus
Evacuation
Bacteria
Recall
Ebola
Food Poisoning
Foot and Mouth (FMD)
H5N1
Avian
Flu
Salmonella
Small Pox
Plague
Human to human
Human to ANIMAL
Influenza
Center for Disease Control (CDC)
Drug Administration (FDA)
Public Health
Toxic
Agro Terror
Tuberculosis (TB)
Agriculture
Listeria
Symptoms
Mutation
Resistant
Antiviral
Wave
Pandemic
Infection
Water/air borne
Sick
Swine
Pork
Strain
Quarantine
H1N1
Vaccine
Tamiflu
Norvo Virus
Epidemic
World Health Organization (WHO and components)
Viral Hemorrhagic Fever
E. Coli
Infrastructure security
Airport
CIKR (Critical Infrastructure & Key Resources)
AMTRAK
Collapse
Computer infrastructure
Communications infrastructure
Telecommunications
Critical infrastructure
National infrastructure
Metro
WMATA
Airplane (and derivatives)
Chemical fire
Subway
BART
MARTA
Port Authority
NBIC (National Biosurveillance Integration Center)
Transportation security
Grid
Power
Smart
Body scanner
Electric
Failure or outage
Black out
Brown out
Port
Dock
Bridge
Canceled
Delays
Service disruption
Power lines

Drug cartel
Violence
Gang
Drug
Narcotics
Cocaine
Marijuana
Heroin
Border
Mexico
Cartel
Southwest
Juarez
Sinaloa
Tijuana
Torreon
Yuma
Tucson
Decapitated
U.S. Consulate
Consular
El Paso
Fort Hancock
San Diego
Ciudad Juarez
Nogales
Sonora
Colombia
Mara salvatrucha
MS13 or MS-13
Drug war
Mexican army
Methamphetamine
Cartel de Golfo
Gulf Cartel
La Familia
Reynose
Nuevo Leon
Narcos
Narco banners (Spanish equivalents)
Los Zetas
Shootout
Execution
Gunfight
Trafficking
Kidnap
Calderon
Reyosa
Bust
Tamaulipas
Meth Lab
Drug trade
Illegal immigrants
Smuggling (smugglers)
Matamoros
Michoacana
Guzman
Arellano-Felix
Beltran-Leyva
Barrio Azteca
Artistics Assassins
Mexicles
New Federation
Terrorism
Al Queda (all spellings)
Terror
Attack
Iraq
Afghanistan
Iran
Pakistan
Agro
Environmental terrorist
Eco terrorism
Conventional weapon
Target
Weapons grade
Dirty bomb
Enriched
Nuclear
Chemical weapon
Biological weapon
Ammonium nitrate
Improvised explosive device
IED (Improvised Explosive Device)
Abu Sayyaf
Hamas
FARC (Armed Revolutionary Forces Colombia)
IRA (Irish Republican Army)
ETA (Euskadi ta Askatasuna)
Basque Separatists
Hezbollah
Tamil Tiger
PLF (Palestine Liberation Front)
PLO (Palestine Libration Organization)
Car bomb
Jihad
Taliban
Weapons cache
Suicide bomber
Suicide attack
Suspicious substance
AQAP (Al Qaeda Arabian Peninsula)
AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb)
TTP (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan)
Yemen
Pirates
Extremism
Somalia
Nigeria
Radicals
Al-Shabaab
Home grown
Plot
Nationalist
Recruitment
Fundamentalism
Islamist
Emergency
Hurricane
Tornado
Twister
Tsunami
Earthquake
Tremor
Flood
Storm
Crest
Temblor
Extreme weather
Forest fire
Brush fire
Ice
Stranded/Stuck
Help
Hail
Wildfire
Tsunami Warning Center
Magnitude
Avalanche
Typhoon
Shelter-in-place
Disaster
Snow
Blizzard
Sleet
Mud slide or Mudslide
Erosion
Power outage
Brown out
Warning
Watch
Lightening
Aid
Relief
Closure
Interstate
Burst
Emergency Broadcast System
Cyber security
Botnet
DDOS (dedicated denial of service)
Denial of service
Malware
Virus
Trojan
Keylogger
Cyber Command
2600
Spammer
Phishing
Rootkit
Phreaking
Cain and abel
Brute forcing
Mysql injection
Cyber attack
Cyber terror
Hacker
China
Conficker
Worm
Scammers
Social media

Nope, no overload of possible false positives in there.  The DHS can sit back and wait for the list of bad guys' names to spool out of the old Univac.  Yup, any day now...

Image http://www.mediumrare.uk.com/detail?id=8

My Original Not So Charitable Review

I was critical of Potential's promotional materials so it was only fair I read it...

This is a pre-publication draft of my review of Potential: Workplace Violence Prevention and Your Organizational Success, written by Bill Whitmore, published by Highpoint Executive Publishing, New York. ISBN: 978-0-98394-320-4.  It was submitted to Security Management magazine for publication.  Their lead time was going to be several months so Barry Nixon asked to published it in the April issue of his The Workplace Violence Prevention eReport. 

Corporate America badly needs a book that demonstrates to the C-suite the value of creating positive, pro-active, and progressive security programs that advance the interests of modern businesses. There is little need for another workplace violence book that grabs the attention of its reader with misused statistics, but then focuses only on a fraction of the problem. That makes the title of Bill Whitmore’s book than a little ironic. Potential has the makings of great book on security leadership, but it is all but ruined by its attempt to be merely another guide to preventing workplace violence.

Bill Whitmore’s story of how he led the effort to transform Allied-Barton into a learning enterprise that actively engages in employee development might have been a great read if he had focused on that story. Leadership professional Whitmore makes much of truth telling and honesty, but the writer of this workplace violence book tells the reader, "Every day, on average, two people are killed and 87 injured as a result of a workplace violence incident."

Perhaps Whitmore was convinced to use the raw numbers to shock consumers into buying his book so they would then have a chance to absorb his positive and proactive leadership message. Perhaps his publisher was concerned that his C-suite audience, shopping for some in-flight reading at the airport bookstore, would not be so strongly motivated to buy his book if they knew that killings perpetrated by customers, coworkers, or intimate partners combined represented a total of about 157 deaths nationwide in 2010, or 3% of all workplace fatalities. "Every 2.3 days one person is killed in what most people think of as a workplace violence incident," is not nearly so catchy a tagline as one taken from the aggregated statistics, which include deaths due robbery-homicides and workplace suicides.

So, once Whitmore hooks his reader does he break down the numbers to explain the multifaceted problems they represent? Does he explain that 69% of all homicides at work are committed by criminals during robberies? Only in passing. Does Whitmore address workplace suicide, which accounts for a third of all workplace deaths due to assaults and violent acts? Briefly, using one excellent example. Does he explain that 61% of all workplace violence injuries are caused by healthcare patients and residents of long-term care facilities? Only briefly, but mostly while focusing on gun-play in hospital emergency departments. Whitmore does propose adding a new category for “terrorists and true believers,” even though there have been only a handful of such attacks committed in the past 25 years.

As with many other workplace violence books, Whitmore chose to focus primarily on the verbal abuse, bullying, intimidation, threats, and violence perpetrated by disgruntled employees. Regrettably, this segment constitutes only 12% of all workplace homicides. Death at the hands of customers, coworkers, and intimate partners, accounts for 31% of the 506 workplace murders in 2010. Is that too many? Absolutely, but 157 is not 506. And 506 is half the more than 1000 workplace killings that occurred each year in the early 1990s.

There are many important issues to resolve as we address the multifaceted problem grouped under the heading workplace violence. Robbery prevention and survival training, defensive tactics and protective equipment for police and security personnel, assault prevention in healthcare and social services, humane management practices, prohibitions against horseplay, zero tolerance for verbal abuse, bullying, intimidation, and all other forms of harassment, quality mental health benefits, and screening for depression are all techniques that might be used to create a workplace violence prevention and response program that meets an organization’s business needs. Whitmore leaves many of these options unexamined.

To his immense credit Whitmore calls on business executives to create corporate cultures that do not tolerate verbal abuse, bullying, and intimidation. However, he stops of short of admitting what most employees know, that in many companies much of the verbal abuse, bullying, and intimidation is perpetrated by supervisors, managers, and executives.

Despite its limitations one hope that Potential is successful enough to give Bill Whitmore the opportunity to write the book that this one might have been, a book that demonstrates to the C-suite the value of creating positive, pro-active, and progressive security programs that advance the interests of modern businesses.

Hyperbole and hysteria have no place in the security professional’s approach to important issues. Bill Whitmore, the gifted leadership professional who wrote Potential knows this. If only he had trusted in the strength of his message. 

