OSH, the right Questions & more of the same.

Kia Ora,

It has being a while as there were many tasks on, but now back to a more sedate pace.

During that time though a few things have arisen.

First was the concert in Hawkesbay where a patron climbed a fence to get out, fell down a cliff & died.

So what has that got to do with security? Well first he was seen climbing the fence. Second as a patron of the concert there is still some responsibilbity for people as they leave or are in the vicinity of a venue. Last of all what started as a police investigation, quickly turned into an OSH investigation.

Recent discussions with an OSH inspector the following are the points that came up. 1. You must plan for worst case scenario you can think off even if it has never happened to you. (bit hard for me as having dealt with suicide bombers I now can't say they will never happen).

2. If say you are subcontractor  & you have a part in the incident, they first look at your procedures. If they cover it well then they move onto the next group up the line. They carry on with this until either are satisfied that everything possible was done or they have someone who has not covered that particular eventuality.

In someways this is counter productive. With events in NZ, the first people they will look at are security, yet often even the good ones are hamstrung by failure of governments to regulate numbers required. So if my procedure is minimum of two guards as practiced overseas, but client thinks they only need one, apart from pointing out your requirement there is nothing you can do.

It is going to take a few more deaths before maybe someone will wake up to fact that maybe the international requirements for events have a reason behind it.

To the questions part of the title. Last week on Breakfast an international security person was being interviewed & Pippa Wetzel asked properly the best question of them all. "Don't we have to watch out where ever we are" or words to that effect.

Whilst the person was focussed on high risk areas, she repeated the question & I felt made a good point. Problem in NZ is locals & visitors put the blinkers on, as to what is actually happening on our streets.

Right next to me I have a clipping about the ACC bill for assaults on teachers at school these days. So Pippa,s question or point is relevant where ever you are in the world.

In the meantime I see we have introduced ground hog day with the re appointment of a University lecturer who the media go to for comments on security etc, but in reality has little or no understanding of security at a higher level.

Reading books, writing papers & analyzing the issues does not make you knowledgeable in the real world of security.