Volume 18 December 2017 Edition and moved on to a more likely threat scenario .
An assassin on a hotel roof trying to kill a political or “ high profile ” VIP maybe but a guy bringing automatic weapons into the hotel , breaking out a window and shooting people – well frankly , it ’ s very unlikely .
There are far too many more likely scenarios .
That said , I think this event and those in London , Berlin , Barcelona and elsewhere should make event planners and security officials all over the world pause for a second and realize that threat scenarios no longer fit neatly into the box like they ’ re supposed to .
We need to start thinking about scenarios that , albeit may seem far-fetched , are possible .
I did a presentation a couple years back at ISC- East and talked about low probability – high impact events and the need to address them .
I called dealing with them , “ Impact Centric Planning .”
Many in the audience thought I was nuts . Maybe I was before my time – I don ’ t know . I think today what I spoke about then is much more relevant than in years past .
Instead of thinking it “ won ’ t happen here ” we need to think “ It won ’ t happen here BUT if it does how catastrophic will it be – how many injured or deaths will there be and what kind I do now to contain it ?”
CHANGE IN TRAINING The LA Times article went on to say , that casino staff will need to be retrained .
I have a feeling this training won ’ t really do very much good to stop this type of event again .
Mandalay Bay Windows used by Las Vegas Shooter to kill 58 people and injure 546 on the night of October 1 , 2017 ( Image courtesy of YouTube and Facebook )
Well , it ’ s highly unlikely it will happen again anyway under the same circumstances .
You know , lightening doesn ’ t strike twice in the same spot .
That ’ s really because the “ spot ” doesn ’ t exist anymore , it ’ s been vaporized by the lightening but moving on .
Some security folks will come in and tell the staff that these are the tail-tail signs of suspicious behaviors and what to look for .
And everyone will laud the training and go back to their busy schedules .
Unless , the classroom training involves regular unannounced drills afterwards what was learned will soon be forgotten , especially as folk ’ s transition in and out of employment .
While training is a good thing a much more permanent and effective solution would be to redesign the inhabited portions of the building so opportunities for the types of behavior witnessed in this case are reduced .
INTEGRATING PHYSICAL SECURITY INTO BUILDING DESIGN I don ’ t believe in ambulance chasing nor do I believe in armchair quarterbacking .
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