[As noted in an earlier post, this version was too edgy, so Barry asked for something kinder and gentler.]

UPDATE: Allied Barton is now advertising that visitors to http://connect.alliedbarton.com/Campaigns/FocusLeadership.aspx will receive a promo code with which to download an eBook copy of Potential.   Wonder if I'm the only person who purchased a copy at retail?

No More Computer Generated Dragons In Space

International Space Station Crew Captures SpaceX Dragon...

Fri, 25 May 2012 09:04:33 AM CDT

"The International Space Station Expedition 31 crew successfully captured the SpaceX Dragon capsule with the station's robotic arm at 9:56 AM EDT. The feat came 3 days, 6 hours, 11 minutes and 23 seconds after the mission's launch. The station was 251 miles over northwest Australia when capture occurred."

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html  

So now, instead of clever CGI we can have real photos of a real Dragon.

The More Charitable Review

Of Potential by Bill Whitmore...

Barry Nixon asked to publish my review of Bill Whitmore's new book, but he didn't care for my first impressions of Potential: Workplace Violence Prevention and Your Organizational Success.  He asked me to try again.  Here is my rewritten review.

Bill Whitmore, the Chairman and CEO of Allied-Barton Security Services, has written a book about leading his company as it grew to become one of the largest manned guarding vendors in the country. Corporate America badly needs a book that demonstrates to the C-suite the value of creating a positive, proactive, and progressive security culture in modern businesses. Bill Whitmore’s story of how he guided the effort to make Allied-Barton an employee-centered learning enterprise that embodies the modern principles of servant leadership and continuous staff development is good and could be better if it were to focus on that story. This makes the title of Whitmore’s book more than a little ironic. Potential is a potentially great book on security leadership that is diluted by its workplace violence theme, which feels added on.

This isn’t a bad book on workplace violence, if you – like most people – take that term to mean homicides perpetrated in your office or factory by clients and customers, co-workers and former co-workers, or estranged husbands and boyfriends. Whitmore chooses to focus primarily on the means by which companies can prevent, detect, and respond to threats and violence perpetrated by co-workers and former co-workers. To his immense credit, Whitmore calls on business executives to create corporate cultures that do not tolerate verbal abuse, bullying, and intimidation. However, he stops of short of admitting what most employees know, that in many companies much of the verbal abuse, bullying, and intimidation is perpetrated by supervisors, managers, and executives. 

Potential is not the book you need if your concerns include protecting police officers or security personnel from violent line-of-duty deaths, or saving retail and service employees from robbery homicides. Whitmore also misses the chance to call out suicide as an under-appreciated menace to American businesses. Whitmore briefly mentions the topic of suicide at work, using a powerful example to do so, but he does not expand upon the impact of this growing trend. Security, safety, and human resources professionals will need to go elsewhere for detailed guidance on these topics, which account for the vast majority of violent deaths at work each year.

There are other issues to resolve as we address the complex and multifaceted problem called workplace violence. Crime prevention for cab drivers, protective equipment and training for security personnel, humane management practices, prohibitions against horseplay, screening for depression, and quality mental health insurance benefits are among the many tools an organization may draw upon to create a workplace violence prevention and response program that meets its specific business needs. Whitmore addresses some of these issues, but not all of them, which causes Potential to fall short.

Despite my misgivings, I sincerely hope that Potential is successful enough to give Whitmore the opportunity to write the book this one might have been, a book that demonstrates to the C-suite the value of creating a positive, proactive, and progressive security program in modern corporations. Security is an under-appreciated contributor to corporate culture and business success, an idea Bill Whitmore clearly understands. Given that your CEO is unlikely to read a book on security leadership, if Potential is the only book he reads about workplace violence you could do worse.

Reviewer Bio:

Michael Brady, MA, CPP, is an account manager, consultant, and trainer for Hannon Security Services, Inc. in Minneapolis, MN. Michael is also an adjunct instructor in the Security Management program at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota School of Graduate and Professional Programs. He recently completed his Master of Arts in Human Development during which he focused on issues of leadership, team building, and problem solving. He blogs on critical thinking, ethics, leadership, and other topics at http://eclecticbreakfast.blogspot.com/

UPDATE: Allied Barton is now advertising that visitors to http://connect.alliedbarton.com/Campaigns/FocusLeadership.aspx  will receive a promo code with which to download an eBook copy of Potential. Wonder if I'm the only person who purchased a copy at retail?

