"Whatever houses I may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all intentional injustice, of all mischief…" – thus is written in the oath of Hippocrates, an oath that has been used for centuries to define the ethics of doctors. If the English police are correct in suspecting a number of foreign-born doctors of last Friday's car bombs and Saturday's attack on the Glasgow airport, we enter a fearful time when those who promise to do no harm become potential terrorists.
If the current suspects are indeed the perpetrators, then our mindset of what a terrorist is will be significantly changed. Terrorists will no longer be seen as those social and economic outsiders filled with frustration for a world which doesn't seem to fit them. Rather, we enter a time when the well-educated and well-paid become vehicles for murder. Additionally, we have to look at our accessibility to terrorists. It was reported today that two of the suspects had started the process for applying to work in the United States. Our problems with protecting our nation from terrorism are compounded by a swiftly changing profile. One of the suspects had no criminal record and even close family didn't peg him for a terrorist. He was, I suppose, exactly the kind of man who could have been accepted into the U.S. medical community…
Hardening Soft Targets
Securing L.A. clubs, and a Vegas casino shooting
Early this morning, it is believed that a Las Vegas man fired multiple shots into the casino floor at the New York-New York casino floor, wounding four persons before being apprehended. From news reports coming out of Las Vegas, the man was on a walkway above the casino floor that connected to another facility when he began firing.
In similar soft target news this week, police focused on security of the LA nightlife, following the finding of potential car bombs near London clubs. While police did not indicate that clubs in Los Angeles had been targeted or that threats had been made, the soft target nature of such facilities prompted reviews of such facilities. Part of the solution was that the LAPD made contact with private security firms operating at those clubs, expanding a public-private partnership needed to raise the level of awareness.
New Event in Music City USA
NBFAA and CSAA team up to bring technology event to alarm, security and monitoring businesses
From marketing and training events, to vendor-dealer conventions, monthly association meetings and national-level tradeshows, there are plenty chances to be out of the office in our industry. Good security business owners have to balance the need to attend tradeshows with the day-to-day efforts to run their businesses, so it helps if the events are truly tailored to what they need. Enter the NBFAA and the CSAA which announced a partnership this week with event-management firm EH Events to create the 2008 Electronic Security Expo. The Electronic Security Expo is scheduled for late June next year in Nashville, Tenn. (bring your boots and love of slide steel guitar), and is designed to give a strong focus on the traditional alarm, security and monitoring businesses, and at the same time serve as a meeting place of sort for the association members. According to a statement from event organizers, the show promises to be heavily technology-driven, especially as far as expanding into integrated systems and networked security platforms. Our read on this: As other shows become more broad in their scope, the security alarm community needs an event tailored to them, where they can see a reasonable number of exhibits from companies that are actually in the standard security integrator market.
More Security News Making Deadlines
Distribution deals; ramping up courthouse security
New distribution deals were inked this week. AVAD will be dealing MIDLITE's low-voltage installation products, and CCTV distributor Northern Video is picking up the products of analytics firm ioimage. UTC Fire & Security continued its expansion, acquiring two integration firms in Asia, and completing its acquisition of Initial Electronic Security Group from Rentokil. A new public-private anti-crime partnership in Florida has been created to link apartment management and security with local police near Tampa. Courthouses continue to ramp up security procedures, with more and more of them turning to staffed access points with metal detection as well as access control identity badges. That trend continued this week with announcements of pushes toward higher security at courthouses in Howard Co., Ind., and Franklin Co., Wash.
Finally, we close with a look at our most read stories of the week:
