We are excited to announce that our mobile application WeAware+™ (http://www.weaware.co) has launched and is now live!
Launched during a side event at the Barcelona-hosted GSMA event (http://www.gsma.com/events/mobile-world-congress), we are excited for users to get on the WeAware+™ system! Now you can be aware in your city!
Above, First Deputy Mayor of The Hague, Mrs. Ingrid van Engelshoven and Mr.Martijn van Hoogenhuyze of the Innovation Quarter in The Hague congratulate Mr.Ran Cohen with the launch of WeAware+™ during a side event of the GSMA in Barcelona.
In the aftermath of the recent Paris attacks, people have become increasingly anxious about the possibility for future attacks in their cities and neighborhoods. If situations like the one in Paris occur in other areas, how would we react? And how can we improve our gut responses to stressful situations?
SDR® Academy’s training and methodology is available to all individuals and can be tailored to every environment. The training stresses the importance of heightened awareness of one’s surroundings as the key to prevention of illicit activities. The philosophy focuses on effective prevention rather than reaction to events.
SDR® improves the state of the art of current security and safety training and education. It aims to fill in the voids between security officers and the communities they serve, by improving the ability of these groups to communicate effectively with one another.
SDR®’s new mobile application, WeAware+™ intends to harness the power of the people, while simultaneously improving the safety and security training available to every individual. The application gives every citizen the ability to have SDR® trainings at their fingertips, while also being part of the WeAware+™ mobile community.
The Cloud-based system allows users, through crowdsourced information, to update safety and security information in real-time for their local communities. In crises, such as the one seen in Paris, the WeAware+™ application would enable users on the system to update security alerts on the system, notifying other members of the community about no-go zones, suspicious behaviors they have seen, or incidents in their areas. Not only does WeAware+™ harness the power of the people, but it simultaneously send reports to local law enforcement officials, allowing police and local security officers to have the most current and pertinent information for the areas in which they serve, thereby closing the time gap which is necessary in effective preventive actions.
There is no foolproof way to ensure one’s survival in any given terrorist incident however, with tools and training as provided with SDR® and the WeAware+™ application, we can significantly improve the state of the art and the overall safety environment.
In the wake of the large-scale and coordinated terrorist attacks in #Paris, many people are left wondering, how can we keep ourselves safe?
While there is no sure-fire way to prevent every terrorist attack or actor with malicious intent, one thing is clear – early detection through heightened awareness training can serve as the best tool for prevention.
SDR® Academy trains its clients in a methodology which focuses on effective prevention rather than reaction to particular events. The SDR® training uses behavioral indicators which take into account environmental factors which will influence what the methodology deems as “normal” or “abnormal” behaviors for a given environment. The training is nuanced and most importantly underscores the need for each individual to have heightened awareness of their particular surroundings to better understand what is going on around them.
Through a better understanding of one’s own environment, each individual is able to make a series of decisions and scan an area, taking note of behaviors which may or may not be atypical for a given situation. This training can assist local security officers in identifying actors with the potential for malicious intent during the planning and reconnaissance stages of large-scale attacks. Although the actors in the recent terror attacks may fit a particular profile of radicalization efforts, it is important that our security training mechanisms do not simply profile for one specific actor or characteristic, if we do that, we are sure to miss the potential actors of the future.
Power of the People and Social Media
Recent technological developments and the age of social media where “safety checks” on Facebook are growing to become the norm in the wake of natural disasters or terrorist incidents, highlights the power of the people and of crowdsourcing information.
SDR® Academy is launching a new application called WeAware+™ which will bolster the power of the crowd and help to create a cloud-based system of safety and security information. WeAware+™ will give local citizens the ability to input information onto the system and in real-time notify other users of security threats in their local areas. Not only will alerts go out to local individuals on the app, but local law enforcement agencies will also be monitoring the system and will be ready to act upon any corroborated information. The WeAware+™ application will minimize the gap in the time it takes for information to be disseminated and used by those who need it, and could potentially be the difference between prevention of an event and reaction to one.
Through harnessing the power of the individual and aggregating information onto the system, the application will become stronger with each and every user, simultaneously strengthening the security and safety environment in one’s local area. Furthermore, WeAware+™ will ameliorate the relationship between local communities and the law enforcements officers who serve in their areas. Through blending the resources of security professionals with the heightened awareness of each individual system, WeAware+™ will create a safer and more cohesive security atmosphere for all.
Incidents throughout the United States continue to erode the faith in cities’ policing practices and protocols, and call into question whether the institutional bias against African-Americans can really be remedied. Earlier this month, a 32-year-old black woman, Kamilah Brock, alleged that the New York City Police sent her to a mental hospital and forced powerful drugs upon her simply because of her race.
These incidents in New York are representative of a larger and broader issue that plagues the entire policing system in the United States. Although it cannot be said that every officer acts upon their negative biases, there is certainly an apparent void of effective training that would provide a methodological basis with which to recognize biases, and the operational tools to guide measured and knowledge-based practices.
SDR® trainees learnhow to judge a person’s behaviors and potential threat level in just moments, and come to understand that no two circumstances are the same–there is no singular definition of who a suspect may be. SDR® is a heightened awareness training method based on observing people’s behaviors relative to their surroundings, as opposed to their physical appearance or an officer’s previous personal experiences. SDR® trains individuals to search their surroundings and observe what a state of normalcy consists of in that particular area, to detect people’s adherence to – or deterrence from – normal behavior (for that given area), and to choose the appropriate action.
Most people associate the term security training with the various initiatives taken on by safety and security personnel in efforts to keep specific areas safe. But what about the various initiatives community members can take on in order to keep their entire community safe?
What many people overlook is how vital it is for all individuals to have heightened awareness tools. Last week, the central hall of Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, was evacuated when a suspicious package was discovered in one of the hospital bathrooms. This incident underscores the need for all community members to receive a certain extent of training in order to assist in keeping their environments safe. Not only should security officials be trained to see and understand their surroundings, but so too should the general public, such as the janitorial staff of a hospital, clerks in a mall, a local citizen shopping in their neighborhood grocery store, etc.
SDR® Academy is a proactive security method and philosophy that focuses on effective prevention rather than reaction. SDR® training gives users the tools they need to detect deviant behaviors and illicit intentions before they become harmful actions. The operational tools that make up the SDR® methodology are applicable in any and every environment. SDR® training is not a one-size-fits-all technique; we develop tailor-made training programs for each client. The constant that SDR® training delivers to all clients, is the ability to heighten human awareness. Awareness is the key to prevention, whether on the part of hospital staff members, a local citizen walking in their neighborhood, or a security officer monitoring a crowd. SDR® brings the ability to better understand one’s surroundings and what constitutes normal or abnormal behaviors in any given environment. Making this training universal will only serve to improve how we respond and attend to potential security threats in the future.
Six key themes emerged regarding the police response during the first wave of the protests:
Inconsistent leadership
Failure to understand endemic problems in the community
A reactive rather than proactive strategy
Inadequate communication and information sharing
Use of ineffective and inappropriate strategies and tactics
Lack of law enforcement response continuity
Ferguson riots, August 2014.
The report details 48 findings and reviews more than 100 lessons learned as a result of the findings. The importance of these findings and the lessons learned should weigh heavily on law enforcement agencies throughout the United States. The memory of the fatal shooting of Michael Brown last summer, and the many similar incidents since, still resonates acutely throughout the United States. Unrest on the anniversary of the events in Ferguson resurfaced and again pushed the issues between local law enforcement and the communities in which they serve to the forefront of the news.
HOW CAN WE FIX WHAT IS BROKEN?
The national implications are amongst the most important considerations contained in the report. “History informs that a critical incident can happen anywhere and at any time. With this knowledge, law enforcement must always remember that the ability to respond to an incident effectively is formulated long before an incident occurs through investments in leadership, community engagement, training, and communication. Ferguson is a vivid reminder that law enforcement agencies must continually analyze their policing practices in relation to the communities they serve” (xxii, “After-Action Assessment of the Police Response to the August 2014 Demonstrations in Ferguson, Missouri”).
Remedying the mistakes of the past requires local safety, security, and policing agencies to address the findings of this after-action report and truly analyze their practices. SDR® Academy’s methodology and trainings address many of the key themes presented in the Ferguson report.
Furthermore, SDR® focuses on proactive prevention of – rather than reaction to – harmful events and security threats. Proactive prevention in the SDR® methodology and training highlights the importance of making knowledge-based decisions rather than simply relying on pre-emptive measures that often rely on knee-jerk reactions (often influenced by individuals’ biases). The unique operational tools learned through SDR® training allow trainees to better understand human behaviors, focusing on behavioral abnormalities and therefore inherently negating ethnic profiling. In this way, SDR® is working towards bridging the gap between conventional policing and the communities these agencies serve. Proper training of students how to differentiate between actionable behaviors and innocuous ones is at the core of SDR®.
By restoring the trust between the community and the local police force, SDR® also promotes social cohesion, ameliorating the overall safety environment in a given area. The population must feel that they can turn to their local law enforcement without fear of bias, trusting them to act according to ethical guidelines and local laws, procedures, and protocols.
In the wake of Ferguson and other similar events that transpired this year, policing practices need to change. They must incorporate the findings of the after-action report recently released, and perhaps look to incorporate new trainings and procedures to improve the state of the art.
How Civilian Awareness and Participation Can Help Save Lives
While the young Americans who likely saved the lives of the other passengers aboard their train had American military experience and therefore likely having heightened security training, every individual can learn to train their sense of awareness, no matter their background or environment.
SDR® Academy brings the WeAware+™ Application to the market, giving users an innovative new way to access security and awareness training right at their fingertips. WeAware+™ and SDR® training give users the ability to search for abnormalities in their environment and report what they see into the WeAware+™ system. Early detection can lead to prevention, which is the key tenant of SDR’s safety and security training methodology. The civilian population can check and input information into WeAware+™, thereby becoming active participants in their own safety. Users can log onto the virtual cloud and access alerts, reporting, and safety tips for their given location. The more users there are on the system, the stronger the cloud of information becomes, enhancing overall awareness and up-to-date reporting for specific areas. Mass local reporting allows updates and new information to appear in a matter of seconds, not only alerting other WeAware+™ users, but also connecting with local authorities, breeding social cohesion between security officials and the local communities in which they serve.
Civilian participation in safety through heightened awareness can lead to prevention of future security incidents. By simply being more aware of our surroundings we can help keep ourselves and others out of harm’s way.
Mistakes should be part of the security training process, not a detriment to it. The SDR® training model includes frequently challenging personnel with on-the-job training exercises, including Red Team exercises, so that identifying problems early-on and applying solutions is a continual part of the process. Testing, and therefore consistent improvement, is part of both the SDR training process and operational activities. When testing is too intermittent, organizations run the risk of identifying problems too late when they may already be too deep-rooted, or the mistakes may already be too systematic. Recent revelations regarding security screening processes at airports highlight the need for stronger training protocols and more effective methods of keeping security personnel aware throughout the entirety of their shifts. This includes having Red Team exercises and other kinds of testing embedded as part of the security procedures and protocols, rather than only occurring periodically. The issue facing current security screeners in airports is not that the existing mechanisms are entirely faulty, but rather that the nuances of the training need to be reexamined and strengthened.
SDR® can improve the state of the art as it presents a whole new outlook, both in security methods and philosophy, offering more than a checklist of signs for security officers to memorize. The importance of proper and thorough training is essential for successful security programs. Not only must security officers be trained to have heightened awareness, but they also need a better understanding of situational factors, which could alter the manner in which they process what they see. Behavioral approaches to security are effective, it is important however, that the execution of these processes are bolstered by proper training and more nuanced protocols.
SDR offers unique operational tools and techniques that allow officers to see the bigger picture in their environments. It allows trainees a wider scope of vision, broadening the picture they see and negating the tunnel vision that may otherwise occur when looking for specific characteristics on a checklist. SDR gives security officers the tools they need to better understand and process their security protocols. SDR additionally, inherently expedites airport procedures, by negating ethnic profiling, which can otherwise slow down the process of filtering through travelers as they enter airport security. SDR training allows officers to focus on the behaviors which stand out from the normal for the given environment, rather than overwhelming officers through scanning the crowd for particular characteristics.
The TSA’s Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques (SPOT), has been problematic from the program’s inception in 2007. Reports surfaced which indicated there was a lack of science supporting the program’s efficacy and that similar hit rates could be achieved “if they flipped a coin.”
While the SPOT program remains difficult to measure – the intentions of the program are worthwhile – looking for possible suspicious behaviors which could indicate malicious intent. Where the program fails is in its nuanced approach to interpreting the behaviors being seen by security officials, and the lack of proper training for the specifically trained officers, known as Behavior Detection Officers.
SDR® gives security training to security personnel and beyond, in a manner which allows for nuanced protocols and tailor-made programming depending on a given environment during a specific time. Environments fluctuate depending on time of day, cultural norms, and legal guidelines of the community, and the security protocols and detection systems should reflect these details. SDR equips trainees with the necessary tools to better read their environments and understand their surroundings, leading to knowledge-based decisions, rather than a flagged checklist of “abnormal behaviors,” which force officers to find a suspect.
Vernā Myers’ TED Talk from November 2014 pushes us to identify our biases and take control of them. She challenges us to try 3 things:
1). Get out of denial. The mentality that “we don’t have a biased bone in our body” is just something we tell ourselves to feel good. We all possess implicit biases and the first step is understanding this to be true.
2). Move toward young black men, instead of away from them. Myers tells us to walk toward our discomfort. How can we change the institutions of society if we continue to feed into our stereotypes and discomfort? We should make ourselves go deeper – see the person in a more complete way, not just for the color of their skin.
3). Ending biases. Why don’t biases die? We can only begin to end biases by teaching older generations that their stereotypes have no place in daily discussions and we teach our children that racism is not acceptable.
Myers’ talk is aimed toward pushing the audience to be part of the forces of change which stand up against racism. Changing our implicit associations of black men from negative associations, to positive ones.
How Can SDR Training Help Counteract These Implicit Biases?
What makes SDR® training so unique is its foundation in the notion that heightened awareness leads to prevention, and that prevention is the key to effectively keeping people safe. The SDR proactive approach means that all measures are taken with the goal of preventing crimes or terrorist actions before the event occurs. As SDR awareness relies on behavioral indicators and analysis to identify threats, the program and training actually negates ethnic profiling practices in those using it.
SDR training gives trainees the nuanced tools to better understand their surroundings and to make knowledge-based decisions. The SDR program enables users to recognize cases of potential violence, public disorder, illicit activities or lethal attacks, based on the training the program provides through behavioral analysis. SDR inherently negates ethnic profiling as the training teaches to look for abnormal behaviors rather than suspects.
SDR prevents illicit activities from minor crime to large-scale attacks by searching for abnormalities. Unique SDR operational tools such as the Bar of Normality®, the Artificial Gut Feeling®, and the SDR Fishnet Matrix® embolden trainees with an understanding of human behavior that allows them to detect deviant behavior in varying environments.
Taking Myers’ 3-step advice to “walk boldly toward” our biases can serve the purpose of diminishing the power of bias in our lives and straying from coloring our judgments in the future. SDR training can further enhance our ability to more effectively search for abnormalities rather than suspects, and give citizens the right to be able to approach their law enforcement officials or peers for help, without fear of bias.
RAN COHEN 