SubscribeSearch; as the term suggests is generally only used when there is an identified need to find an item or items - misplaced car keys, missing persons or the urgent location of a suspect device in an emergency situation.
Searches can be undertaken in any environment as long as the right planning and preparation are undertaken, and this planning is vital to success.
Reconnaissance
Background data and intelligence. Gather as much information as is available to you, even if at first glance it appears insignificant. Intelligence has value before, during and after a search.
Photography. Similarly, use photography to document all phases and aspects of your search.
This can be vital for evidential purposes and it can also be invaluable for forensics in recreating a search scene, seeing how pieces of evidence interconnect and relate to each other. It can also be helpful in defending yourself against malicious prosecution or accusation of incorrect or illegal search.
Plans. If you can find original architectural plans you can systematically comb a search area. Even if plans aren’t available, they should be drawn up as you go; this will help you to identify large voids or false partition walls in a building, as well as making sure the search itself is thorough and complete. Security Risk Assessment.
Consider the consequences of your actions. Think about the consequences of evacuation without search and compare them with the potential risks associated with pushing ahead with the search. The instinct to find and prevent can often lead to rash decision-making.
Planning
Before commissioning or undertaking a search, make sure that you’ve got the planning right. This phase of the process becomes considerably quicker with experience, as the inventory of requirements becomes habitual. Think about the:
- Equipment Required
- Manpower Required
- Time available and space involved
- Different tools and techniques needed for a day or a night search
- ·and don’t forget Health & Safety
Completion
During and after the search it’s important to maintain the audit trail. Get full reports and get them early.
- Full and comprehensive reports
- Document any changes (or recommendations for changes) to operating procedures.
At this point, it’s well worth considering whether time, money and stress could be saved if prior intelligence work had been completed, and whether this kind of investment is worth making in the future.
The fact is that search has value beyond its reactive role of ‘finding’. Make search proactive and it becomes ‘intelligence gathering’, especially when conducted by properly trained, well-equipped professionals. Use search on, say, a weekly or monthly basis to prevent loss or intrusion, and it needn’t be excessively expensive – most competent security staff can be trained to conduct effective searches, so the human resources may well already be in place.
Documentation of search and the correct reporting of the search results should be written into the Assignment Instructions, along with timelines. This is valuable information that could be used in any threat assessment or threat survey that may be required prior to any visit or event or just as a routine best practice for your security strategy.
The key point to understand is this: if there’s capacity in the security team to conduct searches; use it. Very often, when search is used reactively, it’s already costing you money – most searches take place in the overall context of an evacuated building or locale, and in commercial terms, this is shut-down. Search tools and personnel include:
- X-Ray operators, dogs.
- Passive or active explosive or narcotics detection. Dependant on the situation this could
- involve body searching or tracking.
- Particulate detection of explosives or narcotics
- Fibre-optic cameras, x-ray machines, under-chassis mirrors, etc.
Each organisation’s risk profile is subtly different, but in most there are identifiable risks that can be mitigated (either in deterrent, detection or evidence) by search. The systematic use of search as an effective tool to aid in the assimilation of intelligence at any given location can assist in any business continuity plan in the form of safety planning for the workforce and peace of mind for managers.
The end point of this discussion is simple. If you are not using search, then you are ignoring a tremendously effective tool in the corporate security armoury. Search is far more sophisticated than your HR policy will allow – if you fear impinging on the rights of your staff, visitor and stakeholders to such an extent that you steer clear of the subject altogether, then you are most likely doing your business a disservice.
Search doesn’t have to have a negative impact on the basic rights of your employees. Consider what commercial secrets are aired in your company’s board meetings. Does a fingertip search of the boardroom impinge on basic freedoms? And yet a surveillance device that sits undetected beneath the desk could cost you millions.
Search is a much misunderstood tool, and much underestimated too. Think about search again. You might find something that interests you!
Article drafted by Michael Allen (special operations manager), and Tim Whitfield (group sales and marketing director), ISS Security Group, www.iss.co.uk, tel: 01628 667545