Every Nation For Itself

Will we ever live in a world without a dominant country?

In a May 10, 2012, RSA Events Audio podcast, Ian Bremmer discusses his ideas about a "G-zero world," in which no one country will exert control over all other others.  These ideas are from his most recent book, Every Nation for Itself: Winners and Losers in a G-Zero World.  His books include The End of the Free Market: Who Wins the War Between States and Corporations? and The J Curve: A New Way to Understand Why Nations Rise and Fall and many others.  Bremmer is founder of the Eurasia Group, a political risk research and consulting firm.  I've heard him speak before in other RSA podcasts, The End of the Free Market and The Fat Tail.  Interesting fellow.  I think I'll have to get a copy of his book. 

Astronomy with Pin and Paper

Ring of Fire, not so much...

Here in Minneapolis we were not on the path of today's annular eclipse.  But between the yard work and the house work we took time to observe the partial eclipse visible to us in Minnesota.  Not having any eclipse glasses on hand we pricked a pinhole in a piece of card board and projected the image on another.  Our implementation of the technique was neither high tech nor high rez, but it sufficed.

One Tough Mudder

I followed the kids to Somerset, Wisconsin this morning...

This was their first Tough Mudder.  A fine time was had by all.  The event is well and truly named.  The Tough Mudder is about all completing the 12 mile obstacle course as a team, intact and in good spirits.  I have been invited to join their team next year.  Sounds like fun.

Godspeed, SpaceX Dragon!

Today is the day!

It's just a cargo delivery run to low Earth orbit and the ISS, but it's the first such flight by a commercial spaceflight company!  What's more, all it takes to make the reusable Dragon cargo capsule a crew module is the installation of up to seven seats.  Ending an era in which crew safety was compromised in pursuit of mission objectives, the Dragon capsule rides on top of the stack, has a launch abort system, and has a reentry heat shield that won't be rendered useless by running into a chunk of foam.   The future is here.

UPDATE: The future will have to wait.  This morning, in the moment between "all engines start" and "liftoff" a fault was detected by on board systems and the launch was automatically aborted.  Rats.

REUPDATE: Looks like they'll make repairs and try again Tuesday 22 May 2012.  Cool.

Mindsets and Toolkits

Thinking Positively About Security...

After walking the Secure360 trade show floor and listening to the talks I moderated on Day One of the conference I went home and rewrote my presentation keeping in mind that my audience was not going to be physical security professionals, but those working in logical security, audit, compliance, and business continuity.  My talk became became a sort of autobiographical, editorial essay.  

NOTE: These are the text and images used to frame my presentation.  For the whole story you had to be there.

IN ADDITION TO...

• Logical security
• Information protection
• Audit
• Compliance

THERE IS ALSO...

• Physical security

WHY SO SERIOUS?

Physical security managers have personal, professional, and institutional biases that affect the way we see the world, evaluate hazards, and communicate risk.

We’re frequently more conservative, more hierarchical, and more risk averse that the executives who rely on us to guide their business decisions.

Often we’re so focused on making sure bad things don’t happen we forget we are also responsible for making sure the right things do.

THE UNEXAMINED LIFE

Let’s examine the means by which we can approach the security process with a sense of corporate responsibility, critical thinking, and resist using fear as a lever. 

Let’s look behind the headlines for important clues for how our mindset is reflected in the way we approach the services we offer and look at skills we can add to our personal, professional, and institutional tool kit that make us more effective business partners.

WE COME FROM DIFFERENT PLACES

Many physical security practitioners come to the private sector from law enforcement

• Public law enforcement is about maintaining public order and investigating crime

And we increasingly come from the military

• The military is about protecting national interests and projecting power

While many of us have always worked in the private sector

• Business is about the bottom line

Images http:/commons.wikimedia.org/

WITH ENOUGH SHOTGUNS

“You can’t have enough off duty cops with shotguns.”

“Your job is to make sure nothing bad happens!”

“I can’t tell you what security is, but I’ll let you know when you’re getting it.”

“When all you have is a hammer all your problems look like nails.” – Abraham Mazlow

Image http://www.remington.com/products/firearms/shotguns/model-870/model-870-express-tactical.aspx 

MORE USEFUL PHILOSOPHIES

Our job is not only to make sure nothing bad happens, but to make certain the right things do happen.

