Youth versus Authority! No Win Situation!

Kia Ora,

Well it seems the international disease that has been about for a while has finally arrived here in Christchurch at least, if not wider New Zealand.

That is Youth versus Authority! But they are really in a no win situation.

Obviously these guys do not remember the 1981 Springbok tour. It has been said that had the second match of the tour gone ahead, due to the quiet opposition the tour would not of lasted.

Storm out of Africa: The 1981 Springbok tour of New Zealand

From the moment the anti tour protestors stormed the Hamilton pitch & forced the game to be cancelled, it became a question of law & order.

So blocking an on ramp to a motorway is not going to endear the boy racers community to anyone. An estimated 40 vehicles & 140 people who are part of this hardcore that are causing the issues which ends with all car enthusiasts tainted is nothing short of criminal & idiocy.



There is hope that the judges finally throw the book at these idiots of whom the police arrested 30.

Meanwhile it being quiet in my area after the earlier incident related in my previous blog I went to see what was happening in other areas to see if I could get some footage of crime for these blogs.

Talking to an attendant at a service station he said quiet when suddenly an ambulance & paramedic went past followed by police.

We were watching some crazy driving going on as well.

Then I thought I would move on into central Christchurch to see what was happening.



Suddenly on Morehouse Avenue see all these police cars light up & head over the Colombo street over bridge & some lights start flashing orange.

Was about a minute or less from the intersection when vehicle had crashed in a 'police chase'.

You could tell just by looking at it that the vehicle had hit at extreme speed as it looked to be virtually wrapped around the post.

Reading the police report this morning, I am not sure they could actually call it a chase as the officer who pulled them over would of only just got back to his car & headed off. In effect the chase would of hardly begun by the time there was a crash.

I wondered as I drove past why there were also lights underneath the over bridge, but would now take it was the person who left the scene being spoken too. If you had seen the wreckage then the most likely of the six people in the car (so over loaded illegally) to have left was either the driver or the passenger directly behind them.



Right now I am waiting for the outcry of how the police were in the wrong. Excuse me, minimum crimes that we know of are taking off, overloaded car, going through at least one red light, speeding, probably failing to stop for police, leaving scene of an inury acccident.

Good likley hood of drugs or alcohol involved & odds are driver is on restricted license or is disqualified.

How is it the police's fault?

A simple traffic stop has turned into a major criminal investigation all because some idiot thought they were above the law.

It's good to see the police on the front foot saying it was unneccesary because it didn't need to happen.

There is a saying "do the crime, do the time" & another "the only crime is getting caught". They were caught, by taking the next actions a life has been lost.

The only action now is the driver must get jail time, jail time & more jail time.

None of this PC crap & they are from a good family so should only get home detention or worse community service.

To the Driver of the Vehicle you are an Idiot.

To the boy racers blocking the on ramp Grow Up, you can't win. Show some common sense because there is none been shown at present.

http://www.foxhoundsecurity.co.nz

The differing views of Crowd Control!

Kia Ora,

Crowd Control is topical at present with the upset by NZ soccer (football) fans on how the South African security moved them on.

Again it comes back to the mindset of New Zealanders who think that we don't need too much security.

They forget that from overseas experience, crowd control is not just there for security, but Health & Safety as well.

They also don't realize that it is in their best interests if it is carried out in a certain way.



The clip here shows a demonstration outside a foregin embassy in Iraq & although the camera work is not great due to covert nature, it does show that how well crowd control can be achieved even by a force that doesn't appear well trained.

Having the security armed does help as less arguments, but it doesn't stop them using other skills to keep the crowds in check.

At one point the crowd started to get quite agitated once all groups marching were on site, so to keep them happy three of those in camouflage scaled the embassy & ripped down the foreign flag.

It worked because shortly after the crowd dispersed.



More often than most New Zealanders realize the requirements for a riot are in place. In fact I would say on several occassions each weekend in Christchurch alone.

But yet again the NZ mindset says common sense should prevail & we do not need too much security & no one should be allowed to interfere with our 'rights'.

More often than not the rights they talk about are the breaking of the law.

They can also not expect the low standards of crowd control to be practised when they attend overseas sporting events. It is NZ that has to come up to standard not the world come down to New Zealands level.

http://www.foxhoundsecurity.co.nz

The Wrong Mindset!

Kia Ora,

With the on going bad weather it seemed to at least in my area cut down incidents.

But some of the things going on this last week showed how little New Zealanders actually have a culture of risk assesment.

Of all the cultures in the world the worst I come across in this respect is everytime I return home. It seems to be getting worse.

The mindset is totally wrong in this country. What we see time & time again in security is that people seem to think those warning signs are for everybody but them.

The incidents this week were people ignored road closed signs, removed or moved them was just idiotic, even having to result in the police in arresting one person at least.

We often joke that if it was ten foot high neon & flashing, Kiwis would still think it is for everyone else but them.

It is not just a one off either. We see it on our roads were nice quiet people take undue risks.

The following two incidents probably best give the attitude to safety & the mindset of New Zealanders to their health & safety as well as that of those they supposedly care about.

Twenty minutes was all that was between these two incidents.

Based in a fenced area where fireworks were to be set up (they were on site) with signs on the fences saying explosives keep out.

The first incident just blew me away. A couple with two children aged about 3 or 4 moved the end of the fence & entered the area.

When challenged  the response was the standard "use some commonsense you idiot, it is the shortest route". There was the question asked as if they were fit parents to be bringing young children into an area signposted as dangerous.

The second incident was four 20 something's with two males & two females climbing the fence.

Again challenged, again the same answer. When it was pointed out that they had climbed a fence with signs saying "Explosives! Keep Out!" Their response was "where didn't see one?" "You climbed over one."

From there their reaction was again normal Kiwi. It was your fault & we are going to smash you & keep going anyway. Just happened to be their bad day as at the end of the area there was a security briefing in progress combined with police elements.

Now we all do silly things at times, but there needs to be a huge change in mindset.

But that mindset comes back to why it is so hard for the NZ security industry to actually carryout a true risk assessment for events such as the Rugby World Cup 2011.

It is also why it is hard to convince the industry to adopt a risk assessment culture that is dynamic & on going as they walk into situations.

It does not mean we don't do anything.  If we did risk assessment in the way NZ does we would of never gone out on task in Iraq. There was a risk, we knew it, but by again having that dynamic risk assessment as we moved along, you mitigated your risk.

                                         http://www.foxhoundsecurity.co.nz

How do you practice Health & Safety?

Kia Ora,

To the next part of the issues raised by the angry man's emails is basically "How do you practice Health & Safety?"

He asks what are my systems for health & safety? Also having no qualification does not entitle me to comment on health & safety issues. That is probably the crux of the issue there.

This individual dimisses my experience from the military, in the  NZ security industry & work in Iraq.

Health & safety especially in a service like security does not rely just on a system. In fact due to nature of the work carried out by the profession what is more important is Common Sense coupled with Experience (not a bit of paper or formal course) & a culture of dynamic Risk Assessment.

The type of Risk Assessment you get trained to carryout in the NZ military. From early days young soldiers get told "as you move along look for places to take cover if such & such happens" it is a type of Risk Assessment.

Initially though young soldiers are more concerned about how hard the physical requirements are, but as time goes by  those sort of  actions become second nature.

They then add in actions like looking for possible booby traps when moving whilst carrying up to 100kg plus packs without having to go through the whole process consciously.

So does this transfer to the civilian environment? Yes!

In fact, & I will go into this more in a later blog, at times other security personal have said "I think so fast", it is not that, but my military training kicking in when situations call for it, which often means when confronted with an issue they have never confronted before. 

Encyclopedia of Occupational Health and Safety - CD-Rom

With inadeaquate training or awaremess of health & saftey instinctively, my civilian counterparts are still thinking of the first step whilst myself & army comrades are already on step four or higher. So it appears to them that we are thinking very fast.

An example of the level of military training over what the industry provides was an incident early in my time in the industry.

I was on duty in a complex when I was paged to reception & handed a small case. Apparently someone was concerned it had been sitting in the middle of reception for three hours. Of course from the staff reaction it appeared they thought it was a bomb. Straight away I knew there was one type of bomb it wasn't.

When I was relieved a few hours later by another ex military person, his first reaction was "you didn't call the bomb squad?". No, because of our superior training as soon as I was handed it the check list we used to use in the army popped right into my head.

As I walked outside with the case, I ran through it & realized there was no way this was a bomb. The only mistake I made was opening in view of the staff, from a health & safety point of view which was not good.

That staff still thought it was a bomb was shown by fact that even though it was dark t they were watching & as I opened it, were seen to dive under the counter.

From there another difference came out between a person with a military background to those without. Not for the first time after an incident that worked out well, my civilian counterparts could not work out why myself or any military person would then look to learn from lessons & improve our performance for the next time.


Whilst in Iraq this dynamic way of looking at things was to the fore as the whole situation & threats were ever changing your risk assessment was also dynamic. It was health & safety at its extreme. But again that good training kicked in without much fuss.

Security in NZ requires much the same thinking as any Standard Operating Procedures will not cover all contingencies. Thats if the company has them.

During my initial NZQA security course (a well run one with plenty of hands on training unlike most courses) the question was asked of an OSH inspector as to where security fitted in since much of the industries work fell outside OSH at that time. Also that many places had procedures but no body actually knew what they were.

The reply was that is correct, but security's role was to identify hazards as encountered & report them.  They then directed their reply to me & said as ex army you know the drills if there is an accident happens during live firing? Yes of course. Well that is the OSH procedure for an accident.

More recently an incident involving an associtated industry responding to a call out & a serious accident occuring due to the fact that like security they entered a business without prior knowledge of it.

After discussion with a Health & Safety officer from the department of Labour at a business seminar, I was asked would I be interested in joining a group looking at this issue. To date though nothing has come of it.

But the discussion  had been about how the military teach you, as I said in the beginning to have a dynamic risk assessment culture,  this is what they felt they needed to install in industries who respond to premises they don't usually visit or are not fully aware of all dangers.

This culture far outways any system or piece of paper, although in conjunction with a system can be very robust.

Due to time contraints it is not unusual, in fact most common place to see security racing from one premises to another without slowing to take in account as to risks they maybe rushing too.

Someone who worked security in Australia once told me a story about their first night alone. They were rushing due to time, came around a corner to be confronted by three pers wanting his firearm. He hadn't yet being issued  or been able to obtain one.

It reminded me what I often see with NZ security racing around corners to you don't know what.

My assessments of the security situation here in NZ is based on security knowledge, experience & risk assessment.

I have often been told & more so recently by some I worked alongside in Iraq, we can all see it  coming, don't wear yourself out trying to educate people. When these things happen if you set yourself up correctly, then we will be able to walk in as the industry here has no idea what it is doing.

Occupational Health at Work

Personally I believe in trying to stop it from happening here & making the place truly safe to live in. To do that you have to ensure the basic security & Health & Safety are taken care off.

                                               http://www.foxhoundsecurity.co.nz