OSSI Archives - Page 2 of 2

Educating teachers on school safety: Part One

This is part one of a two part series on how teachers can be educated on school safety to protect the future of our country: students. Many of the heroes of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting were teachers. In a time of intense crisis, they were able to face one of the worst possible dangers to their lives and their student’s lives: a shooter while not having any kind of protection. The result could have been much worse. Many of the staff at this facility were trained and educated on how to deal with this type of situation. While the government works out ways to protect schools by discussing gun control and other tactics, schools are still potential targets for crazed shooters. However, there are ways for teachers and school personnel to protect their school from shooters before they become targets; and while a shooting is in progress. Ways to [...]

dave2017-04-26T10:20:39-05:00School Security|

Educating teachers on school safety: Part Two

This is part two of a two part series on how teachers can be educated on school safety to protect the future of our country: students. View part one here. Once you are aware of a shooting in your school, there are some specific actions you can take to protect yourself and your students: Barricade your door: Move all the desks and chairs to the door. A normal shooting lasts seven minutes, so the shooters is not going to waste time trying to push through a door if it is barricaded. Contact authorities: Text or call 911, alerting someone that there is an attack going on at your school once you and your students are secure. Turn off the lights: This prevents the shooter from being able to see clearly through the door or windows. Hide: The best places to hide are to get on the floor against a wall out of line of sight [...]

dave2017-04-26T10:20:53-05:00School Security|

Using CCTV to protect your school

Closed-circuit television (CCTV) security monitoring systems have become increasingly popular as schools, businesses, government building, churches and private homes look to install video surveillance systems due to terrorist attacks and school/workplace shootings. As you can imagine, this technology can become outdated over the years; this is not necessarily a bad thing as companies come out with better technology that protects our loved ones. CCTV can help save lives because information on a suspect can easily be distributed to law enforcement and specific rooms of buildings. With the increase of school shootings, it is especially important for school districts to look into this technology. CCTV that allows access to law enforcement enables the police to know exactly where the suspects are inside the building. This knowledge also allows for medical aid to be distributed to isolated and secure areas of a school building. Saving lives comes down to seconds, not minutes [...]

dave2017-04-26T10:21:06-05:00School Security|

Government PSIM Solutions

Even with todays technology, it's impossible to completely prevent a potential terror attack. However, that is not to say that your local government cannot prepare for these situations when they do take place. Many cities are now looking into implementing local government PSIM solutions to improve on their current security systems, which goes beyond simple video surveillance. Local Government PSIM Solutions Physical Security Information Management, known as PSIM, is a software solution that combines multiple security, communication, detection, and alerting systems into a single command and control interface. The surveillance system for most cities is broken up into sub systems. The city has a video surveillance system, DOT transit has their own video surveillance system, and private enterprises provide yet another group of video surveillance. Because of these multiple systems, the odds of a terror attack being caught on surveillance video is high. However, the odds of the operator having [...]

dave2017-04-26T10:20:04-05:00PSIM|

Department of Homeland Security to launch safety study of scanners

The Department of Homeland Security, after being criticized by the general public and politicians, is launching a complete safety study of the scanners that are used to screen passengers at airports all across the nation. The review of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is performed by the National Academy of Science, a nonprofit group of scientists, to study the safety of the radiation emitted by scanners. Susan Collins, a senator from Maine, says that while the amount of radiation that passengers are exposed to is small when going through the scanners once, it is concerning what that means for frequent flyers, who may be exposed several times a week. Currently TSA uses two types of full-body scanners used to look for hidden objects underneath passenger’s clothing. These two types of scanners are: Non-ionizing radio frequency energy scanners - These are your typical security scanners seen at arenas and airports for decades. Backscatters - Backscatter [...]

dave2017-04-26T10:22:23-05:00Airport Security|