Feral Jundi

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Law Enforcement: As Police Budgets Are Cut, PSC Usage And Volunteer Watch Groups Increase

With the economic slowdown pushing municipal budgets to the brink, police layoffs and rising crime levels have been a common story in the hardest-hit American cities. Survey results from more than 700 police departments, released in April, showed that 21 percent had layoffs in the past two years. Another 56 percent shrank as a result of employee attrition.

This was an excellent article and if you follow the link below, you will see all of the links/sources that supports this thing. The one link that I will add from it, is for that quote up top. That is a lot of unemployed police officers, and like with the Marine story, this industry will see more interest from this group. You will also see these officers starting up companies or joining companies locally to provide services, much like what the article described below. Check it out. –Matt

 

As Police Budgets are Cut, Citizens Step In
By STEVE YODER
August 7, 2012
Dabney Lawless, 38, took it personally when criminals targeted her neighborhood in east Oakland with a rash of burglaries. It was December 2010, and due to the city’s budget shortfall, Oakland — a city with the California’s highest violent-crime rate — had just laid off more than 10 percent of its cops.
So Lawless started going door to door, recruiting neighbors to revive a dormant neighborhood watch group. The group, of which she’s a block captain, decided to do more than patrol the streets. Last year more than a hundred of them chipped in about $250 each to hire a private security company to cruise through the neighborhood in a patrol car. Lawless says that investment, plus neighbors using the watch group to keep each other informed about suspicious behavior, has already made the neighborhood feel safer, and though she doesn’t have the data to support it, she’s certain the number of burglaries has dropped dramatically.

(more…)

Friday, November 11, 2011

Maritime Security: US Government Goes Public With Support For Armed Guards On Boats

Wow, big news here. Thanks to Somalia Report for breaking this story first, and a hat tip to David Isenberg for finding and posting DoS’s new official position on armed guards on boats.

The thing here is that Secretary of State Clinton has had to make a pretty significant public reversal on her ‘views’ on PSC’s. As a Senator and presidential candidate, she was pretty much opposed to PSC’s and even introduced legislation against the usage of them in the war. Of course that all happened during the aftermath of the Nisour Square deal, and we have come along way since then…. Here is a quote from Somalia Report:

It is a stunning reversal of opinion for Clinton, a well known opponent of the use of private security companies and a political appointee who has openly discussed taking steps to eliminate them. As a presidential candidate running against President Obama she sponsored legislation entitled H.R.4102 “Stop Outsourcing Security Act”. The suggested legislation was created in November of 2007 proposed banning the use of security contractors.

Although it should be noted that the DoS has been steadily using WPS contractors during her entire time as Secretary of State, and I am sure she has experienced the security services of quite a few WPS folks in places like Afghanistan. Security contractors really shined during the attack on the embassy in Kabul, and I am sure that has only enforced how important their contracted guard force really is. Not to mention that their security contractors will be incredibly important to the mission in Iraq as troops leave in mid-December.

So I want to applaud her and the DoS for promoting armed guards on boats. It makes sense, it works, and it is the right thing to do. I also hope that this will open the market a little for US security companies.  If anything, we should see more American guards protecting US flagged vessels. Plus, that would also help chip away at veteran unemployment to some degree. Every little bit helps.

But there is another issue though that the US government needs to address, and that is the cost that US flagged vessels must contend with.  The other day I came across a very interesting document at Marsec4 that talked about how much US flagged vessels pay to operate, versus the global market.

Operating a deep draft ocean going vessel under a US flag costs on average $20,000 per day, a much higher amount than the $7,000 daily average for vessels flying foreign flags.

With that said, if the DoS really wants to help, then reduce or eliminate the frivolous or costly rules and regulations that make it so expensive for US flagged vessels to operate. Get our fleet economically competitive, so at least American shipping can afford armed security and capture some of that global market share out there. –Matt

 

Remarks to the Defense Trade Advisory Group
Andrew J. Shapiro
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Political-Military Affairs
Washington, DC
November 9, 2011
……Finally, I want to provide a brief update on our efforts to counter piracy off the Horn of Africa. This is another area where we are working very closely with industry. Commercial shipping vessels transiting off the coast of Somalia are frequent targets for pirates. The lives of innocent seafarers have been lost and crews are often held hostage for many months in appalling conditions. The monetary total of ransoms demanded runs into hundreds of millions of dollars a year, with the total cost of piracy to the global economy estimated to be in the billions.
With so much water to patrol it is difficult for international naval forces in the region to protect every commercial vessel. Working with industry, we recently established a national policy encouraging countries to allow commercial ships transiting high-risk waters to have armed security teams on board. The reason for this is simple: to date no ship with an armed security team aboard has been successfully pirated. We believe that the expanded use of armed security teams by commercial vessels is a major reason why we have seen a decline in the number of successful pirate attacks this year. Therefore, we have recently demarched countries to permit the use of privately contracted armed security personnel on commercial vessels. And we are also working with industry and transit countries to make it less onerous for privately contracted security personnel to transit foreign ports with weapons intended for the self-defense of ships.

(more…)

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Industry Talk: Report Details Problems For The PSC Replacing ‘Afghan Public Protection Force’

Asked if he would be forced to end contracts if the situation was not resolved, one development company official said, “Absolutely.”
“We apply what we call the son and daughter standard,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to avoid alienating American and Afghan government officials. “Would we send our sons and daughters out there to do this work, and the answer is no.”

