As the world of security turns.....

Each day as follow the news, whether on-line, or through newspaper, television or radio, we hear of another breach in security. These breaches include such things as the bombs making it onto commercial aircraft, a man impersonating an older gentleman, passengers on commercial air flights acting suspicious -- they all should raise concern.

I am an active reader of the intelligence briefing that Stratfor; (http://www.stratfor.com/); puts out. The founders of this, both former State Department Diplomatic Security Special Agents who worked Protective Intelligence, have done a great job of providing assessments of key topics affecting security. As security professionals -- and I am talking about all forms of security -- we should all be reading these briefings.

There has been a lot of activity going on and we need to keep abreast of what is happening, not just in our own little world. What happens in New York City or Chicago may have a dramatic affect on Kalamazoo, Michigan or Biloxi, Mississippi. Just because you are providing security at the mall (Al Qaeda has stated these are targets), or a small office someplace does not mean that something could not happen there. Incidents of workplace violence can occur anywhere. Suspicious packages can be found in our client sites any time of the day. Does that mean every one of them should be handled by the bomb squad? Maybe, especially if your site has had an increase in unusual activity.

The FBI reports that violent crime is down but that membership in gangs has increased. Every community in the United States has been affected in one way or another by street gangs: MS-13, Crips, Bloods, La Familia Michoacan, Latin Kings; however, major players in the gang world are not the only ones we need to worry about. What is the gang activity in your neighborhood?

While the security industry was never considered by many for full time employment, we are still seeing an increase in employment positions nationwide. Many are still part time positions with many of the full time jobs being located in larger cities. After 9/11 we saw an influx of positions, but yes, we have seen some of those positions go away with many security companies fighting with clients to put those positions back in place. What are the first jobs cities look to cut: fire, EMS, law enforcement and teachers. In industry the first to see funding cut is security. We are constantly doing more with less. Unfortunately it is not until after something happens that they look at security and ask why and what happened. We need to constantly document suspicious activity and report it.

Keep up the good work and stay safe.