analyzing two global security organizations

A plethora of private firms around the world offer customized security and risk management services. TAL Global and the Wexford Group are two firms that offer some of the most comprehensive security and risk management services, strategies, and techniques, interfacing between public and private sector and wielding power in a wide range of jurisdictions. Wexford Group offers services including operational advising, law enforcement support, program management, risk assessment, operations and intelligence fusion, development and fielding, and also recruitment, assessment, selection, and training (RAST) support for government agencies and private industries. TAL Global offers airport and aviation security, emergency preparedness planning, executive protection, risk management, school safety and security, and a range of other security services within their organizational rubric. These two organizations have similar leadership structures, dividing their different duties into different departments, each with its own organizational sub-structures. Working within the laws and jurisdictions of any client context, TAL Global and the Wexford Group are responsible for balancing security requirements with the need for human liberties and the protections of human rights.

A wholly owned subsidiary of the esteemed group CACI International, the Wexford Group addresses issues related to how terrorism and similar asymmetrical threats undermine global, national, and local security. The Wexford Group’s Operational Advising has provided services to the United States Army, and was the original contact partner for the army’s Improvised Explosive Device Task Force (Wexford Group, 2017). To ensure the privacy and confidentiality of all clients, the Wexford Group discloses information about subcontractors and employees. A discreetly hierarchical organization, the Wexford Group’s leadership structure is specifically designed with informational security in mind, to protect the integrity of client data. TAL Global is similarly structured. A hierarchical organizational culture enables secure communications via chains of command systems, also effectively enabling project management and consultation services. Because both TAL Global and Wexford Group offer such a broad range of services related to security and risk management, they both rely on subcontractors as well as employees with specialized skills and competencies in analytics, intelligence, surveillance and other sectors. Yet all operations fall under the rubric of the primary leadership structures of the parent organization. For example, the investigative solutions that TAL Global offers combine expertise in surveillance, litigation and legal prowess, with law enforcement strategies and techniques too. Both TAL Global and Wexford Group have in-house and international teams that work within various jurisdictions, necessarily navigating complex systems of international law and policy. However, Pillsbury’s (2017) Global Security Services focus more exclusively on the legal domains of international threat mitigation.

Likewise, TAL Global and Wexford Group operate within different international, national, and local jurisdictions, transacting between public and private sector. Their investigative services can be used by private organizations concerned about everything from internal organizational cultures, to background checks performed on potential business partners or clients. Because of the nature of global business, background checks may entail liaison with partners in different countries, requiring deft cultural competence in communications. Law enforcement partnerships also reveal the public-private nature of their operations. Digital forensics and forensic psychiatry are other means that may be used to conduct background checks to ensure security at all levels of public and private sector performance.

Methods used to conduct their risk assessments and securities services include all manner of surveillance tactics, as well as overt analyses of plant or public infrastructure. The Wexford Group can even offer rapid deployment of materials, personnel, and equipment needed to prevent or respond to crises or mitigate risks. The development and fielding techniques used by Wexford Group include exploratory investigations, arms supply and weapons assessments, assurances of maintenance and support teams, and full-scale strategic analyses on the field in different military capacities. As a separate division, the law enforcement support services include provision of special operations training like SWAT, training in the use of specialized weapons, and even urban breaching and entry techniques (Wexford Group, 2017). Similarly, the Managing Director of Investigations at TAL Global leverages a law enforcement background for full-scale risk management services that include comprehensive cultural analyses, background checks, interrogations, undercover investigations, business intelligence operations, and urgent response investigations (TAL Global, 2017).

Terrorism and other malicious threats are affronts not just to security but to liberty and human rights. Therefore, their main operations already balance the needs for security, liberty, and human rights using proven methods of risk management. Yet the use of surveillance tactics does present some potential threats to human rights and liberties. To reduce impact on essential human rights, TAL Global and Wexford Group operate well within the established legal frameworks of the jurisdictions in which they operate. When working in the United States and other countries with robust human rights and liberties legal protections, these organizations have on hand teams of legal analysts and attorneys that can help achieve the optimal balance. Both of these organizations have multi-disciplinary action teams that ensure each security and risk management project takes place within an overarching ethical framework. Managing terrorist events and anticipating risk does not necessitate the sacrifice of liberties, but it may mean transforming operational procedures, hiring processes, and organizational culture. Personnel management, training, and other issues also need to be dealt with transparently, helping companies to shape their organizational policies and procedures to meet their security needs. When it comes to providing security and protection to municipalities or even whole nations, both TAL Global and Wexford Group support service and infrastructure upgrades that allow for threat management without impinging on human rights and freedoms.

Mitigating the psychosocial effects of security operations and terrorist events is not something that can be done in a straightforward manner. Each situation will require a different response. However, both TAL Global and Wexford Group offer clients thorough counseling and full disclosure of information. Empowering clients and stakeholders with the information they need to make informed decisions, both TAL Global and Wexford Group effectively provide the means by which to build resilience and reduce psychosocial harms. Specifically, Wexford Group’s RAST program includes psychosocial support services as part of crisis management, and TAL Global’s School Security and Safety services likewise offer institutional support for personnel and consulting for how to minimize harm and trauma. In fact, the TAL Global School Security and Safety services include interventions related to bullying.