DIY Investigation Gone Wrong!

A quick search of the internet can result in numerous tips on how to fix, repair or build things on your own – DIY. There are even entire websites dedicated to avid 'do-it-yourselfers'.

However, some issues should be left to the professionals. Complex investigations are one. Especially when it involves school kids and sexual assault.

A school district in Alabama is facing a lawsuit after setting up a 14-year old girl to catch a suspected rapist. The girl, described as a special needs student, complained to teachers about advances made by another student. The male student had a long history of complaints, but the school had not been able to prove the allegations.

The girl was told to pretend to go along with the male and that teachers would be hidden nearby and intervene and catch him red-handed. However, the male took the girl to a different location, in another part of the school. She tried to stall, but eventually was raped by the male.

From the news story, this was a horrible event, largely because it should never have happened. Worse, the suspect was not prosecuted as the victim would not talk about the attack. There was clear evidence of injury, but the responding police officer did not pursue the case as there was no way to tell if it was consensual or not without her statement.  

So what are the lessons learned?

1.     Never put the victim or a potential victim in harm’s way. This ‘set up’ was not well planned and there was no contingency for things going wrong and in real life, things do go wrong. Always have a back-up plan. A trained police officer going into this type of situation, such as pretending to be a prostitute, would have had back-up plans, microphones and been under supervision from back-up from beginning to end of the investigation.

2.    Understand the legal system. The way the news article describes the incident, the girl was instructed to go along with the suspect. His legal argument would then be that he thought his actions were with a consenting partner and even though ‘caught in the act’ there would have been no criminal charges.

3.    Look at alternatives. The faculty was so desperate to substantiate claims against the suspect; it seems no one stopped to think about how else that could have been done. Substantiating a complaint could have been done through witness interviews. Interviewers should have looked for inconsistencies in the suspect’s story, as one example.

4.    Include professionals. Local police should have been involved in the investigation. If police were reluctant, then the school could have brought in trained investigators or run the investigation plan past the local police.

DIY may be a great way to approach home repairs, but it is too risky when it comes to putting schoolchildren in harm’s way.

Learn self-defense for your business with Eric Smith’s new book, Workplace Security Essentials! Every aspect of protecting a workplace is compared to a self-defense skill taught to budding karate students, all in a practical and entertaining style, drawing on Eric’s law enforcement and security experience.

 

Eric is available for staff education and security awareness training as well as business coaching to help organizations provide safe workplaces. To learn more email Eric at businesskarate dot com.

Awareness – The Foundation of Good Security

If you were learning a martial art, such as karate, one of the first steps would be to learn how to stand. Not standing as if you were waiting in line at the grocery store; but standing in a stance that helps you maintain balance. A karate student learns several different stances for different positions and situations, all of which keep the weight distributed more evenly and have a lower center of gravity than normal, making it easier to stay on your feet rather than getting knocked down.

           

In my book, Workplace Security Essentials, I looked at how martial art skills translate to the protection and security of organizations, such as businesses, schools or hospitals. The stance is the basic posture or position, such as a business’ awareness of security risks forms its posture or position related to risks.

In short, if a business wants to improve security or protect itself from crime, leaders must create awareness and share information about security concerns. But how is that done?

The heart of awareness is knowledge – knowledge about the real-life problems, challenges and threats facing a business or workplace. That means an organization needs to have a record of crimes that have happened at the site or immediate surroundings. Even small businesses with less activity can still look at crime in the area, using local police information about risks in the community.

In fact, tracking criminal activity is considered so important that higher education, such as colleges and universities, are required to maintain records and logs of criminal events per the Clery Act.

The Clery Act requires universities and colleges to track crime. (photo from Wiki Commons)

To be even more effective, knowledge has to be shared. Use the crime log to keep employees up-to-date on any security alerts or warnings. This should include crime prevention tips related to any ongoing crime patterns or even BOLOs (Be On the Look Out) to help employees recognize suspects or suspicious activity.

