Each week we feature a book written by a member of the Incubator.
This week:
Security for Women: The Evolution of Empowerment
Who: Security expert Laura Clark Incubator City: St. Louis What: The art of personal protection Why: You’re worth it
No one likes to think about violence; it’s frightening and unpleasant. But because complacency and denial are two of the main reasons women are victimized, Laura Clark’s Security for Women: The Evolution of Empowerment is a must-read.
This book provides essential crime-deterrence and survival techniques. Using Situational Awareness Surveillance Detection (SASD), you’ll enhance your ability to detect and avoid danger by varying your routine, staying alert, assessing surroundings, recognizing predators, and giving credence to uneasiness. Armed with knowledge, confidence, and pre-planned procedures, you’ll dramatically decrease your risk of being hurt, or even targeted in the first place.
Surveillance Detection, The Art of Prevention
Laura Clark and William E. Algaier
2005
About the Book:
As much as we would all like to believe that our government and law enforcement
agencies can protect us from crime and terrorism, our safety is not completely assured.
Certainly we cannot take the law into our own hands, but we can use legal preventative
measures to protect ourselves, our families, our businesses, and our assets.
Surveillance detection (SD) is a technique that has been around for a long time and is
now being revitalized and implemented worldwide for the war against terror. Our book
explores the ways in which people from all walks of life can use SD as a viable
preventative measure for the threats against them. Regardless if you are a housewife
who is a victim of domestic violence or a contractor riding in a convoy in Iraq, this book
will help you learn to protect yourself. If you are a corporation that has become a
symbolic target for terrorists or an industrial facility with hazardous materials, this book
will show you how to use surveillance detection to protect your property and personnel.
The majority of criminals and terrorists intent on carrying out any type of crime or
attack have an Achilles heel that we can exploit; they (or someone associated with
them) must go out and conduct surveillance on their target in order to develop a
successful plan of attack. Using surveillance detection allows us to intercept them at this
early stage in order to prevent the crime or attack. We believe that the more
widespread the use of surveillance detection becomes, the safer our world will be.
Review from Security
Management Magazine (ASIS)
April 2007 Issue
*****
Surveillance Detection: The Art of Prevention
By Laura Clark and William Algaier; Published by Cradle Press, www.cradlepress.com (Web); 197 pages; $19.50.
Security management professionals often find themselves instructing officers and employees to “report anything unusual” as part of their efforts to prevent harm or crime. Unfortunately, this approach relies on the subjective instinct of the listener, and it produces numerous dead-end leads for investigators and law enforcement personnel alike. This book offers specific, practical lessons that can be taught to security officers, as well as employees in high-risk countries, to give them the tools to identify and report suspicious behavior upon which the security department can act. The authors of this work have extensive experience teaching surveillance detection to business, government, and military organizations throughout the world. They have years of applied practical experience conducting surveillance detection operations for high-profile individuals as well as high-threat environments in the Middle East. They distill that experience into a work that is well designed for the security management professional. This is not a theoretical book. The material is organized and presented as a practical guide to conducting surveillance detection. The authors proceed in a logical fashion, explaining the difference between surveillance, surveillance detection, and countersurveillance; the distinctions assist the reader in developing an effective program. As an example of how the authors proceed, there is a step-by-step process for conducting a risk/threat assessment. Determining the level of risk and threat is the first, critical step. The authors provide a sample questionnaire and matrix that security professionals can apply to their own programs. lanning and preparation are the touchstones of this book. The authors provide a specific, detailed method for drafting an effective surveillance detection plan. They then explain in a clear and direct manner how to identify locations from which a subject could surveil a facility and how security managers can position themselves to identify these locations without being spotted. These surveillance detection locations can become a key part of a security operations plan. Prior, thorough planning is the difference between a successful security program and a reactive one. This book is the kind of “how to” that every security professional needs in his or her library. Whether the concern is that someone may be stalking an employee or that you want to spot preattack surveillance overseas, the practical program presented here will serve you well.
Reviewer: Ralph “R.C.” Miles, CPP, has more than 20 years of military and private-sector security experience. He conducts risk assessments and pretravel briefings for employees working throughout the world and has provided protective services for them at locations such as Iraq and the Palestinian West Bank. He is a member of ASIS International.
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