Time and Distance
Lets face it, the best safety and security program is one that can provide you with two critical elements; Time and Distance. If you have a safety and security program that provides you the time to discover threats before they reach you and additionally provides the sufficient distance where the threat cannot produce their desired results, then you have something very few organizations have, kudos to you.
The reality is that very few organizations can say they have this type of complete program as it is difficult to achieve for several reasons:
Time and distance is not a primary factor when deciding on what security technology to purchase.
Deterrence, evidence needs and cost are the typical drivers of this process.
Most security teams are not equipped or trained to think about time and distance.
The mindset is centered around responding to a crisis as fast as possible.
Investments in security hardware are easy to see and use.
We spend well over $3.5 Billion dollars a year on security hardware and software.
(How much have you spent on identifying and acting on the warning signs of potential violence that may impact your organization?)
In his testimony on Feb 25th, Steven Sund, the former Chief of the U.S Capitol Police, testified in front of a Senate Committee regarding the events that unfolded on Jan 6th. Sund told the committee that “Time and distance is our best friend. And the most important thing is to provide some kind of protection farther out. So the officers have more time to deal with it”. I completely agree with Sund and we here have been talking about that for a while, but can we provide protection farther out? Maybe the question is not about providing protection farther out but rather how do we discover information, intelligence and warning signs farther out and properly disseminate that data to the right people. When you stop and think about the amount of security the U.S Capitol has and the budget of $460 million dollars they possess to ensure the safety of those who work and visit the Capitol every day, it is difficult to process what happened on Jan 6th. $460 Million dollars on deterrence was compromised in moments by several hundred undeterred individuals and we know that the warning signs were there in advance. Lesson learned: Deterrence alone does not provide “Time and Distance”. This is a hard lesson to learn and sadly this lesson is learned too often in our schools, places of worship, the workplace and other locations, but why do we still make the same mistakes? Why are we so adverse to learning about and implementing actual prevention strategies that can provide time and distance?
Let’s Discuss Time
When we discuss time, what are we really talking about? In the simplest term it is time to identify a threat, but it is deeper than that. When we talk about time we have to take everything into consideration surrounding time and threat identification. We know, thanks to the great work of Calhoun and Weston and their pathway to violence model, which can be seen in this link at DHS, that At-Risk individuals progress along a pathway (the pathway to violence) and that their pathway often takes some period of time. It could take hours, days, weeks, months or years but there is a time frame for this progression. This time frame is our opportunity discover those on that pathway and work to off ramp them as best we can in order to prevent an act of violence from occurring. How do we improve our ability to create time, take advantage of this time period and make it work for us? Here are a few things to consider:
The use of data analytics
The use of data analytics can provide details on the warning signs often exhibited by those individuals on the pathway to violence. Through the strategic collection of data we can actually see emerging threats on the pathway to violence which is critical to any prevention based effort. This is really one of the most critical aspects as a good foundation for data collection will provide you with actionable intelligence. Without actionable intelligence you will not make the proper decisions, your teams will operate with a degree of confusion, and communication will be delayed or misinterpreted causing mistakes. All of these negative aspects are time consumers and work to the advantage of the threat.
Identify patterns and trends
Within the data collected are going to be patterns and trends that can provide threat assessment teams with valuable insights allowing for better decision making. Identifying these patterns and trends will help you gain time in the assessment process, time that you can start to organizing your team, connecting the pieces of information together and forming a plan that everyone can embrace. A plan that is widely embraced will help streamline everyone’s efforts and save duplicative processes.
Develop a violence prevention framework
An effective violence prevention framework can really help you maximize the time you have and can even help you gain time when done properly. A framework establishes a well balanced prevention program with little to no gaps, silos, or points of disconnect. When information is lost, stuck in a silo or disconnected from the right people it takes additional time to find it, analyze it and determine where it fits and what it means. This additional time is important, and if we are spending this time having to go back and redo work, then we are going in the wrong direction while the threat is progressing to their end goal.
How Do We Create Distance
The further away the threat is, the less physical damage or injury they are likely to inflict (cyber threats excluded). When a threat is on your door step or inside your organization, then they have all the advantage they need. They can afford to be less accurate, they have more options to inflict damage or harm and they have the initiative as they are on offense and know what is coming next. In this situation, distance is not on your side, therefore we need to flip the script and make distance your friend. While this may not be easy, it does not have to be difficult either as there are ways to accomplish without additional stress and burden on your system.