Security is a people business: We work with people, to protect people, from other people. 

ISSUES FOR PHYSICAL SECURITY
 

• We are late adopters
• It can be difficult to demonstrate the effectiveness of our programs
• We treat risk wrong
• We tend to take the side of power
• We protect the status quo
• We are prone to lead with emotion, especially fear and anger
• We struggle to align our programs with the business

 CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

• Cognitive perception of risk
• Cognitive dissonance
• Confirmation bias
• Using fear as a lever
• Creative problem solving
• Enterprise risk management
• Servant leadership

TOPICS WE DISAGREE ON 

• Social roles
• Workplace violence
• Role of private security in Homeland Security and the Global War on Terror
• Surveillance
• Prosecuting criminal suspects
• Use of force
• Profiling
• Concealed carry and shall issue laws

CULTURAL COGNITION OF RISK

AKA “Conservative White Male Effect”

“The ‘cultural cognition of risk’ refers to the tendency of individuals to form risk perceptions that are congenial to their values.” – Kahan

Image http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/05/02/did-may-day-save-occupy-wall-street.html

It looks like so…

Photo http://www.culturalcognition.net/  

Which means we disagree like so...

Photo http://www.culturalcognition.net/  

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE

  

It is psychologically uncomfortable to hold contradictory cognitions. This dissonance, being unpleasant, motivates a person to change his cognition, attitude, or behavior, by

• acquiring new information or beliefs that will increase the existing consonance and thus cause the total dissonance to be reduced; or,
• changing one or more of the beliefs, opinions, or behaviors involved in the dissonance;
• forgetting or reducing the importance of those cognitions that are in a dissonant relationship

We tend to deal with beliefs that conflict with the evidence by the more familiar concepts of rationalization, self-deception, irrational faith, confirmation bias, and overestimation of one's intelligence and abilities.

Image http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fox_and_the_Grapes 

CONFIRMATION BIAS

 

• We are rationalizing animals
• We prefer evidence that supports what we already believe
• It’s why we do double blind studies and submit to peer review
• External attempts to change our beliefs frequently result in reinforcement of the belief

Image http://sacemaquarterly.com/methodology/why-does-medical-research-sometimes-get-it-so-wrong.html

SELLING THROUGH FEAR

 

• “The time for urgency is now!”
• “Do something!”
• “Workplace violence is an epidemic!”

Image from http://usopenborders.com/ 

“TWO FATALITIES A DAY”

HOMICIDE VS SUICIDE

TYPE II, III, AND IV

CLIENTS, CO-WORKERS, AND INTIMATES

WORKPLACE HOMICIDE RATES

Image from http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/cfch0009.pdf

 

WORKPLACE ASSAULTS

Image http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/wv09.pdf

SERVANT LEADERSHIP

 

• Serve yourself
• Serve your team
• Serve your company
• Serve your profession
• Serve your community
• “Leaders don’t create followers, they create more leaders.” – Tom Peters
• Ask “What do you need more of from me? What do you need less of from me?”

Image http://jamesstrock.com/services/21st-century-leadership1/servant-leadership

 CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING

 

• Encourage creativity in problem detection and problem solving
• Cultivate your curiosity and interest
• Surprise your people
• “Creativity occurs at the edge of our comfort zones” - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
• Don’t forget to apply your solution, measure it, and adjust iT

Image http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihaly_Csikszentmihalyi 

ENTERPRISE RISK MANAGEMENT

Convergence of physical and logical security has not happened

• And maybe it shouldn’t 
• Physical and logical security may not overlap enough

Assembles a variety of risk management disciplines under a single leadership executive

Physical and logical security, safety, environmental, emergency management, disaster recovery, business continuity, compliance, audit, risk, and maybe even legal

Manage risks to the business interest

• Not fighting crime for the public good
• Not waging a global war on terror

Learn to accept dynamic risk

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

 

• Cultivate our emotional intelligence
• Care for our teams
• Engage in appropriate influence
• Resist the urge to stage “Security Theater”
• Do not scare people – not deliberately, not accidentally
• Further the business interest

REFERENCES

ASIS International CSO Roundtable. (2010). Enterprise security risk management: How great risks lead to great deeds. The CSO Roundtable of ASIS International: Alexandria, VA. Retrieved from http://www.asisonline.org/education/docs/CSORT_ESRM_whitepaper_2010-04.pdf