Unfortunately, some leaders feel that sharing crime information only creates alarm or undue distractions for employees. My experience has been the opposite. Not sharing information, especially about any crimes that have occurred on the company grounds or to employees, will be passed along – often through rumors that grow and change until the original minor crime has morphed into the most heinous crime of the century. Sharing information, along with practical prevention tips, will build real awareness. Perhaps more importantly, it builds trust. Employees will feel that the organization is looking out for them, not keeping them in the dark.

Going back to the Clery Act for higher education, the Act requires that alerts or warnings be issued for specific crimes, including violent and property crimes. Institutions are encouraged to issue warnings for other crimes as well, but leave that up to the school.

Building a base level of knowledge about the real risks and sharing information about those risks is the best way to begin building awareness and developing your security stance. This forms the basis of the security program.

To get more ideas on how to build security awareness, check out Workplace Security Essentials.

Get a Business Black Belt for your organization – visit www.businesskarate.com/karate-belts.

Learn self-defense for your business with Eric Smith’s new book, Workplace Security Essentials! Every aspect of protecting a workplace is compared to a self-defense skill taught to budding karate students, all in a practical and entertaining style, drawing on Eric’s law enforcement and security experience.

Eric is available for staff education and security awareness training as well as business coaching to help organizations provide safe workplaces. To learn more email Eric at businesskarate dot com.

 

If you would like to reprint this post, please contact Eric at Eric at businesskarate dot com.

Turning a New Page

Some of you who routinely read my posts already know that I’ve been working on a new book. The original idea stems back several years ago when I had the idea that the same self-defense techniques taught to karate students could apply to a business, or any other type of organization.

The idea eventually grew into the whole concept of Business Karate, which I incorporated into this blog and my website. It is a way to combine my interest in martial arts with the business of protection and the protection of business.

The book, Workplace Security Essentials, covers all the basic principles throughout the 14 chapters. For example, one chapter covers employee threats based on the idea of learning to throw a punch. A punch is really best for a very close target as compared to a kick that has more reach. Employees are very close to the most vital assets of an organization and can often cause the most damage and loss.

Throughout the book, I used real-life examples, many from my own experience in law enforcement as well as security management. There are numerous examples, such as tables, forms and other tools throughout the book to help a reader enhance their own organization’s security program.

Of course, it has not been an easy process. In fact, it was very eye opening. I had always pictured writers working alone over a typewriter in some remote country home. Instead, I quickly learned that writing was a matter of putting in a busy day doing all the normal work, then stealing every little block of time to work on the book. There were also many evenings and weekends, I had to tell my kids ‘no’ when they wanted to do something fun – taking them to the park to play basketball or even going for one of their favorite “zombie runs.”

But, finally, the book is done and just released on Amazon by the publisher, as well as on the publisher’s site (Elsevier). I got my copies about a week ago and I have to say that it was thrilling to see and hold the finished product in my hand!

So now, in a manner of speaking, it is time to turn a new page. With the book done, I will be turning to marketing it. Not only that, but I am ready to start work on more books. I have several ideas, including some fiction novels and want to get those written in the near future. I will take a more realistic view of any schedules and deadlines so I don’t miss those valuable family times. I also plan to spend more time working on this blog again.

Speaking of turning a new page – if you are looking to turn a new page, may I suggest turning the pages in my latest book, Workplace Security Essentials. I’ll make it easy for you – you can order a copy by just clicking this link: http://www.amazon.com/Workplace-Security-Essentials-Organizations-Environments/dp/0124165575/

 

Get a Business Black Belt for your organization – visit www.businesskarate.com/karate-belts.

Eric Smith, CPP is the leading authority on organizational self-defense. He has extensive experience in law enforcement as well as security management. Eric is available for staff education and security awareness training as well as business coaching to help organizations provide safe workplaces. To learn more email Eric at businesskarate dot com.

 

 

If you would like to reprint this post, please contact Eric at Eric at businesskarate dot com.