Cultural security

I was traveling through Qatar last weekend on my way to India. As we went through a security checkpoint, I noticed that they seemed far more relaxed than I had expereinced in other cities and countries. For instance, they did not appear to be the least bit concerned by the fact that we might have had liquids in our unchecked baggage. Neither did they care if we removed shoes and belts.

I found it even more laid back traveling from Riyadh to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia two weeks ago. I watched those going before me and saw that they seemingly could carry anything and just get a slight wanding by security. I decided to test the system. I left metal pens, glasses, belts and shoes all on. An American who was going through behind me was more politically correct. He started to empty out everything. Security kept shaking his head saying "no" and waving him through the metal detector. Of course I set off the detector which rang like a Las Vegas slot machine hitting the jackpot. As I arrived on the other side, the security person barely touched my sides, then looked at the person behind me, smiling and saying "good" as he pointed to me.

I did hear that they profile and maybe that is the reason. Let's hope so. Of course this is only a guidline until such time as a John "The American Taliban" Walker Lindh type tries to bring something prohibited through and gets arrested.

Well, let's hope he gets arrested.

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Cultural security

I was traveling through Qatar last weekend on my way to India. As we went through a security checkpoint, I noticed that they seemed far more relaxed than I had experienced in other cities and countries. For instance, they did not appear to be the least bit concerned by the fact that we might have had liquids in our unchecked baggage. Neither did they care if we removed shoes and belts.

I found it even more laid back traveling from Riyadh to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia two weeks ago. I watched those going before me and saw that they seemingly could carry anything and just get a slight wanding by security. I decided to test the system. I left metal pens, glasses, belts and shoes all on. An American who was going through behind me was more politically correct. He started to empty out everything. Security kept shaking his head saying "no" and waving him through the metal detector. Of course I set off the detector which rang like a Las Vegas slot machine hitting the jackpot. As I arrived on the other side, the security person barely touched my sides, then looked at the person behind me, smiling and saying "good" as he pointed to me.

I did hear that they profile and maybe that is the reason. Let's hope so. Of course this is only a guidline until such time as a "Johnnie Walker Lynn" type tries to bring something prohibited through and gets arrested.

Well, let's hope he gets arrested.

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Do you know Who your workers are?

It used to be that potential clients would call us up to help them discover what their employees did during work hours. It would make very interesting reading if I were to put some of these stories into a book. For instance, we conducted surveillance on one senior employee a couple of years ago and discovered that he spent approx. 10 hours a day going around visiting women who appeared to be his mistresses. It was actually a full time job for him. Needless to say, once we brought back the video evidence to the client, he lost his "full time" job - and the company vehicle.

I was watching "Cavuto's World" on Fox television last night and Neil Cavuto was speaking about a Bill that might be passed in Michigan that would fine hotel and restaurant owners very heavily for hiring illegal workers. A gentleman from the hospitality industry was complaining that this was a Federal responsibility and should not be determined by the State. Mr. Cavuto was quick to point out that the Federal Government had "dropped the ball" on this and most likely it would be resolved at the State level in the future.

This to me is just another example of why it is a good business practice to know who is working for you. Every company should be conducting background checks. There have been countless cases where people have been hurt and killed by a company employee and the company gets sued for millions of dollars when it transpires that the employee had previous convictions for the same thing.

As an employer it is very important to know where your employees are, but before you ask that, you should be asking yourself; "do I really know Who my employees are?"

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Security similarities around the world

I began to write this in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

I thought that I would try to get a wireless connection and post it before I left, but I could not get a connection at the airport before flying on to Dubai. I didn’t have a chance to try at Dubai since the flight to New York was scheduled to depart only twenty five minutes after our flight touched down. Now I’m sitting at JFK airport once again trying without any luck. Modern technology is wonderful, but you can not always set your watch by it.

Having traveled around the U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia for the past 2 weeks, I discovered that absolutely everywhere has their fair share of security problems and concerns. I had thought that security would be so tight around the Middle East that there would be no holes in the system. I went there to do business, but down deep I wondered if there was anything that we could show or teach them about security.

Even though our two societies are so different in many ways; dress, language, religion, weather, politics, etc., we both have some similar problems in common when it comes to security. For instance, training is a definite issue. They realize that their people have to be better trained and to act more professional, but this is difficult without any formal regulations in place.

A business man in Saudi Arabia who owns a security company, along with several dozen other companies, spoke about how difficult it was to retain security officers. He was frustrated by having to constantly hire officers as a result of firing and resignations. I think he was surprised to learn that security business owners in the U.S. face the same problem. He was very open to my suggestion that part of the solution involved implementing a higher standard of training.

It is ironic that I traveled to the other side of the world and the message that I brought was the same that I speak of day in and day out back here in the States. You can not expect a stellar performance from people who are not properly trained, adequately paid and made to feel that they are necessary contributors to society. Security officers are no different to any other employee who wishes to be viewed as a professional and treated with dignity and respect.

Unfortunately, many times it is clients themselves who are to be blame for lowering the standards. Many companies who hire security officers feel that they can get away with paying low wages. This forces companies to cut their rate and get into “bidding wars” with each other. In order to scrape a minimal profit they in turn are forced to hire employees who are poorly (if at all) trained and who will leave the employment without notice if they find another company willing to pay $0.50 an hour more.

Clients would be well advised to remember the old adage; “you get what you pay for”.

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There seems to be no getting away from the Blackwater story

I arrived in the U.A.E. last weekend to investigate the possibility of opening an office here to make it easier for clients with needs in the region. By all accounts, the economic growth in places like Dubai and Abu Dhabi is quite impressive. I was attending a CEO club dinner in Dubai on Monday night when an ex-patriate businessman asked me how we were different from Blackwater.

It was both a good and bad question to be asked, thousands of miles from home. If you believe the old adage: "there's no such thing as bad publicity", you might think that Blackwater is benefitting from all of the publicity. However, I could see in this man's face that he had his own views about that company and I did not get the feeling that they were very supportive.

Then I remembered making a mental note of a headline I had read just before I left but did not have the time to write about it. The headline read; "U.S. offers cash to victims in Blackwater incident". As far as I am concerned this is the last straw. Apparently the U.S. embassy has seen fit to offer sums of $12,500 to the mourning families. Firstly, this is of course a paltry amount by any standards. What I want to know is: why is the U.S. embassy taking it upon themselves to use tax payer's money when the company in the middle of all of this has profited by hundreds of millions of dollars in Iraq?

Why should we, as tax payers, suffer when we did not profit or do anything wrong? It would have cost the owner of the company nothing to have issued an apology and it could have been done in a way so as not to appear as if he was accepting blame. Although I think there is very little chance of that happening unless he hires some some high-powered PR firm and they convince him that it is good for his reputation and business. Another step he could have taken would be to offer the families an interim payment to help them bury their relatives and ease the burden on the surviving family members. Maybe then the people over there would not hate Americans as much as they must do now.

I for one do not agree with subsidizing Eric Prince's company as they reap huge financial rewards. I do not know how many people are aware of this development (that only made it on to page 19 of the Washington Post) but I think all tax payers should speak out and let the Government know that we do not want to be taken for fools.

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