Bodner, S. (2006). Servant leadership: The complexity of a simple idea. Pyramid ODI. Retrieved from http://www.pyramidodi.com/papers/servant.pdf

Bureau of Labor Statistics (2011). Occupational homicides by selected characteristics, 1997-2009. United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/work_hom.pdf

Carroll, R. (2011). Cognitive dissonance. The Skeptic’s Dictionary. Retrieved from http://www.skepdic.com/cognitivedissonance.html

Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries Charts, 1992-2010 (revised data) http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/cfch0009.pdf

 

Flaherty, J. (2005). Coaching: Evoking excellence in others, 2nd Ed. Elsevier: Burlington, MA. 

Leider, R. (2006). The leader in midlife, in F. Hesselbein & M. Goldsmith, Jossey-Bass (Eds.), The Leader of the Future 2; Visions, Strategies, and Practices for the New Era. A Wiley Imprint: New York.

Lennick, D. & Kiel, F. (2008). Moral intelligence: Enhancing business performance & leadership success. Wharton School Publishing: Upper Saddle River, NJ. 

Parker, P. (1999). Let your life speak; listening for the voice of vacation. Jossey-Bass: San Francisco.

Quinn, R. (1996). Deep change: Discovering the leader within. Jossey-Bass: San Francisco.

Schneier, B. (2003). Beyond fear: Thinking sensibly about security in an uncertain world. Copernicus Books: New York.

RESOURCES

http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2010/09/skeptics-discount-science-by-casting-doubts-on-scientist-expertise.ars

http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/wv09.pdf

http://blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-blog/

http://diyscholar.wordpress.com/best-webcasts-podcasts/

http://eclecticbreakfast.blogspot.com/

htTp://jps.anl.gov/index.html

http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/is907.asp

http://web.me.com/lskitka/styled-3/index.html

http://www.asisonline.org/

http://www.culturalcognition.net/

https://www.ncci.com/documents/Workplace_Research.pdf

https://www.securityexecutivecouncil.com/

Michael Brady, MA, CPP

Michael Brady is a life-long security leadership professional. He has provided security and safety services as a manager in high tech, as an independent security consultant, and as an executive for security service providers. Currently an account manager, consultant, and trainer for Hannon Security Services, Inc., Michael is also an adjunct instructor in the Security Management program at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota School of Graduate & Professional Programs. Michael recently completed his Master of Arts in Human Development degree where he focused on issues of leadership, team building, and problem solving.  He blogs at http://eclecticbreakfast.blogspot.com and can be reached at michael_brady_cpp@yahoo.com

God Against The Gods

The History of the War Between Monotheism and Polytheism...

 

God Against the Gods describes the unhappy and ultimately terminal interaction between monotheism and polytheism, especially as the latter waned under the influence of Constantine and later Roman emperors as Christianity became the state religion starting in the 4th century.  Jonathan Kirsch's book is uneven in spots, rich in others. He wears his biases on his sleeve, but writes well enough for the reader to overlook it most of the time. I'm getting to a point in my studies where I've seen a much of this books' contents elsewhere, but the manner in which the details are assembled here in a cogent whole makes God Against The Gods: The History of the War Between Monotheism and Polytheism a book worth reading.

Don't Taze Me, Bro!

HomelandSecurityNewswire is parroting lurid headlines again...

Tasers are once again in the news.

Today the HomelandSecurityNewswire essentially reprinted a Michigan State University press release in an article titled "Stun guns increase chances of citizen injury, but protect police officers."

Haven’t seen the Justice Quarterly articles referred to by the HSN but I’ve done a quick scan of Bill Terrill's original study, "Assessing Police Use of Force Policy and Outcomes." The paper is a detailed analysis of use of force continuum policies, their application, and outcomes at eight different public law enforcement agencies.  The use of Conducted Energy Devices (CEDs), which includes but is not limited to Tasers, is only one of many elements evaluated in the 287 page report. In the press release and the article Terrill is quoted as saying: 

“There has been this increased perception that these devices are effective and safe.  But in terms of safeness, our data conclusively shows they are not safe to citizens. Now, are there concerns to the point that we’re recommending that law enforcement agencies not use them? Absolutely not. We think there needs to be more careful analysis done, and it has to be done in a way that’s fair and objective.” 

