Feral Jundi

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Industry Talk: Turkey’s Private Security Officers Outnumber Armies Of Six Countries In Europe

Filed under: Industry Talk,Turkey — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 9:13 AM

Turkey has roughly 217,000 private security guards who are employed in public offices and private companies, a figure that outnumbers the soldiers in the armies of six countries in Europe — Austria, Belgium, Portugal, the Netherlands, Norway and the Czech Republic…Currently there are 1,430 security firms in Turkey, and 737 training centers for private security officers, according to the Security Headquarters’ Private Security Department’s figures.
Candidates receive non-armed certifications after 90 hours of training, but an armed certification requires a further 30 hours…

Every now and then I will come across statistics from other countries about their PMSC industry. These two stories below go into the statistics of Turkey’s market and I thought it would be cool to archive them here.

One statement below brought up an interesting point about loans. Getting a loan in some countries is not as difficult as it is in others, and it looks like Turkey has an industry that is yearning for more capital to expand and grow. From building training facilities to buying all the equipment and weapons necessary to maintain a growing security business, they need it.

“We want the government to support our sector. In a country that is capable of providing loans to the IMF, we want to be able to receive long-term low-interest loans from state banks, as well as support from the Social Security Institution and the Finance Ministry. With this support, our sector will be able to develop even more,” he said.

The other point to bring up is that 9/11 has had a world wide impact on this sector, and not just in the west.  Security services are in high demand all over because of the threat of terrorism or crime, and this industry is in high demand in countries where police forces have been cut. In countries where austerity measures have reduced the number of police, you will see this market of force expand and private security is filling that vacuum.

Of course the final big picture comment is summed up in this statement.

Perut also added that the private security services sector is valued at up to $6 billion for the entire world.

I guess Perut did not have access to the Small Arms Survey done last year that actually put the value of this market much higher. Although he could be referring to just one aspect of PMSC’s, so who knows where he got it from. Here is the quote:

The private security sector has been booming since the mid-1980s and continues to grow steadily (van Dijk, 2008,
p. 217). Recent estimates show that the security market is worth about USD 100–165 billion per year, and that it has
been growing at an annual rate of 7–8 per cent. –2011 Small Arms Survey, Ch. 4

Interesting stuff and if you guys have anything add to this data, let me know. This post will also be filed under Turkey in the categories below if you need it. –Matt

 

Private security officers in Turkey now their own ‘army’
08/28/2012
The 217,000 private security guards in Turkey outnumber armies of many many nations, according to Bülent Perut, chairman of a sector organization. Rapid urbanization is increasing the number, he says.
The number of Turkish private security officers has reached 217,000, greater than the combined military forces of Austria, Belgium, Portugal, Holland, Norway and the Czech Republic, according to data from a sector organization.
“Even though there aren’t specific figures as to the size of the sector’s economy, we believe that in general it ranges between $3-6 billion,” Private Security Associations Federation President Bülent Perut told Anatolia news agency in an interview published Aug. 28.
In Turkey, 886,000 people hold private security certificates, confirming that one has received appropriate education and training in the field. Some 604,000 of these people also hold a security ID, the state authorization to work as a guard.
Perut told Hürriyet Daily News in a phone interview yesterday that many security guards preferred other jobs when they are available, because of the low wages and
poor level of social rights in the security sector.

(more…)

Monday, August 27, 2012

Cool Stuff: Tandem-Duct Aerial Demonstration By Aerofex Corporation

Filed under: Aviation,Cool Stuff — Tags: , , , , — Matt @ 8:43 AM

Imagine personal flight as intuitive as riding a bike. Or transporting a small fleet of first-responder craft in the belly of a passenger transport. Think of the advantages of patrolling borders without first constructing roads.
In pursuit of this vision, Aerofex is flying a proof-of-concept craft developed as a test-bed of manned and unmanned technologies. -Aerofex Corp.

