ASIS-HOUSTON CHAPTER MINUTES
3/16/06
The luncheon meeting was held at the Renaissance Hotel with Chairman John Brady presiding. 101 members and guests attended.
Prayer: Greg Walker, Esq. ARM CPP
Pledge: John Brady
COMMITTEE ACTIVITIES
Web: Mike Crocker CPP stated they have developed a FAQ page. Sponsorship renewals are in progress. As ARVP, he is also starting a web site for regional information.
Golf: Bob Cascino CPP announced we are 60 days out from the tournament. Information and registration are now posted on our web site and can be paid by Penpal through the web. We also put copies of the flyers on each table. The Annual Tournament will be held at the Longwood Golf Course in Cypress on May 15th. We need prizes for the silent auction and gift bags, hole sponsors and participants!
Newsletter: Tom Hamilton CPP announced the next issue will be 16 pages, a 25% increase and is going to press shortly. The committee has exceeded its funding goals and the newsletter is again fully funded in excess of $8,800, which will allow for another educational scholarship and carry over money for 2007.
Treasurer’s report: Distributed on each table.
Placement: There are several new postings in the placement section.
Programs: Andrea Laughlin organized the first social for the year. It was held March 9 at Sam’s Boat with approximately 20 participants. The next social opportunity is at the end of April at the Law Enforcement Wild Game Cook-off. The Chapter is sponsoring a team.
Houses of Worship: Lewis Eakins CPP announced 3 new assessments; 1 this week and 2 next week. He needs volunteers during the later afternoons. He stresses that we do not offer vendor services so that there is no conflict of interest. This program is offered strictly as a community service to better aid any House of Worship a non-biased security assessment.
Corporate Security Roundtable: Charles Hutchinson stated the next meeting will be April 13 and will be a training class and discussion on video technology and networking.
Public Service Award:
We honored Harris County Sheriff Deputy Richard Custer, who was accompanied by Lt. Nancy Hennessy and Sgt. D.L.Brown.
On February 5, 2006 at approximately 5:15 p.m., Deputy Custer stopped the driver of vehicle for failing to wear a seatbelt. Deputy Custer was on high alert when he noticed the expression on the driver’s face as he walked toward the car. One person exited the vehicle and attempted to enter a residence carrying a plastic bag and Deputy Custer commanded him to stop, but the subject continued to the door and handed the bag to someone in the house. Deputy Custer detained the individual, recovered the bag and removed all occupants from the house. The bag contained $44,200 in cash and money orders.
Upon arrival of back-up Deputies conducted a consent search of the house and recovered an additional $8275 in cash, along with plastic wrappings with marijuana residue. The volume of plastic wrappings indicated a large scale marijuana distribution operation. The total recovery was $52,400, which is now in drug money seizure proceedings.
Congratulations to Deputy Custer for going the extra mile and being alert, showing bravery by confronting a number of people by himself and following up to make sure the evidence was secured. We presented him with a plaque for outstanding professionalism and service to the community.
PRESENTATION:
Welcoming
remarks: Honorable Joseph Abraham
Israel Consul for Economic Affairs
Speaker: Dennis Storemski
Director of the Mayor’s Office of Public Safety and Homeland Security for the City of Houston
Topic: “Observation of Israeli Security in a Public Setting
Special Guest Speaker: Mr. Rafi Ron
CEO of New Age Security Solutions
Former head of security at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv
Topic: Israeli Experience in the American Environment
We were especially honored to have the Honorable Joseph Abraham introduce both our speakers.
Prior to his position with the Department of Homeland Security, Mr. Storemski spent 38 years with the Houston Police Department, working his way through the ranks to the position of Executive Assistant Chief. His assignments within the police department included patrol, investigations, tactical operations and support coordination. As a member of the HPD Command Staff, he was instrumental in the development of the Special Response Group, Mounted Patrol Detail and the expansion of the SWAT and Hostage Negotiation Teams. He also developed the Emergency Mobilization Plan, instituted training on Weapons of Mass Destruction and involved the department in the Joint Terrorism Task Force. Over the past 20 years, he has coordinated security operations for every major event in Houston, including such notable events as the Republican National Convention, the 1990 Economic Summit of Industrial Nations (G-8), the World Energy Congress and the Super Bowl XXXVIII.
Mr. Storemski made his first official visit to Israel in January 2004 just prior to the Houston Super Bowl. His second visit was February 2006 to hear presentations on Israeli tactics and intelligence gathering from many perspectives: police, military, business, journalism and even the victim of a suicide bombing.
The overall concept is to study the enemy, to understand the personalities of suicide bombers and their backgrounds that provide motivation while learning the ability to predict behavior. Mr. Storemski was impressed by the attitude of the Israeli public. They are under constant threat, yet work at living without intimidation; a “business-as-usual” philosophy. They have learned to tolerate and accept security restrictions as a way of life. One example was a visit to a popular bar that had been recently bombed, then rebuilt. The bar was packed with patrons, refusing to allow the demise of a favored establishment. To visit a mall, cars will be searched and customers screened through metal detectors. Parents instruct their children not to ride the same bus in case it is targeted; then both or all won’t die. Responses to terrorist acts are swift. The scene is usually cleared in four hours and reconstruction is started quickly.
The Israeli’s have a simple approach to law enforcement. Unlike the multiple agencies in America, there is only one police agency divided into six districts. This is supplemented by 76,000 police volunteers. There is a clear delineation between military and the police: military provide enforcement outside the country; police provide enforcement within the country. The Regional Police Director determines the amount of necessary security for every public business, who are then responsible for hiring private security to meet those requirements. Intelligence information, such as a potential bomb threat, is quickly disseminated, even down to the private security guards.
