Carnival
Kudos to Dave Hasenbuhler and his staff for another year of providing
coverage for the Frederick Fair. With this being the largest fair in the
state of Maryland, the Mayor, Governor, Senators, and Congressmen, along
with some 100,000 people attend this week long extravaganza. Along with
providing a 24 hour dispatch center, Dave’s staff covers approximately
6,000 hours of crowd control, parking, ticket taking and securing millions
of dollars worth of farm and lawn machinery.
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Quote of the Month: "Ability is what you're capable of
doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you
do it." - Lou Holtz
Congratulations to Security Officer Gordon
Johnson
Congratulations to security Officer Gordon Johnson who represents our
Parkersburg office. Security Officer Johnson works at the United National
Bank and was given an award along with having his photo taken for doing a
job above and beyond his normal duties. United National Bank, along with
other Parkersburg businesses sponsor the "Relay for Life", which is a walk
for cancer research. With all meetings held at the banks building, which
is 10 stories, S/O Johnson assisted in setting up the rooms, but, more
importantly, because of the constant changing of floors and meeting rooms,
S/O Johnson escorted all individuals attending the meetings to their
proper offices and floors and avoided any confusion that might have
occurred.
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Newspaper Celebrity
A local newspaper in Youngstown has a column titled “Neighborhood
News”, where an individual from the community is asked questions, kind of
like the man on the street routine. On Thursday, September 14, 2006, they
decided to stop and say hello to George Rinestein, who happened to be
standing in front of the Mary Patterson Building on the campus of Kent
State. When asked his first question,” What is your job at Kent State East
Liverpool?” George responded, “I’m employed by St. Moritz Security
Services as a guard for Kent State. George proceeded to answer more
questions pertaining to his personal life and his time living in East
Liverpool. His picture, along with his questions and answers appeared in
the newspaper the following day. Nice job George and thank you for
representing St. Moritz in a professional manner and looking sharp in your
photo.
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Run, Run, Run
Since 1975, the National Track and Field Games take place in every
state and every province in North America, with the Grand Finale taking
place in Hershey, PA. The best kids in the USA and Canada compete, plus an
exhibition from Team USA, which has some of the fastest athlete’s in the
world, was aired on ESPN 2. After being awarded the contract, it was with
great pride, that Brad Osborne and his staff from our Central, PA office
provided professional security Guard coverage for this prestigious event.
Great job Brad and staff!!!!!
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Last, But Not Least
Thanks to all of our staff for taking time to attend our Annual
Corporate Meetings held in Pittsburgh this year. Along with the meetings,
our Managers had the opportunity to enjoy a round of golf at Cranberry
Highlands (of course, in the rain), attend a Pirate game and visit the
crash site in Shanksville, PA. An educational and fun time was had by all.
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Think Thieves Don't Wear Name Tags?
Think Again
Employees stole $17.6 billion worth of retail merchandise in 2005,
according to the University of Florida's National Retail Security Survey.
A practice known as "sweethearting," in which retail employees allow
friends and family workers to take merchandise for free or at a discounted
price, is just one form of retail theft. Farm Fresh took court action in
Virginia against several cashiers who were allowing family members and
co-workers to go through the checkout line without paying for items,
including meat, soda, candy bars, and chips. Farm Fresh caught on to the
ruse after examining videotape and electronic cash register journals.
Virginia state law allowed the company to seek back pay equal to double
the amount stolen by the cashiers. Companies do not like to talk about
employee theft, but "in fact, there is no other form of larceny that
annually costs American citizens more money than employee theft," says
Richard C. Hollinger, director of the University of Florida's Security
Research Project.