This is just neat. But what I was thinking about after watching this, is the military application if this technology actually becomes refined and durable. IED’s are designed to explode when you drive over them–or pressure detonated. Or they are remotely detonated or triggered by a physical trip wire in the form of  a wire or beam.  With a vehicle like this, you could set the hover height to be well above vehicle height, and have nothing touching the ground in order to avoid the pressure plates.

A vehicle like this would be nice for areas that do not have roads, or the roads are hindered and muddied due to weather. The key advantage here is getting the vehicle off of the ground.

The other thing to note is that this vehicle is really more a test platform for the concept of Tandem-Duct propulsion. The company’s paper on what makes it work is sold here. Interesting stuff and check it out. –Matt

 

 

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Company Spotlight: Mountain Men Security–A Crime Fighting, Man Tracking PSC

Filed under: Africa,Company Spotlight,South Africa — Tags: , , , , , , — Matt @ 6:58 PM

The development of Mountain Men’s Special Response Team (SRT) was as a result of an increase in home invasions, armed robberies and violent crime. Our SRT members are all trained man trackers and have the ability to track suspects who flee a crime scene. This is very helpful in areas where there are vast tracts of land, mountainous terrain and forests or green belts. These members have made a huge dent in criminal operations in the areas where they have been deployed. Together with specialized units of the South African Police Service, we have arrested armed robbers, wanted suspects, house breakers and recovered hundreds of thousands of rands worth of stolen property.
Our Armed Response Units and Protection Services Units all interact with our SRT members which makes us a formidable force in the fight against crime. We have made in excess of 2 640 arrests over the past 12 years, averaging 18 arrests per month for serious crimes.

The other day I was perusing Facebook and checking out some news with some of my readers and friends. One reader’s page I like to check out from time to time is David Scott-Donelan’s. He posted a picture from a trip to South Africa awhile back and talked about a private security company that he helped train in tactical tracking. That company is Mountain Men Security, and what they have done with that training is truly amazing.

Basically this company is providing a security service and a tracking service in conjunction with the South African Police. They are working together in a public/private partnership, and MMS’s is providing the hunters.

These hunters are called the SRT or special response team, and they are using the skills David taught them to track down criminals.  In the video below, you get a sample of what they are doing. I thought this was awesome, and this company deserves to be in my ‘company spotlight’ category.

In the past I discussed the value of tracking to security contractors, military and police. Groups like Koevoet or the Selous Scouts made great use of tracking to locate criminals or enemies. You hear of military or police forces using these skills from time to time, but a private security company using these skills is just rare and very cool. It is also producing results and making their services valuable to the local community.

So bravo to Mountain Men Security for making those skills work for them. Best of all, you can see their arrests made on the front of the website. The community they are protecting can actually see the value, and know that if a criminal is on the loose, these guys will soon be hunting them down. –Matt

 

The Scott-Donelan Tracking School website here.

Mountain Men Security website here.

 