Boy, who couldn’t see this one coming? lol Of course Afghanistan is not able to put together this Afghan Public Protection Force.  As you all remember, this was the force that was supposed to replace private security forces in Afghanistan.

As that quote up top hints at, this APPF concept is not exactly giving all of the aid and development groups the confidence they require in order to send ‘their sons and daughters’ to Afghanistan. I wouldn’t trust my life in the hands of such a force, even if half of this report is true. This quote below is what perked me up:

The assessment makes it clear that much work needs to be done. Of 166 “essential” criteria to determine if the government was able to recruit, train and sustain the guard force, less than a third could be fully met, the assessment found. Sixty-three of the measurements could not be met at all.

Really?  So here is my suggestion. Private industry is really the only solution here, and the Afghans need to face reality, or everyone is going to pack up and leave. And that is a lot of money and projects just going out the door.

My suggestion is to implement a license and bonded PSC system. Streamline the licensing process, and tell the companies to put their money where their mouth is if they want to operate.  If they violate the contract, then they are fined via the surety bond. If they violate the terms of the license, then suspend the license. If they break a law, then prosecute those individuals. But the point is, find a way to work with private industry and do not try to re-invent the wheel. Let the various aid and development groups in country choose what licensed security they want, and focus on managing and regulating that. –Matt

 

Report Details Problems for Afghan Security Force Plan
By RAY RIVERA
November 1, 2011
KABUL, Afghanistan — President Hamid Karzai’s plan to disband private security companies that protect billions of dollars worth of aid projects and replace them with government forces is fraught with problems and unlikely to meet the president’s March deadline to complete the transition, according to a six-month assessment of the program.
The assessment, conducted by NATO and the Afghan Interior Ministry, outlines dozens of issues that have slowed the development of the new security force and raises questions about the government’s capacity to carry out and sustain the program and others as international aid money and military support dwindle in coming years.
The report, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, comes as international development companies are becoming increasingly worried about the security of their workers, many of whom are Afghans.

(more…)

Monday, September 12, 2011

Industry Talk: Ugandan PSC’s Eye Business In Somalia After AMISOM Victories

Now this is a very interesting development. All of these security contractors from Uganda that have participated in such programs like TWISS in Iraq, are now looking at Somalia as the next market for security contracts. Which makes total sense, and especially since there is a massive pool of Ugandan security contractors created by their efforts in Iraq.

Uganda is also a huge contributor of forces for AMISOM, so it would only be fair that their country’s PSC’s would have a crack at any contracts in Somalia. I would imagine Burundi would also be interested in entering the reconstruction market in Somalia as well. Uganda has also lost 57 plus troops in the war, and Burundi has lost 78. But the real market of force would come out of Uganda.

This pool of security contractors are also trained to western standards, with experience in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they could be an excellent tool to use for Somalia’s reconstruction plans. But like the article mentioned below, if the gains made by AMISOM are lost, then there really is no chance of PSC’s coming in. We will see how it goes? –Matt

 

Ugandans eye businesses in Somalia
By John Semakula
12th September, 2011
THE business community in Uganda received the news of AMISOM’s recent victory against the al-Shabaab militants in Mogadishu with a smile of hope. ?The community had long wanted to venture into Somalia but the insecurity in the country had hindered it. ?When news emerged that the AU peacekeepers had secured 90% of Mogadishu from the militants, managers of various companies in Uganda started drawing business plans for Somalia.

(more…)

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Maritime Security: Ministry Of Shipping–Indian Ship Owners Are Now Allowed To Contract With Private Security Companies

This is surprising, because from what I can tell, Indian ship owners are able to contract with whatever PSC they want. Which means Indian ship owners could tap into the already vibrant maritime security market. This is great news if true. I posted the guidelines in my Scribd if anyone is curious, and I could not find anything in them that said these PSC’s had to be Indian owned.

A couple of months back I posted a deal about the Indian government warming up to the idea of allowing their ship owners to use armed guards. But I got the impression in that article that they would only allow retired Indian naval officers to work on these vessels? Now I am sure Indian shipping companies would probably prefer contracting with Indian PSC’s, but hopefully with these new guidelines, this will help them to realize they have a choice–that’s if they would like to go outside of the market of Indian PSC’s.-Matt

 

Ships with Indian crew can have armed guards
Aug 30 2011
The ministry of shipping on Monday issued guidelines allowing ships with Indian crew to deploy armed guards in a bid to combat piracy in the Gulf of Aden. The move comes on the back of recommendations from the inter-ministerial group (IMG) of officers constituted to handle the hostage situation on hijacked ships and also suggest preventive measures.
It has been found that about 35 per cent of the ship transiting in these waters deploy armed security guards and that the pirates generally don’t attack ships with armed guards on board, an official release said on Monday. So far, 120 Somalian pirates have been apprehended by India as on date.
As per the new guidelines, ship owners are allowed to engage private maritime security companies (PMSC) through a proper selection procedure. In line with these, all Indian ships visiting Indian ports are to furnish details of security personnel on board, the firearms carried by them and the details of licence issued, etc, to the port authority, customs, Coast Guard and the Navy. Foreign merchant vessels visiting Indian ports with security guards are also required to follow similar procedure, as per the guidelines.

(more…)

Older Posts »

Powered by WordPress