Visualizing Mass Shootings in America (1982 - 2012)

Click on the map to enlarge

Here's what I like about this infographic. It not only let's you see data by location but also by mental illness, weapons legally acquired, venue, weapon type, race, gender, and year. Be sure to click on the map to enlarge it so you can see the graph.

Take a look at the actual data:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AtIWtgxch7DtdERIVnowSkx4NGRjN3E4UjdWMHNRY3c&output=html

15 Things To Remember To Do When An Adult Goes Missing

A perfect example of what missing person's poster should look like.

When you proclaim to be a "security expert", people can ask you a litany of questions about a variety of security-related topics. They range from the mundane ("Can you tell me what the best lock to buy is for my backyard?") to the more serious. The other day a dear friend asked me about the latter. It's the toughest one to give a lot of good advice on.  However, he was a friend and so I gave him what little advice I thought was helpful. His question was "How can I find a missing adult?". This question is tough for a variety of reasons. One of those reasons is when looking for missing adults, you're doing what I call "chasing a ghost". Sometimes, when adults go missing, they hide better than my preschooler when I say it's time for a nap. Many do this for numerous reasons like drugs, domestic violence, stalkers, divorce, debt, etc. So what happens when you're a legitimate party concerned for their well-being and you need to find them?

1. Call the hospital emergency room. Some hospitals are cool. Others will make life difficult. Actually, that's an understatement. Since the inception of HIPAA, hospitals have treated medical information with higher security protocols than at Area 51. So how do you circumvent the inevitable "I can't tell you that"? Easy. You reply "Can you at least tell me if you have a John/Jane Doe fitting this description?" Be specific and be prepared to go there. You'll need to do this every day until you find your target.
2. Call the morgue. I know it's crappy to do. However, people die without identification sometimes. Our national health records are still woefully behind. So you'll have to call the morgue periodically. Ask them if they had any John/Jane Does fitting the description of your target with clothes you last saw them in. Be specific and be prepared for the worst.
3. Call the jail. It's crappy but it's necessary and realistic. Seriously, you and your spouse fight. They leave and have a beer or more. Cop pulls them over for DUI and he sits in a cell sobering up. Calling you is the last thing on his mind. It happens more than many people will admit. You want the numbers for the county jail and the police department's "lock-up". 
4. Compile a list of email addresses, social media account information, and cell phones used by the missing persons. Law enforcement will ask for this at some point and it's good for your own personal investigation as well. Just remember to forward whatever leads you have to the cops.
5. You need pictures. Find photos from social media, cell phones, cameras, USBs laying around, etc. What you want are FULL FRONTAL (not that frontal) face shots. You want people to see a face and a body as well. The picture should be clear and easily transferable to various media like newsletters, posters, cards, etc.
6. You need these picture ASAP. These are the first things the cops ask for. So have them ready.
7. Make your poster and distribute to places within a 10 mile radius. The poster is easy. Go to an office print shop and tell them what you need. Come back in an hour and you have a missing person poster.  What you want on the poster? Easy. It should resemble a "Wanted" poster. Full face shot with name, nickname, vehicle last seen in, medications needed (people are more prone to look if they know a person could be sick), contact info for you, and any sizable reward money you may have. Distribute this poster at gas stations, convenience stores, drug stores, and fast food places. You'll need to talk to management. That's great because now you can make face-time with the staff who may have seen him as well. Go to bars only if you're comfortable. Here's a link to a really cool template I use on occasion: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_kVE6GaxBZTVXlVDH6PCjOSKooOsADUx_wpkX_EOY84/pub
8. Call their friends and family. Don't just call siblings and parents. Call extended family. Someone may have information but not be able to communicate that to siblings and parents. Treat these people like informants. Vet them and ponder their motivations. Never "burn" them. If they tell you something in confidence, it should remain there. You may need them later.
9. File a stolen vehicle report immediately. Why? Anyone who has ever worked as a police officer will tell you why. It's simple. Cops get briefed at the beginning of their shifts on newly reported stolen vehicles. They love looking for these because they are a guaranteed arrest. So they will be actively looking for our missing person's car. DO THIS ONLY IF YOU OWN THE VEHICLE AS WELL!
10. Physically walk your missing person's steps from the day they went missing back 24 hours. Sounds crazy but investigators do this at crime scenes. This is how the discover new clues they never saw before. Note where they could have gone, what could have caused them to go missing, and who would have saw them.
11. Go through their social media life for the past week and note new acquaintances, stressors, topics and areas of interest, and any place they would have gone before under similar circumstances. You should be looking at check-ins, reviews on favorite eating establishments, sentimental locations, any significant dates (death, divorce, birth), increased communication with certain people, and noted change in tone or attitude.
12. Create a checklist and do this again until you find them. This takes time. A lot of time. Be prepared to revisit these items daily. Annotate any leads in a notepad and revolve your day around following new leads and the checklist. You want to be systematic and thorough. Consider expanding your search on a weekly basis in 5 to 10 mile increments. Pick something that is manageable. Above all, remain calm and be patient.
13. Don't be afraid of the media. Seriously, call the press ASAP. Make your significant other matter to them. Mention veteran status, children, career aspirations, contributions to society, suspicious circumstances as long as they don't sound like a Univision soap opera, etc. Tell the truth. Never lie or embellish. You lie now and when you need them to believe you they won't.
14. Stay on the police and forward any significant leads to them. Let me be clear: "Leads are not significant if you're just calling the cops to tell them they suck". Remember what I said about being patient? You're not the only person who is missing someone. However, call them periodically and get to know who is working the case. Ascertain when you can expect contact from them. Ask them what steps they're taking. You don't want to double your efforts but you do want to close any gaps. If you're not making headway with them, remember everyone has a supervisor.
15. The keys to success in this game are persistence, patience, and diligence.

Lessons Learned By a Security Blogger Whose Office Had Been Burglarized

My office at 9:00 AM. I arrived to hear my office had been broken into over Super Bowl weekend.

There is a certain amount of irony one must acknowledge when his own office has been burglarized soon after posting articles talking about burglaries. Some would call it foreshadowing. I'll call it a great streak of luck. What? Yup. Good luck. Why? Mostly because of the lessons I learned. This wasn't my home office. It was the office where I work. Many times we prepare ourselves for the eventuality of being burglarized at home, but seldom do we think of our work. With that, we'll inherently learn lessons about issues we never considered.  So what did I learn?

1. You need an inventory of all the equipment they issued you at work. This inventory will be much like the inventory for your home but this should also encompass day when you were issued the equipment, number of items, serial numbers, and office responsible for accounting for the gear. Go through this list when you look for missing items.
2. Keep an inventory of personal belongings. Let me be clear: "Personal does not mean your lunch bowl". I'm talking about sentimental and expensive items like your iPad, laptop, DVD player, etc. See the lesson from above to consider what to annotate. You may want to keep this list at home or online. 
3. People will undoubtedly start to go crazy. Most people have never been the victim of a crime, so they often experience shock, sadness, and anger about being a victim. It happens and you could feel the same way. When you feel these emotions, remember people rob businesses and government agencies all the time. Sometimes, there is little you can do to prevent it except pay attention to what countermeasures failed you and which things worked. Then get to work and fix what's broken.
4. People will be tempted to play detective. Listen, it's great that you watched all of Perry Mason and Law and Order. However, you probably won't be able to solve this caper. Becoming distracted with how and why you were victimized, keeps you away from fixing what's broke with your security measures. Remember, the best thing you can do is give law enforcement exactly what they need (any video, scene protection, etc.) and think about what went wrong (did someone not lock a door, did someone not set the alarm, is this an inside job).
5. Protect the crime scene. The first thing people want to do when they hear they've been burglarized is find out what was taken. Sounds great. So you let them walk around and look inside drawers, open filing cabinets,turn on computers, etc.. You see no problem with this. Do me a favor - STOP your coworkers from entering the crime scene until law enforcement says they can. It'll impede operations but save the cops a lot of time in processing the scene.
6. Have a procedure in place. We have mechanisms for setting alarms and responding to false calls but no one ever has a procedure for an actual break-in. It's really simple. Write it out. Who needs to be notified? Who needs to know what? When do you need to call? Where should co-workers report for work? What's the impact on operations if the cops need inside? Who should have alarm codes? Who has a master key? What are your lost key procedures? Where are the list of emergency contacts for employees? The list could go infinitely. You get the idea, though. Make it simple, yet comprehensive.
7. Never assume it was anyone's fault other than the burglars? Seriously, don't be stupid and start blaming people for not setting the alarm. People forget things. The alarm code could be one thing. Let it go and work on who should be able to open and close your office. Opening and closing is a big responsibility. Ensure you're entrusting the code to someone who can deal with this added duty. Ensure the people you authorize are the only people allowed 24 hour access. Trust me. You'll thank me later.
8. After the burglary is not the best time to learn your security system sucks. Be intimately familiar with your system and monitoring station protocols. Don't assume anything with a monitoring station. Their procedures for validating the current security status of your facility could be incompatible to your facility. If your monitoring station calls the second floor about the security status of the third floor for which they have no discernible access, then this could very well be counterproductive.
9. If you share an office building with several other tenants, find out what the existing procedures are for lobby security after-hours. You may want to know why they leave the lobby unlocked during the weekend when no one is there. Just saying.
10. Cameras are WORTHLESS if you don't have someone monitoring them. The American population is in the neighborhood of 300 MILLION people give or take. You can catch these guys on tape and get them put in jail if the cops get them. Go ahead - pat yourself on the back. You did a great deed. Ask your security company what it costs to monitor your cameras. Now you have a 24 hour surveillance system that can track and notify authorities of a threat. If not, then you're giving cops video so they can maybe arrest the perpetrator who will more than likely sell what he took. Don't get me wrong - I LOVE cameras. But I HATE when people claim they "feel safer" because of the new cameras they got put in AFTER a burglary. 
11. Your window adjacent the door will get smashed. Remember what I said about concentrating on fixing crappy security measures? Get that fixed.

That's it for now. I would love to hear your war stories about being burglarized. Please post some of the comment section below.