Source: Virginian-Pilot (10/01/06) ; Shapiro, Carolyn
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Security Expert's Top 5 Tips to Combat Identity
Theft
Hackers are not the only ones who steal company information. Company
employees often have access to unsecured paperwork and files that are
often vulnerable to theft. Todd Faro at Compliance Cabinets advises
businesses to use his top five tips for keeping their files safe. He says
files with sensitive information should never be left without supervision
or out in the open. Misuse of that information may lead to a lawsuit. File
cabinet keys should not be stored in a place everyone knows about and a
key-locking file cabinet that has a key code number should not be used.
That key code number could be used by anyone, even the cleaning staff.
Information stored in file cabinets should only be accessible to those who
need it during business hours. Lastly, companies need to be aware not only
of outside threats, but of their own employees.
Source: Government Technology (09/25/06)
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Patrolling Performance
The 20,000-square-foot American International School in Caracas,
Venezuela, has a student body of more than 600 students, one-third of whom
are American and many whose parents are corporate executives and
diplomats. Due to the large amount of expensive technology in the
classrooms, nighttime patrols by the school's security guards are an
important part of the school's security measures. However, a number of
signs, including disappearing computers, eventually made it clear that the
security guards were shirking their overnight patrol duties. To improve
the guards' performance, the school brought in a new security manager
during the winter of 2003-2004 to examine the problem. The manager
installed an electronic guard tour system, consisting of several
technology-enabled guard-tour wands and 80 "buttons" that were placed at
various points around the campus. During their overnight shifts, the
guards were required to carry the wands and touch them to the buttons,
with the date and time of the event being stored in the wand. The security
manager would then arrive at the school the next morning and download the
data from the wand to his computer, enabling him to ensure that the guards
were in fact making their nightly rounds throughout campus.
Source: Security Management (09/06) Vol. 50, No. 9, P. 88 ; Penso,
Guillermo Guevara
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Hands-On Training Is Key to Successful Safety
Programs
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires
employers to provide safety training and retraining to ensure that workers
comply with existing and new regulations. However, while training is a
requirement of OSHA for employers, how those training programs are
conducted is left up to the company, though experts agree that hands-on
training is the best method. Many employers simply issue handbooks, DVDs,
computer programs, meetings, and educational seminars to train workers on
safety procedures, but the firms that often win recognition for being a
safe workplace are those that provide hands-on training. Another component
to hands-on training is performance monitoring to ensure that procedures
are followed and how successful they are at preventing injury. Southington
Tool & Manufacturing used hands-on training to determine how much
workers knew about putting out fires, and quickly discovered that workers
had never handled a fire extinguisher before and were unaware of
lock-out-tag-out procedures for factory machinery. A third component of
safety programs should include a hotline for injury and safety violation
reporting from workers, and periodic walk-throughs to uncover dangers in
the workplace before injuries occur. Workplace safety programs that
include hands-on training often result in lower workers' compensation
claims costs, note experts.
Source: Electrical Apparatus (09/06) Vol. 59, No. 9, P. 40 ; Elsberry,
Richard B.
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Employee Handbooks: Have You Updated Yours
Lately?
An up-to-date employee handbook allows a company to build morale among
employees and protects the firm from lawsuits. Among other things,
employee handbooks set the rules for employee behavior. Many companies now
offer their handbooks online, but firms should be aware of the security
risks of providing access to human resources information. The handbook
should spell out policies for business ethics, workplace conduct, email
and Internet use, drug use, emergency procedures, and harassment.
Handbooks should be given to all employees, and current employees should
always have a way to receive updates to the handbook. Companies would be
wise to have their employees sign a form stating that they have read and
are familiar with the employee handbook; this can help firms defend
against employee lawsuits. Attorneys should periodically review the
employee handbook to ensure that it conforms to current federal laws and
daily management practices. Policy manuals are similar to employee
handbooks but differ in that they focus on supervisors and managers, and
the material covered by policy manuals includes standards of conduct and
security and safety.
Source: Principal's Report (08/01/06) Vol. 2006, No. 8
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Fact: In the U.S., the first official citywide
Halloween celebration occurred in Anoka, MN., in 1921.
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