The key to creating distance is completely dependent on where you start looking for threats. A majority of the threats you will face most likely exist within the community today, yes some threats may already be inside your organization, but they also have a strong external community connection as well. If you start looking for threats as they approach your door steps, it is too late and you will likely be forced to respond to the threats actions. If you want distance between you and a threat, then you have to create or use a platform that allows you to establish a community connection designed to identify potential warning signs of violence against your organization. In nearly every act of targeted violence, the threat “leaked” their intents via social media, friends, family, co-workers and other outlets only to be discovered after the act was carried out. This was the case with the breach on Capitol Hill, Parkland, Columbine, Orlando, San Bernardino, Boulder Co and other tragedies that have occurred in recent days, weeks months and years. These organizations all relied on various methods of deterrence, but in the end those methods did not create any time to prevent the tragedy or the distance to properly identify the escalating threat.
Distance is created when you have actionable intelligence and that intelligence can only be gathered in the community. Your organization is already connected the community either from a business, educational or religious standpoint already, why not expand that connection to provide for sharing of potential warning signs? Imagine if we could gather that intelligence in a way that allowed us to intervene with the proper resources and help those who need help, rather than responding to act of mass violence.
Here are a few more things to consider:
The intelligence you can gather by using a self developed prevention platform or a prevention platform already in use by others can provide you with the actionable intelligence you need in order to gain the needed distance between you and an emerging threat.
Case in point, Sarpy County Nebraska is currently using a prevention based platform with very positive results. Here are a few excerpt from an ASIS article “We’ve had well over 400 tips since we’ve been involved in this,” says Captain Kevin Griger, investigations commander for the Sarpy County Sheriff’s Office.” However, not all threats contain plans to harm others. “We’ve had three suicides prevented as a result of it, where somebody felt it was serious enough to report,” Griger says. For example, a school was able to intervene when someone reported that his girlfriend was talking seriously about suicide. “When we get that information, we’re able to send somebody out to make contact, come up with a safety plan right then, and deal with the situation,” Griger adds.
Having the ability to conduct an active “individual-at-risk” assessment that is based on the gathered intelligence can be a game changer.
An individual-at-risk is someone who is currently on a pathway to violence and may be experiencing a number of stressors, grievances and ideations that could quickly escalate to a mass casualty event. The active assessment involves a real-time review of what is known and not known about the individual and can better inform your decision making capability. Having this information can help you further create more distance and allow for smarter intervention with the individual by proper authorities. This review can be done by an internal threat assessment team in conjunction with local threat assessment partners who can best advise a proper course of action with the proper personnel.
An informed Threat Assessment Team is an effective Threat Assessment Team!
This goes without saying, but sadly many Threat Assessment Teams do not have access to the information or have it in an organized manner that allows for quick and effective dissemination of information. The longer it takes to disseminate information, the less distance you will have between you and the threat. A multi-disciplinary team with the right tools and resources and easily shared information can do almost anything including creating distance. When the barriers to prevention are broken down and teams can operate at full capability, lives can and will be saved, damage to property will be reduced and budgets can be more strategically focused to areas that truly need improvements.
Time And Distance Are Essential
We know that not every act of violence is preventable and that Time and Distance cannot always be achieved, but we should strive to create as much Time and Distance as we possibly can. Deterrence alone will not create Time and Distance, therefore deterrence must be used to support a prevention framework. Together these two efforts can work to provide an environment where:
Information is gathered.
Actionable intelligence can be fully and properly developed.
Threat Assessment teams form the right partnerships and intervene the individual-at-risk.
Informed decision making is consistent and supports an overall safety and security infrastructure.
This may all sound overwhelming and perhaps not easy, but nobody said this would be. Threats, whether emerging or established, are complex and thinking that a complex problem can be solved by adding some hardware to your building is not serving you or, those that matter most to you, well. That which matters most to you deserves your best efforts to create and utilize Time and Distance to your advantage.
There is more that goes into this as this blog post is just the tip of the iceberg, but we feel this is a good conversation starting point and we hope that it gets you thinking differently and considering other aspects other than just relying on deterrence.
Feel free to reach out with questions as we are here to help!
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.