IASIR Conference Summary: 12/6/11

International Association of Security and Investigative Regulators
(IASIR) Conference Summary
Alexandria, VA 11/1-11/4, 2011

On November 1st through 4th, FASCO representative attended the International Association of Security and Investigative Regulators (IASIR) annual conference in Alexandria, VA to gather information from the various regulating agencies across the US, UAE and Canada. The conference was attended by approximately 60 people consisting of both regulators and industry representatives to include association leaders from various State Associations.

The speakers were mostly Government employees to include the FBI, DOJ, state of VA, IACP and Centre for Counterintelligence & Security Services, Coordinating Council/Pegasus Program so far. It seems like there is a common thread stringing through the government speakers consisting of a realization that Private Security Officers are usually first responders, or first detectors, on scene involving criminal activity or terrorism. There are government programs being created to include Private Security Response.

Our first speaker, Dario O. Marquez, Jr from the VA commission on Military and National Security Facilities/VA Secure Commonwealth Panel indicated that most state emergency response plans do NOT include any involvement by Private Security, yet they are the first to respond. The Federal Government is having local States review the emergency plans with regards to manmade and natural disasters and include Private Security. He was a huge advocate and supporter of Private Security and indicated that we are frequently overlooked for response and expertise in security. Dario’s information will be forwarded later as he ran out of business cards.

Nancy Colb from the IACP spoke on Law Enforcement Use of Social Media for investigations.

Jeremiah Johnson spoke on the Criminal Use of Social Media.

Update on UN Resolution concerning the use of civilian security services. - Peter D’Arcy informed the group that the UN approved the resolution in May of 2010.

Next Generation Identification Program - Brian Edgell from the FBI spoke on the upgrades and changes they are making to the CJIS system. Next Generation Identification Program is the FBI’s new system to replace IAFIS.

Currently LE Departments have small fingerprint capturing devices that are both Bluetooth and USB that the LE Officer can capture a suspects fingerprints right on the scene and upload immediately to the FBI. Within 10 minutes they get a positive ID on the person they have in custody to determine what they are dealing with.
FBI will be extending their repository to palm prints effective 2013.
In 2014 they will begin extending their repository to facial recognition searches and will include scars, marks and tattoos in the search criteria.
There is a program called Universal Face Workstation (UFW) which allows an examiner to edit a photo captured for quality before placing in the repository. Will not be used for positive ID but will be used as a tool for LE investigation.
Eventually the FBI will be utilizing Iris recognition and will include in the repository. The tools are not in place yet to gather Iris prints… A pilot program showed that Iris recognition is as good and accurate as fingerprints.
To get more information on the program visit www.fbi.gov/ha/cjisd/ngi.htm

Leveraging Private Sector Strategies and Resources to Advance Public Safety - Zoe Mentel and Nicole Scalisi presented a program being created from the US DOJ of Community Oriented Policing Initiative (COPS) Office. They provide Federal funding to agencies to strengthen partnerships between public and private sectors. Zoe advised that there are over 400+ free publications offered by their department and they encourage Private Security to utilize their resources. They are constantly analyzing the industry to see how LE can better partner. In 2004 there was a National Summit to partner LE with the Private Sector which was hosted by COPS and IACP.

There is a manual called Operation Partnership Manual which includes a CD. They will be sending us some of their publications. www.lepsc.org.
NC and FL are using more Privates security officers to replace some LE details.
In DC the ratio between Private and Public is 13:1.
They recommended inviting LE agencies to tour our operations (bring to Ops Center to see our organization)
In some areas municipalities are contracting with Security agencies to respond to nuisance and non-lethal calls.

The Threat World Today – David G. Major (Retired FBI – Intelligence/Reagan Era) - Founder and President of The Centre for Counterintelligence & Security Studies and Contributor to the Spy Museum. David reviewed the real threats to information, individuals and facilities. Indicated that the threat of Terrorism is REAL and American’s have their heads in the sand if they think the problem will go away. He reviewed statistics that he and his group follow and monitor. Here are a few statistics he shared:

There have been 115 plots against the USA
284 people arrested
70 out of the 115 plots were single person acting not groups
74 out of 284 people are converts to Islam
average age is 31 years old
199 of the 284 are reported to be citizens of the US or authorized to be in the US.
Only 12 out of 284 people involved in the 115 plots were in the US illegally
Need to stop lumping boarder control with terrorist activity as they are two different issues facing the US.

Spy Information -

Between 1945-2011 349 people were charged as Corporate and Private spy’s. That averages to 5.28 per year. Number includes National, Foreign National, defected, espionage, suicide pending arrest.
Between 2008-2011, 84 individuals were arrested as foreign agents. Extremely high as that reflects 25% of the total number above in the last 4 years.
Terrorism has increased 52.4% in the last 4 years.
125 Economic Espionage arrests since 1996.

David Major’s company hosts an informational website called www.spypedia.net which gives up to date information on all types of intelligence information.

Emergency Services Sector Coordinating Council: Crisis Reentry Initiative (ESSCC) Dennis Kelly Project Executive for Pegasus Program www.lsp.org/lscap.html. Dennis discussed the lack of a standard national protocol for coordinated multi-jurisdictional crisis reentry for critical infrastructure firms. Need for a National program to be created to allow security agencies to move State to State to assist private firms and critical infrastructure locations during disaster situations. NASCO is a member of this group. They are attempting to create a credentialing program to assist with the reentry process. Here are some areas that were discussed:

Issuing PIV-I Smart cards to individuals to reenter. Only issue is that each card is $250 and until the costs come down, this will not be cost effective.
FEMA has a publication called “Building Resilience through Private-Partnerships” and Dennis said it was a great report that came out in 2011.
Discussed creating a joint SOP (ESSCC) template that States can use.
They have created a template for a letter of access and a placard for a vehicle that will assist in credentialing employees to pass through check points to get to areas in need.
Tiered levels of access have been created with this program.
JSOP- National Adoption (working with LE and Associations/Agencies)
Emergency Volunteer Act allows healthcare agencies/workers to go into affected areas which allow their licensing from other states to follow them once they have been pre-approved. Dennis feels that Security should look into inclusion in this Act for emergency reentry. It would work by providing credentials to each State ahead of time so that security agencies are pre-qualified to work in a specific State or States.

If you would like to become member of IASIR, please visit their website at www.iasir.org and join this tremendous networking opportunity.

Below are photos from the Conference: