The coming convergence of deterrence and prevention
No doubt, if your following along or working in the security industry, you have heard or read about the convergence of Physical Security and IT Security. The Department of Homeland Security has a really good document that covers this topic called Cybersecurity and Physical Security Convergence! I am not going to dive into that topic here as it is being covered in other venues perfectly fine, though I will say it is long overdue!
This conversation however is centered around the convergence of Deterrence and Prevention. I am sure most organizations today have some form of a security program that consists of cameras, door locks, visitor management and various other components. Lets assume for arguments sake that you have already gone through your convergence of IT and Physical Security, fantastic, now what do you do? While Deterrence based efforts are a critical part of protecting what is important to you and your organization, what happens when that deterrence fails? As you can see in this picture, this bank robber is clearly “undeterred” by the banks video surveillance system. Clearly this suspect knew enough on how to evade the system and not expose his identity. My main point here is that if you are relying on deterrence alone, it probably is not enough.
Is deterrence different than prevention?
Absolutely! Lets dive into this further and look at the difference. Deterrence, by definition is the action of discouraging an action or event through instilling doubt or fear of the consequences (Oxford Dictionary). Prevention, by definition is the action of stopping something from happening or arising (Oxford Dictionary). All of the surveilance cameras we deploy, all the door locks we install along with all the burglar alarms, security guards and other countermeasures we use are great, but they are all designed to discourage someone. Often they work, which is great, but again what happens when deterrence fails? Every organization I speak with has some type of deterrence based program, regardless of how advanced or developed that program is, something is in place to discourage those with criminal or violent intents. But when asked about a prevention program, the response is drastically different. When asked the question: what happens when deterrence fails? I usually get a vague response which prompts me to provide this answer; “you are forced to respond to some criminal act or act of violence” to which they nod their head “yes”. Very few organizations have a formal prevention program or think that the cameras and other devices they have are the prevention program. If you don’t have a prevention program yet, lets spend a minute talking about why you should establish one before we move on to the convergence aspect.
What is a prevention program?
A prevention program is a program built around the idea that we can stop a criminal act or an act of violence. It is not based on ones ability to predict when something is going to happen, but rather it is based on the strategic collection of empirical data and information that exists within the organization and the community. The bank robber in the photo did not just walk into the this bank on a whim and decide to commit the theft. Without a doubt he had exhibited warning signs months, weeks and days prior to this theft that he was on a pathway to this crime. Members of his family, neighbors, friends, co-workers and others probably even saw those warning signs and knew something was not right but had no real way to report what they observed because those observations may not have been criminal. These warning signs can be subtle or overt, verbal or visual and even physical or mental in nature, but they are there regardless of form. My guess is that when this bank robber is caught and identified, he will have a recent history of financial stressors, grievances, minor criminal acts around the community, contacts with Law Enforcement and other indicators that show he was heading down the wrong path. How could a prevention program help this bank? When properly established, a prevention program would have been able to collect those observed warning signs, filter them to the proper agencies who could step in and make contact to help this person and intervene before he attempts to rob a bank. For time sake, I may be oversimplifying it here in this blog, but the point is that prevention is possible with the right data, filters and people willing to share open source information. There is a great book on the market that dives deep into this topic, it is called the “First Preventers Playbook” by Rick Shaw and I highly recommend it. At-Risk individuals are everywhere in our community from attending our schools to the places where we work or worship. Regardless of the environment, they carry with them the stressors, grievances and other indicators they are in need of attention and a prevention program can help gather that information, filter it to the proper agencies and allow provide the proper support to the individual. If you want more information on this topic, just reach out to me and we can discuss off-line.
How can Deterrence and Prevention work together?
It is important to understand that deterrence is local to your immediate operation whereas prevention can be both local to your immediate operation and in the community to which your operation resides. You can’t and won’t place your surveillance cameras in other parts of the town to see what is happening or what threats may lurk around the corner, so your deterrence efforts will only work if that threat or At-Risk individual enters your premise. Prevention on the other hand can work anywhere, provided people are aware enough to observe a concerning behavior and have the know how on where to report it. Prevention benefits the entire community! If you want to to stand out and be a leader in your community, start a prevention network that everyone can be part of and see how fast you are recognized as someone trying to make a positive impact and finding solutions!
Knowing when and where deterrence and prevention operate and reside, we can begin to see where the convergence takes place. In order for this convergence to take place though, you need to have internal leadership in both areas who can talk to each other and share information. Ideally this would involve someone from your organization’s executive leadership to bring together the Security Department, HR Department, and Threat Assessment Team leadership to ensure the convergence takes place without turf wars and ownership confusion. In the end these should be separate departments but focused on the same mission, that being the protection of those people that learn or work in your organization along with the vital assets you rely on to conduct your day to day operations. Without separate leadership, deterrence and prevention will become clouded and not given the proper attention each needs to deliver the desired results. This will result in increased financial losses, elevated acts of violence or workplace hostilities and increased spending. Lastly, this internal leadership must work with the proper outside agencies and have an established M.O.U in place to share vital information on order to prevent an act of violence or crime.
In the end, this is really a strategic effort to formalize a cooperative partnership between deterrence based outcomes and preventative based outcomes. The days of relying on deterrence efforts alone must end as there are just too many At-Risk individuals who are undeterred and do not care what you do to discourage them. They will work to find a way around any deterrence efforts you make!
3 Steps to better convergence:
Step one -Develop a prevention program and culture of prevention that is equal to your deterrence program.
There must be a balanced approach to be effective.
The good thing about developing a prevention program and culture of prevention is that is not expensive or cost prohibitive. Speaking from professional experience, it is actually far less expensive than deterrence efforts and can enhance profitability. A prevention program has to have a few things to properly bring any desired results, you need a program manager, you need a platform to collect and filter relevant information and empirical data, you need a framework to operate within and you need the right leadership structure to support this program from the top down.
Step two -Align the vision and mission statements for both your deterrence based efforts and that of your prevention based efforts.
This will ensure a solid partnership.
This step will further solidify how pervasive your prevention efforts are within the organization. No doubt you have campaigns to prevent accidents in the work place, but do you have a campaign to prevent violence? Your vision and mission to prevent accidents is far reaching and everyone is involved in that awareness effort, that same level of awareness needs to be present in your efforts to prevent violence as well. Creating a clear vision and mission to prevent violence or theft, that can be adopted by everyone within the organization and that reaches beyond your four walls should be the end goal.
Step three - Establish information sharing protocols for each area.
The exchange of vital information will help to minimize a gaps, silos or points of disconnect that may exist.
Your external partnerships will be critical to your success and having access to outside experts is a must. Outside experts in Law Enforcement, Threat Assessment, and Mental Health or Counseling can provide the objective and unbiased insights that is needed to proper assess a situation and determine the best path forward together. Remember, if there is a path to violence, then there is also a path to prevention. Helping someone off the path to violence should be the focus rather than incarceration or something worse.
Why is this important?
It is extremely important, and here is why. As a security industry, we are constantly racing to find ways to respond faster to acts of crime and violence, we spend billions of dollars trying to detect and deter potential threats. Despite our best efforts there is still a danger, while it may be low, that presents a high impact event that could bring casualties, injuries, financial devastation and other undesirable outcomes. If we spend 90% of our time, resources and efforts on deterrence alone, we are going to continue to overlook the low probability - high impact events.
Here is the test: if you have ever asked yourself any of these questions and have not found an answer, then you are probably to focused on deterrence alone:
“Is there anyone in our organization capable of carrying out a high impact event against us”
“How would we know if there is anyone in our organization or community showing warning signs”
“Does anyone have information they are not sharing with us”
“Are we gathering the right information to make informed decisions regarding our safety and security”
“Could we intentionally prevent an act of violence”
“Do we have any actionable intelligence that we are not using”
“Have we trained anyone to focus on prevention based outcomes”
What percentage of our safety and security budget is allocated to prevention”
“Have we ever conducted a prevention assessment”
“I’ve read post incident reports, but why have I not seen any averted incident reports”
While there are dozens more questions, hopefully you get the point that prevention is as equally important as deterrence and that these two disciplines should work in conjunction with each other. This convergence is critical and we cannot overstate the importance of this effort. If you are currently operating without a prevention program, we should talk! If you have a prevention program, but it is not equal in effort to your deterrence program, we should talk! If you have a prevention program and it is equal to your deterrence program, perhaps we have already talked!
Written by: Jason Destein
Jason is the Founder and Director of Violence Prevention Strategies at Securable Alternatives, a consulting and services company that is focused on threat assessments and the prevention of targeted violence. Jason is a "Pracademic" & industry recognized Subject Matter Expert with over 25 years of experience with a diverse background in security leadership. Jason is also a University Assistant Professor teaching courses in Homeland Security, Counter-terrorism and Criminology.
Jason's is a visionary out of the box thinker who practices what he teaches and teaches what he practices. Providing unique solutions to unique challenges motivates him and has allowed him to develop an innovative Active Assailant Survival program called Observe. Navigate. EscapeTM recognized by the Dept. of Homeland Security in 2018.
Jason holds a Master's Degree in Criminal Justice with a concentration in Counter- Terrorism, he is also a certified Six Sigma Yellow Belt and a member of the National Society of Leadership & Success. Jason is active within the ASIS community serving as a steering committee member in School Safety and Security. He publishes to blog posts, creates content for podcasts and contributes to various publications internationally.