Comprehensive protection plan framework and implementation

Criminal Justice - Security Plan

COMPREHENSIVE SECURITY PLAN

Effective personal protection requires a comprehensive approach to anticipating, understanding, and preparing for multiple sources of threats to personal safety.

Contemporary events have emphasized terrorism in particular, but that is more a function of human psychology than the reality of the respective threat to personal posed by terrorism in comparison to natural catastrophes. Many times more human fatalities were attributable to the Asian-Pacific Tsunami and the flooding of New Orleans than to terrorism.

In addition to the threats from terrorism and natural disasters, personal protection agencies must be equally prepared to address conceivable threats posed by political unrest and civil disobedience, especially in foreign countries. At a minimum, this entails maintaining secure communications links and protocols for identifying, securing, and relocating all protected individuals within the zone of responsibility.

Communications Security:

Communications are essential to personal safety concerns at all times, but even more so immediately prior to, during, and immediately after serious safety threats materialize, regardless of their particular origin. The basic technological requirements for personal protection include an independent system that implements appropriately advanced signal scrambling to ensure imperviousness to unauthorized interception capable of compromising sensitive information. In that regard, more sophisticated threats to high-value targets may require counterintelligence electronic spectrum surveillance and offensive signal jamming technology such as routinely employed by military security details and the U.S. Secret Service, domestically (Larson 2007).

The basic tactical requirements for ensuring communications includes a "cascade" system outlining a chain of critical information dissemination to all personnel within the zone of responsibility. In addition to providing communications hardware throughout the community of remotely located protectees or isolated protective details, the threat response system should also include specific training of all non-security agents in accessing personal communications equipment and in situational rendezvous at pre- assigned designated areas. Terrorist Threats to Security:

In general, personal protection always requires thorough, real-time information of any factors that could possibly undermine mobility or, in the most extreme circumstances, evacuation, such as may arise in foreign territories. Ordinary operational security against isolated acts of terrorism (including abduction and assassination attempts) necessitates using as many appropriate alternate travel routes as possible, in addition to varying other elements capable of being surveilled by prospective terrorists.

Schedules should remain unpredictable, as should choice of transportation mode and/or specific vehicles.

Whereas non-terrorist threats to specific transportation routes are most likely to occur in isolated areas, terrorist attacks may involve a coordinated tactical denial of transportation routes. In that regard, personal protection agents must be prepared in advance to respond to every conceivable situation of transportation route denial, whether purposeful or resulting indirectly from terrorist attack. Ideally, personal protection agents should train regularly to respond to necessary changes to specific transportation routes so that doing so never requires ad hoc procedures or route selection except in circumstances that could never have been anticipated. Certain terrorist threats, such as chemical and biological agents, and even radiological or crude nuclear terrorism require shelter-in- place responses rather than relocation (Allison 2004). In many foreign countries, the threat of suicide terrorism necessitates a completely different protocol for the heightened state of alertness on the part of protection agents and for limiting any exposure of protectees. In particular, the danger of suicide terrorism is that it is conceivably possible virtually anytime protectees come within close proximity of the public (Hoffman 2003).

Naturally, public access to protectees should always be minimized to whatever extent possible, but in certain situations, it is impossible or highly impractical to eliminate that risk entirely. In that regard, protection agents must maintain perimeter surveillance from strategic vantage points that provide an opportunity to monitor the public visually for apparent threat indicators. Spectrum-wide electronic frequency surveillance is also necessary to identify communications linked to hostile intentions.

Environmental Threats to Security:

Environmental factors are capable of producing greater threats to safety and personal security than virtually any manmade threats, and certainly any threats within the arsenal of even the most sophisticated potential terrorists. On the other hand, many sources of environmental threats are somewhat predictable, especially through modern meteorological techniques.

As demonstrated by the tremendous differences between specific localities similarly impacted by Hurricane Katrina in terms of their comparative responses, preparation and advanced planning for the dissemination of essential emergency resources is essential to minimize the effect of environmental disasters (Larson 2007).

Even in the most severe environmental disasters, the degree of impact is largely a function of logistical planning and the prearranged availability of resources whose need is capable of predicting. The extent of damage resulting from Katrina that was attributable specifically to logistical unpreparedness for distributing resources that were actually available illustrates the importance of preparation that far exceeds mere procurement (Larson 2007).

Civil Unrest:

Civil unrest can present direct security threats, (such as where the source of the unrest relates specifically to the protected entities), or indirect security threats, (such as where the source of the unrest is unrelated to protectees). In some respects, the former necessitates some of the same protection agent protocols as terrorist threats while the latter parallels similar considerations to environmental threats. Furthermore, just as meteorological observation provides advanced warning of weather-related environmental security threats, relative awareness of social issues and current events provides valuable information whose vigilant monitoring and analysis enables protection agents to avoid being caught unprepared.

Certainly, human behavior is less predictable than meteorological factors; on the other hand, instances of civil unrest rarely (if ever) occur completely spontaneously without specific triggers. In this regard, protection considerations relating to civil unrest also differ substantially from those arising in connection with terrorism in that the appropriate response to the former may be relative (such as the addition of resources or avoidance of specific areas or routes) rather than absolute, (such as the complete preclusion of normal functions or travel).

Political Threats to Security: