Virtual Fence Prototype...going...going..gone

According to Security Management, DHS is dismantling its prototype virtual fence. If you remember, the GAO told Congress the $20 million project was not completely functional or effective. According to the report, sensors gave false positives on wildlife and debris and the system was slow at catching some illegal crossers.

The virtual fence project is an $8 billion Secure Border Initiative, called SBInet, which aims to harden the nation's border by networking traditional barriers, vehicles, sensors and agents.

Although controversial, DHS is still proclaiming this was just a prototype and heralded its assistance in over 3,000 captures.

School Riot

Los Angeles is beginning to look like something from a strange pseudo-science fiction novel set in what was thought to be a distant future. It appears yesterday there a riot at high school involving over 600 students. The riot began when two graffiti gangs set a pre-arranged fight (sort of "old school"). Things of course turned ugly as the two gangs involved were Black and Hispanic gangs.

If you're not aware of the current racial climate in L.A. between Black and Hispanics, I'll fit you in. A Hispanic prison gang leader in California sought to cut his competition - a black prison gang out of the drug market. This of course spilled onto the streets with the leaders proclaiming war on any person of the opposite race. This war has caused the death of countless innocent and not-so innocent people. Most of the folks behind this have been arrested but the animosity still exists.

This riot caused a tremendous headache for security staff as they had to scramble from one fight to another. You see the same sort of chaos being attempted in prison settings. This is why security personnel need to be trained to quell such incidents immediately or else it can and will spread throughout the school.

I suspect we haven't seen the last of such incidents in cities like L.A.. While most of these problems can be caused socio-economic perpetrators such as poverty and urban flight, I'm sure incidents such as this can be prevented with active and innovative school security techniques. If I could recommend a course of action for such institutions, I would have them look at a few areas to possibly improve on:

1. Design of your facilities. Fights and riots inside schools often occur in the same manner they do in prisons. They're usually not in the immediate sight of administrators and security personnel. Construct student congregation areas so administrators and security have the ability to rapidly respond to situations. You may wnat to look at ways to lock down an area where things could flare up once the incident is underway (cafeterias are prime spots to lock down or have students relocate from).
2. Evacuation plans. You may want to look at your current evacuation plans. Are students who don't get along (gang members) being forced to relocate with folks they have a certain social imperative to hate (gang war or "beef" as it's more commonly known)?
3. Training. Are your staff trained to recognize certain critical indicators of trouble? Can they recognize key gang signals? How about a recent change in gang graffiti throughout the school? Gangs will often try to "mark" over another gang's territory to "claim" it as their own.

Goods guys finidng it harder to catch a flight

I don't know about these guys but I would be pissed. I found a rather interesting article form Security Management which talks about a major problem with the "Don't Fly List" - some US Air Marshals are on it. I'm sorry, but this just goes to show how such lists can be truly ineffective on a lot of different fronts. If you're trying to make people feel safer with such a list, then when mistakes like this happen, they can't help but feel the direct opposite. If you can't get the good guys on the plane, then who's on the plane to fight off the bad guys. I know passengers are much more ready to be heroes now, but the hijackers prepared themselves for what would happen should the passengers have fought back. we know those contingencies worked in two out of three scenarios. Well, airline pilots have shown their ability to safely handle firearms aboard aircraft. The Security Management article can be found here.