ASIS INTERNATIONAL HOUSTON CHAPTER

MEETING MINUTES: FEBRUARY 25, 2004

The luncheon meeting was held at the Renaissance Hotel. Chapter Chairman Mike Crocker CPP presided. 60 members and guests attended.

Opening prayer: Tom Hamilton CPP, ARVP region 6

Pledge: Mike Crocker

Mike Crocker was presented a gold ASIS International pin in recognition of his long standing service and contributions to the Chapter.

Committee Activities:

Newsletter: the next issue is coming out in March.

Treasurer: the report was distributed. In addition, Bob announced there are currently 268 local memberships.

Certifications:

CPP: Steven Bourg CPP introduced our two newest CPPs. He also announced the current review session started two weeks ago with 28 participants. He expressed appreciation to the Airport System for providing the facilities. There are still more classes in the session with info on our web page.

PSP: Ralph Swain announced there are 6-8 participants in their review program. The test will available electronically for the first time on April 7^th. It will help benchmark the training materials.

Houses of Worship: Lewis Eakins attended a large Church gathering in Plano. Many of the pastors were from the Houston area and expressed interest in the program.

Training: Trey Williams and Mike Mason CPP are heading the Seminar Committee this year. They held a short meeting after the luncheon.

Membership: Kevin Galloway is the new Chairman and announced the goal of developing a local directory available to only local chapter members. He will be posting a form on the web.

ASIS Foundation: Steve Brack CPP is the new Chairman.

Golf Tournament: The date is May 17^th at Woodcreek Golf Club. AIG has become an Underwriting Sponsor with a donation of $5,000. Securitas Corp is a Gold sponsor, has 5 teams, and is a hole sponsor for total donations exceeding $5,000. To date, 32 teams have made verbal commitments, with room for 4 more teams. The registration form will be available with the next Newsletter. Hole sponsorships are available for $140.

L.E. Award: Bill Hart introduced this month’s recipient, HPD Sgt. Roland De Los Santos. Sgt. De Los Santos joined HPD ten years ago and is currently assigned to the North Division at Greenspoint. He was accompanied to the luncheon by his Captain.

On May 20, 2003, Sgt. De Los Santos saw a vehicle occupied by three individuals matching the description in an Aggravated Robbery case from the Harris County Sheriff’s Department. After verifying that it was stolen, Sgt De Los Santos advised the dispatcher and coordinated backup units to initiate a felony stop. The suspect refused to pull over and led officers on a short high-speed pursuit along I-45. He exited the freeway and later turned into an apartment complex. Due to a controlled access gate, the suspect was forced to stop. Sgt. De Los Santos positioned his patrol vehicle next to the driver’s side of the stolen vehicle while other officers pulled in to block the suspect’s escape. The driver, armed with a .380 semi-automatic weapon, pointed it toward Sgt De Los Santos and fired, striking his patrol vehicle’s passenger side mirror. Upon exiting the vehicle, the suspect dropped his weapon to the ground and surrendered. The other officers apprehended the remaining suspects without further incident. The driver was later identified as the armed hijacker of the vehicle and linked to two other robberies within the jurisdiction of the City of Houston. He as additionally charged with Attempted Capital Murder of a Peace Officer.

Special guest speaker: Joe Porto, U.S. Attorney’s Office

Mr. Porto reviewed an important case involving an illegal alien, working for an unlicensed security company, who was convicted of arms-dealing. Mr. Porto expressed his office’s commitment to investigate and pursue prosecution of unlicensed security companies.

Mr. Porto wanted to publicly praise all law enforcement and security agencies involved with the Superbowl, especially HPD. The NFL is considering Houston the new “model” for security coordination for all future events.

Mr. Porto also gave a brief overview of the Patriot Act. One key factor in the Act is allowing the CIA to share international intelligence with domestic agencies. There are severe penalties for those who violate the civil rights of Americans. There is a lot of misinformation about the Act, yet not one documented case of the Act being abused.

Abe Martinez, Deputy Criminal Chief of the Terrorism and National Security Section, extends an offer to brief organizations on the Patriot Act.

Speaker: Robert W. Starnes; SAIC Houston Field Office, Bureau of Diplomatic Security, U.S. Department of State. Mr. Starnes was accompanied by Senior Special Agent Jay Smith.

TOPIC: Overview of the U.S. State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service

Mr. Starnes began his presentation with a brief history of the D.S.S., which was founded in 1916 by then Secretary of State Robert Lansing. The agency had only three agents, all on loan from other agencies. Congress officially created the current agency in 1985. With a budget of $1 billion; there are currently 38,000 employees, primarily guards at oversees facilities. There are 1450 Special Agents at 260 facilities in 180 countries.

It takes around $50-70 million to build an embassy. The D.S.S. mission is to secure the environment for conduct of U.S. foreign policy. This involves:

Local guards
Surveillance detection in cooperation with the host Government.
Marine Security Guards
Investigation: it is the lead agency to protect the embassy and its personnel.
Physical Security: ensure the new or rebuilt facilities are free of eavesdropping materials.
Residential Protection: including the Ambassador’s residence.
Bio-chemical Security: first developed in New Zealand.
Diplomatic Courier Service
Dignitary Protection: i.e.: currently assigned the protection of Afghanistan President Karzai.
Lead organization to protect the U.S. Olympic Athletes in Athens, Greece this year.
Reward for Justice Program: i.e.: Ramzi Yousef was captured through this program and has since been convicted.
Anti-Terrorism Assistance: training law enforcement and civilian security in police procedures countering terrorism. To date, they have trained 31,000 foreign police in 127 countries.
Equipment: providing dogs, x-ray machines, water cannons, etc.

There are eight field offices in the U.S. This region consists of Texas and Oklahoma. There are 145 consulates in our region and 80 in Houston. The Russian consulate is the newest and Pakistan has applied.

A lot of the domestic focus is on Passport and Visa Fraud. There are over 5,000 cases investigated annually; averaging in 500 arrests. It is a critical factor in the apprehension of criminals involved in terrorism, murder and drug trafficking. Sentencing enhancement for passport fraud is critically needed.

Mr. Starnes shared several personal experiences, including the investigation of two embassy bombings, black market activity, and apprehension of a high-level terrorist suspect. The latter occurred in the Tri-border area (Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil) which is one of the largest locations for middle-eastern terrorists.

Mr. Starnes outlined the Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) which was organized in 1985. Its purpose is to help the private and corporate sectors establish “councils” in foreign countries that can exchange security information and cope with threats and problems. They provide crime reports, travel advisories, ITA threat analysis and a Resident Security Officer (RSO) at each U.S. embassy as a critical contact. To register, a company must be 51% American-owned (www.ds-osac.org).

After a question and answer period, Mr. Starnes was awarded a plaque in appreciation of his time and presentation.

The next Chapter meeting is March 31. There will be two speakers on the topic “High Rise Fire Simulations: Moving Beyond Fire Drills”; Steve Cichon, HFD District Chief of the Training Division and Charles Hutchinson, Crescent Real Estate Security Manager for Greenway Plaza. The theme of the presentation is High Rise Fire Safety. This is a simulation conducted in real buildings, in a training platform, including a zero visibility environment with a building in fire mode. Responders must use building systems and equipment, elevator and fire panel operations and traffic management. The fire simulation tests all levels of the responder’s abilities. This presentation is an overview of a highly intense training format that brings together the private and the public sector in a unique cross-training environment.