The basic Israeli security concept involves 3 rings of security: day-to-day (being alert to a specific threat), a middle zone (such as a roadblock) and the inner ring (the actual guard). Roadblocks are effective deterrents for suicide bombers as they create traffic jams, causing delay, a pause for the bomber to reconsider his target and potentially an opportunity to catch the bomber. The further from the target you can engage the bomber, the more successfully you will deter the action. You always want to stop them before they enter a building to minimize airborne debris (that’s why you see so many explosions on the sidewalk). Another deterrent is frequent traffic stops and searches. Security guards are trained in behavioral assessments; not how someone looks, but how they act.
This approach does not always work in other cultural environments or even due to legal constraints. We must all build on their experience and then adapt our techniques and approaches.
Mr. Raffi Ron
Mr. Ron is currently the President of New Age Security Solutions, a consulting firm operating from McLean VA. He is the former Director of Security at Tel-Aviv Ben-Gurion International Airport and the Israeli Airport Authority (1997-2001). In his early career, Mr. Ron was a paratrooper officer in the IDF; served as one of the early EL-AL sky marshals; and was Chief Security Officer in Israeli Embassies in various parts of the world. Mr. Ron spent twenty years in the Israeli Prime Minister Office as an operational intelligence and special operations officer and retired at the rank (equiv) of full Colonel.
Mr. Ron started his presentation with a description of an event that happened while he served as Director of Security at the Ben-Gurion International Airport. On a Sunday morning, a regular work day in Israel, he was notified of a potential suicide bomber attack to occur between 11:00-14:00. There is a permanent checkpoint at the entrance of the airport that does random searches. That screening was immediately raised to search every car. It wasn’t long before a very long line of cars developed. In fear of missing their flights, passengers started walking, in the heat, with their luggage; some walking over a mile until they reached the checkpoint. Their response to the officers upon reaching the checkpoint was appreciation and thanks for protecting them. Not the type of response we would expect in America!
Fortunately, the terrorists were captured and later confessed they had observed the routine of the checkpoint and saw that it had changed; so they changed their target. The bottom line is you cannot stop terrorism, you can only divert it.
The overall atmosphere in Israel is a very deep support for any security work at all levels. The Israeli people continue to live their lives under severe, yet secure conditions. The most important value in strategy is to understand the enemy.
Mr. Ron was just completing five years of service at the airport on 9/11/01. He was asked to come to Boston to develop a program for Logan Airport. They were acutely aware that it was a failure in their security procedures that allowed a terrorist to board a plane. At that time, airport management had little input into security measures; it was largely up to the airlines. That immediately changed and Mr. Ron was instrumental in developing a strong, viable secure airport system. Logan Airport wanted to be part of a national reconstruction of airport security and shoulder its share of the responsibility after a national tragedy. Mr. Ron had two requirements:
· That he could look at anything relevant to allow him to identify the threats and vulnerabilities.
· He would have full support to implement changes to allow him to come up with solutions.
Non-security professions often make the decisions without the proper security backgrounds and take shortcuts, thus wasting resources in an unfocused manner. They often do not understand the true threat. The first step at Logan Airport was to look at the organizational structure and how security fit in the chart and able to make decisions. Security had to become the priority over other issues. It became a comprehensive approach, starting with a study of the airport that allowed him to understand cultural and business relationships, as well as the relationship between security agencies in an American environment. Mr. Ron amended and created solutions accordingly to successfully implement these changes. His goal was to have 80% of his recommendations implemented to ensure realistic solutions. These ideas have since been implemented in many airports.
The American environment is much more complicated because of the lack of support for change due to budget needs. There is a difference in the pyramid of hierarchy. In Israel, the airport manager is the top dog. The Security Director also has legal powers. They are the only two assigned responsibility for airport security. Only the proprietary airport security staff provide security; they do not allow anyone else (an outside contractor or the airlines) to fill that function. After 9/11, the FAA imposed security requirements on all the airlines. Israel blocked TWA from complying because they were not acceptable measures for their expectations. TWA was actually fined by the FAA for not complying at the Ben-Gurion Airport, even though they had been prohibited by the Israeli Security. No other agency can dictate policy.
One failure of most security measures is a lack of definition of what we are protecting. Are we trying to protect the airplanes or the airport? Screenings only protect the plane, not the airport. Mr. Ron cited another example where innocent teenage fishermen were forced on the shore of a large airport and they were readily able to walk across the runway towards the terminal. They walked around for two hours trying to figure out how to get inside the building to a phone, when they found a police officer. The airport had just spent $300,000,000 putting in advanced screening devices and the fishermen just walked up to the airplanes undetected.
If you believe you are at risk, you will take precautions; if you minimize the risk, then you increase your peril. Terrorism is not logical and there is no way to be 100% protected; but you can strive to avoid being the “preferred target”. Again, push them further and further out from your boundaries. Try to bring knowledge and experience to benefit security in America; it goes beyond business; it is detection of the problem as far away from the target as possible.
Our honored guest and speakers were presented plaques in appreciation of their time and sharing their expertise.
The next luncheon meeting is on April 20. Our speaker is Matt Silcox CPP, CET. He is the Technology Systems Department Manager for CHPA Consulting Engineers. The topic is “Lighting Choices on Maintenance, Operating Costs and CCTV Performance.”