This conclusion does not leap from the pages of the full report.  In fact, such pronouncements serve to attract attention to some potential shortcomings in the study.

1) The report tracks injuries reported after a use of force incident without determining whether or not the injuries were the result of the subject's behavior that prompted the decision to apply force or if the injury was the result of the application of force by law enforcement.

2) The report analyzes the rate of reported injuries extracted from use of force reports, citizen complaints, and litigation.  With the exception of the self-descriptive category "broken bones" the study does not describe the severity of injuries in categories “bruise,” “abrasion,” or “laceration.”

3) Reported injuries resulting from use of force incidents involving Taser use include the abrasions (scrapes and skin marks) or lacerations (cuts to the skin) caused by the Taser barbs.

As Terrill picks sides in the TASER debate it appears he regards the word “safe” as synonymous with the term “injury-free”?  If so, that seems a little short-sighted.  Maybe I’ll ask him.[*]

Earlier this week...

In Tasers Pose Risks to Heart, a Study Warns the New York Times tells us of a study completed by cardiologist Douglas P. Zipes titled Sudden Cardiac Arrest and Death Associated with Application of Shocks from a TASER Electronic Control Device published in  Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association.  

"The study, which analyzed detailed records from the cases of eight people who went into cardiac arrest after receiving shocks from a Taser X26 fired at a distance, is likely to add to the debate about the safety of the weapons. Seven of the people in the study died; one survived."

The article does not mention that tens of thousands of law enforcement officers have been "tazed" as part of their training to use Tasers and not one of them has experienced a cardiac emergency.  Some have experienced orthopedic injuries, but no deaths.

Nor does the article mention the controversy surrounding the concept of excited delirium.  While ExDS is not accepted by all professional medical associations it seems to have some explanatory power when it comes to sudden in-custody deaths of arrested persons, included those subdued using Conducted Energy Devices (CED). 

There is one more interesting detail in the article:

"The author of the study, Dr. Douglas P. Zipes, a cardiologist and professor emeritus at Indiana University, has served as a witness for plaintiffs in lawsuits against Taser — a fact that Mr. Tuttle [a spokesman for TASER International] said tainted the findings. 'Clearly, Dr. Zipes has a strong financial bias based on his career as an expert witness.'" 

That sounds more than a little like a notoriously small study written by former physician Andrew Wakefield alleging a connection between vaccines and autism.  His paper, which drew its death-dealing conclusions from a sample size of 10 patients, was fraught with flaws and ethical concerns, repudiated in peer review, disavowed by his fellow authors, and formally retracted from the Lancet.  When it was also discovered that Wakefield was employed by liability attorneys litigating alleged vaccine injury cases he was struck from the medical register.  

It would not take much for Zipes to be a better man than Wakefield, but the anti-Taser crowd may need a spokesman with little less baggage and a slightly larger sample size.

*UPDATE: I sent this message to Dr. Terrill today [3 May 2012]

I am not a subscriber to the print version of Justice Quarterly so I have only read the abstract on EBSCO and your statements in the MSU press release regarding Conducted Energy Devices (CEDs) and Citizen Injuries: The Shocking Empirical Reality.  I have, however, reviewed your earlier paper Assessing Police Use of Force Policy and Outcomes, from which I presume you extracted data for the JQ article.  With regard to the earlier paper I'm wondering if the following assessment of citizen injury data are accurate.

1) The report tracks injuries reported after a use of force incident without determining whether or not the injuries were the result of the subject's behavior that led to the decision to apply force or if the injury was the result of the application of force by law enforcement.

2) The report analyzes the rate of reported injuries extracted from use of force reports, citizen complaints, and litigation. With the exception of the self-descriptive category "broken bones" the study does not describe the severity of injuries in categories “bruise,” “abrasion,” or “laceration.”

3) It seems that reported injuries resulting from use of force incidents involving CED use include the abrasions (scrapes and skin marks) or lacerations (cuts to the skin) caused by the Taser barbs.

In this context when you are quoted as saying, "But in terms of safeness, our data conclusively shows they are not safe to citizens," do you regard the term "safe" as synonymous with "injury free?"  I propose there is a difference between minor injuries noted, those requiring medical treatment, and those resulting in long-term disability.  A pair of small abrasions from Taser barbs ought to be regarded as less significant than serious injuries resulting from the use of impact devices or a hogpile.  Is the data your team collected sufficiently granular to add a "severity of harm" axis to your injury results?