Not Exactly Beach Reading

Three textbooks from the summer session...

Strategic Security Management: A Risk Assessment Guide for Decision Makers by Karim Vellani 

This is the text for the SM-402 Security Risk Assessment course I led this summer at Saint Mary's University of Minnesota. It's a worthy and more accessible successor to the classic, Risk Analysis and the Security Survey, by James F. Broder.

Introduction to Investigations by John S. Dempsey

There were two texts for SM-403 Private Investigation Principles, I'm teaching at Saint Mary's this summer. It's written at the tech school/undergrad level which is okay but sometimes the author comes across as a Baby Boomer who is trying a little too hard to be hip for the youngsters. I recommend it for instruction with those minor caveats. 

The Art of Investigative Interviewing, Second Edition by Charles L. Yeschke

This is the second text for the SM-403 Private Investigation Principles course. It's written in a very accessible style and is surprisingly strong on the human element. That shouldn't be a surprise but some interview and interrogations systems take an adversarial tone or proceed in a rather scientific fashion. Yeschke endeavors the would be interviewer to indulge his or her human side in the interest of collecting information, evidence, and eventually admissions and confessions in a ethical and effective manner.