Basics

Kia Ora,

All this talk of terrorism. But what has it to do with basic security in NZ?

Because at all levels security is essentially the same. Good basic security makes an area safer on all levels.

The SAS will tell you that if they have to carryout mayhem & destruction, if given an option they will avoid good line (those who are the frontline) infantry (such as my old units) who do the basics well.

Same with security. Criminals will look for the weak points, just like soldiers & terrorists do.

Often overseas in particular in Britain terrorist attacks have being foiled by just good security awareness. When the vehicle tried to drive into a Scottish airport & two car bombs failed to detonate at the same time in London, the car bombs were foiled by exactly that. One was seen by Ambulance staff who thought it out of place & the other was cleared by tow truck administering parking time rules.

Now in NZ a car will sit there for weeks or even months whilst we go through our procedures. Criminals take advantage of this & terrorists would too. I have even seen a car in the classic car bomb attitude, but no one had questioned it for two to three weeks it had being there (in the vicinity of a major transport hub) as they had all being told to ignore anything not on their patch or they would get fired. Extremely poor security awareness due to this & that there were five/six government departments & private security companies working that area. Good basic security should of picked it up. As I did when doing my first patrol of area.

It happens all the time. Someone doing the basics picks up something wrong that has being like that for a long time but no one had noticed it. From there it is either a big panic or more likely new person is told to ignore it & soon leaves as they can't hold to the low standards.

One supervisor used to even threaten people who found insecurities after his patrol, & so nothing was ever reported. Everyone makes mistakes & this site had people working 24/7 so they did open things like doors after patrol went through. Only way to identify problems is to report honestly. Staff use to complain that security was no good as undesriables were getting in. Staff were at fault for leaving doors open but no one was aware of issue because of this non reporting.

So basic's is all that is needed to begin with & it can be effective against all threat levels.