IAPSC Conference Super Early Registration Special and Travel Expense Raffle

The IAPSC Conference Committee is pleased to announce:

SUPER EARLY REGISTRATION SPECIAL AND TRAVEL EXPENSES RAFFLE

Register for the 2009 Annual Conference in Palm Springs by December 31, 2008 and save $200.

Normal registration – $495
Before December 31, 2008 – $295 – Savings of $200

There will be a raffle for $400 for travel expenses. All those who have registered by December 31, 2008 will be put in a drawing. The winner will receive $400 for travel expenses. The drawing will take place on Monday, January 5th, 2009.

Cancellations must be received in writing no later than January 31, 2009. Refunds will not be issued for cancellation requests received after January 31, 2009.

Click here for more info

Get registered by December 31, 2008 and stay tuned for the results of the raffle!

IAPSC Member Ralph Witherspoon on the Forensic Methodology

Click here to read the article at Security Info Watch

IAPSC 25th Anniversary Conference Details Announced….

IAPSC’s 25th Anniversary Conference

Forensic Methodology

IAPSC publishes updated Forensic Methodology…..

IAPSC Best Practices

IAPSC Group on LinkedIn

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=726057

Crime reduction effects of public CCTV cameras

Between July 2006 and November 2006 the City of Philadelphia installed 18 CCTV cameras at various locations in the city. Two types of cameras were installed. Phases I and II saw the installation of 10 police monitored cameras at four locations. These cameras are monitored by Philadelphia Police Department (PPD) officers, and have the capacity to pan, tilt and zoom (PTZ). Phase III took place during November 2006 and saw the installation of a total of 8 PODSS cameras at 8 locations in the city. These cameras are not monitored at police headquarters, but officers can monitor video feeds wirelessly from within patrol cars in the vicinity of a camera. Furthermore the PODSS cameras record the street scene continuously on a digital hard drive. If a crime is known or suspected to have been committed within the view of a camera, police officers retrieve the hard drive manually from the camera and review the recording.

The evaluation suggests that while there appears to be a general benefit to the cameras, there were as many sites that showed no benefit of camera presence as there were locations with a noticeable impact on crime. Discussions with police commanders and camera operators may explain the disparity between the various sites. An in depth study of the dynamics of individual camera locations and the arrest patterns at these sites may also explain the findings. These conversations and research will inform a greater understanding of the best locations to place cameras, and potentially help the city get a better cost benefit return on the city’s future investment by deploying forthcoming cameras in locations that provide the best potential crime prevention benefit.

Read the Philadelphia CCTV Study

Organized Retail Crime Legislation

H.R. 6491, the Organized Retail Crime Act of 2008 was introduced on July 15, 2008 by Representative Brad Ellsworth, D-Ind., with Representative Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, as the lead co-sponsor. The bill would define organized retail crime as “the acquiring of retail merchandise by illegal means for the purpose of reselling the items” and make such activity – including transportation, sale or receipt of stolen retail goods, – a federal crime.

Read the National Retail Federation’s press release regarding this important piece of legislation.

- Curtis Baillie, Security Consulting Strategies, LLC

Campus Violence Prevention and Response

Campus Violence Prevention and Response: Best Practices for Massachusetts Higher Education, prepared by the consulting group Applied Risk Management, LLC. The study focuses on prevention and multi-departmental cooperation in ensuring the safety and security of students, faculty, and staff at any institution of higher education.

• Campus Violence Prevention and Response Report  (.PDF)

- Bruce Harman 

The #1 Reason to Ditch Your Stripcut Shredder

by Kevin D. Murray, CPP “Unshredding” shredded documents is nothing new. Our client family has been hearing this warning from me for over 30 years now.Reconstruction can be accomplished by hand; most notably, when the Iranians took over the American Embassy in Tehran around 1980 (example).

 

 

 

What is news is that the once defunct web site unshredder.com is back, with new owners, and a new product.Once a back-room government parlor trick, computer automated document reconstruction is now available to the general public!

Cost…
• $90. for a one month trial.
• $950. per year, per computer.
Each license includes 100 free paper trays (one time use only), about $1. per scan thereafter.

Recommendations…
Ditch every stripcut (and partial stripcut) shredder in your company. They do not provide adequate business-level information security. Use crosscut, particle-cut or pulping shredders. Alert your Purchasing Department… “No more crummy stripcut shredders!”

Resources…
• “How to Choose A Shredder” – Dahle
(Hint: Crosscut not Stripcut. Always.)
• Lynde-Ordway
• ABCO Office Solutions
• Advantage Business Equipment
• Allegheny Paper Shredders
• Ameri-Shred
• Capital Shredder Corp
• Cummins Allison Corporation
• Dahle USA
• ECCO Business Systems
• Fellowes Manufacturing Company
• GBC Shredmaster Factory Direct
• Ideal
• Industrial Paper Shredders, Inc.
• Intimus Paper Shredders
• MBM Corporation (Destroyit)
• Security Engineered Machinery
• Somat Corporation (pulping shredders)
• Whitaker Brothers
• General search (Yahoo)

Bulk wastepaper destruction companies serving your area…
• The National Association for Information Destruction, Inc.
(Search “Certified Members”)

More shredding tips here.

Retailers – Protect Your Assets

Curtis Baillie, CSC

 

The U. S. Department of Commerce reports that small businesses are 35 times more likely to become targets of criminal activity than businesses with revenues over $5 million. That includes most of us small business owners.           

 The old adage. “People don’t plan to fail, they fail to plan” certainly holds true when it comes to small business success. The failure rate for new business ventures seems to be around 70% to 80% in the first year and only about one-half of those who survive the first year will remain in business the next five years. (Small Business Association). 

 

A major factor in small business failures is owners fail to establish sound, working policies and programs designed to protect their assets. Failure to properly address the threat of crimes against your business may very well set you up for failure. In my consulting practice, I collaborate with small retailers who often are not big enough to hire their own in-house loss prevention or security staff. One of the topics that most always comes to the forefront is employee theft. Read the entire article.