The history of Mountain Men Security

In 1998 former South African Police Force Murder and Robbery detective, Allan Dillon, retired police officer, Patrick Freeman, and friend, Billy Bownes, began conducting neighbourhood crime prevention duties in the Lakeside area in their spare time as a result of an increase in criminal activities in the Lakeside area. With their combined police experience and good knowledge of the area, criminals were being apprehended whilst breaking into houses and motor vehicles and soon the community were calling the three crime fighters “The Mountain Men”.
This subsequently led to the formation of a security company which has grown from three persons patrolling Lakeside on bicycles and conducting observation duties from the mountain above Lakeside to a structured security company with 70 plus employees, a 24 hour control room which monitors alarm systems, dispatches our own armed response vehicles, monitors CCTV live and on event activations, as well as interfaces between SAPS, Metro Police, National Parks Board, Neighbourhood watches and members of the public.
As the face of crime continued to change in South Africa so did our approach to protecting our community and clients. We soon realized that an armed response service on its own is a reactive service and is in fact your last line of defence, not your first. We implemented crime fighting strategies and relooked at the way in which crime was being fought in our areas of operation.
The development of Mountain Men’s Special Response Team (SRT) was as a result of an increase in home invasions, armed robberies and violent crime. Our SRT members are all trained man trackers and have the ability to track suspects who flee a crime scene. This is very helpful in areas where there are vast tracts of land, mountainous terrain and forests or green belts. These members have made a huge dent in criminal operations in the areas where they have been deployed. Together with specialized units of the South African Police Service, we have arrested armed robbers, wanted suspects, house breakers and recovered hundreds of thousands of rands worth of stolen property.
Our Armed Response Units and Protection Services Units all interact with our SRT members which makes us a formidable force in the fight against crime. We have made in excess of 2 640 arrests over the past 12 years, averaging 18 arrests per month for serious crimes.
Our K9 Unit with a tracking dog has given us great results and has leveraged our manpower in the fight against crime. Presently we are expanding this unit.
As we move forward into the future we continue to embrace technology and raise the standard of training of our officers. We continue to offer our clients and the communities where we work an innovative and results based security service. TODAY, AN ARMED RESPONSE SERVICE ALONE IS NOT ENOUGH TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN YOUR COMMUNITY.
Company website here.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Games: Army Of Two– The Devil’s Cartel

Filed under: Games,Industry Talk — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 7:24 PM

This is a great concept for a game. Take these two security contractors and veterans of the middle east, and put them up against the cartels down south. Here is a quick description about the game.

You’ll face off against the world’s most vicious drug cartel in Army of TWO The Devil’s Cartel. Take part in a private military operation against The Scythe, a wide-spread criminal operation that has brought murderous terror to the besieged nation of Mexico. Lead your own insurrection as you battle tenacious foot soldiers and ruthless drug lords in a story that’s ripped from today’s headlines. Do whatever it takes to end the corrupt cartel’s stranglehold over the country, and bring the head of The Scythe to swift and bloody justice. The Army of TWO may be vastly outnumbered by the villainous Devil’s Cartel, but they certainly will not be outgunned.

Man, it almost seems like the guys at EA are reading this blog. lol I have been talking about private industry, armed with letters of marque, operating within a well constructed offense industry, and used against the cartels for awhile now.

What is cool here is that this game further demonizes the cartels and allows the gaming public to participate in their destruction.  It also brings up the concept of using private industry to take care of a problem. Even if the reality of doing such a thing is remote, or that private industry would probably approach it in a less dramatic and violent fashion, it is the idea of such an action that is significant. Very cool and we will see how it sells. –Matt

Facebook page for game here.

Website for game here.

 

 

Industry Talk: Shell Spent Close To $1 Billion On Worldwide Security Between 2007-2009!

Filed under: Africa,Industry Talk,Nigeria — Tags: , , , , — Matt @ 11:35 AM

But the scale of Shell’s spending, revealed by the data for the first time, raises questions about the effectiveness of its security policies. “What is striking about the amount being spent in Nigeria is its ineffectiveness,” said Amunwa. “Shell spent many millions of dollars each year on government forces who failed to provide the company with adequate security.”
Nkabari said: “Shell cannot call this spending ‘security’. If it was really providing security, then why do we continue to have vandalisation, why do we have bunkering [theft of oil], why do we have the security mess that we have in the Niger delta? They give protection to the oil workers but they are not providing the region with ‘security’.”

It does raise the question as to how effective this has been in actually creating security? Either way, this is a stunning amount of money that Shell has dished out for security, and especially in Nigeria.

One thing about Nigeria is that it is filled with corrupt leaders in the military and government. Leaders that played both sides in the conflict there for economic gain. Meaning, they can get money by attacking the pipelines and stealing oil, and they can make money by protecting the pipelines. So they can just keep the money machine going by attacking through proxies, and protecting with the military. And meanwhile, Shell throws millions of dollars into that machine.

On the other hand, Shell is doing the numbers and doing the cost benefit analysis of all actions. So even if they are feeding this corrupt machine, at the end of the day, they are able to make a profit. Not only that, but the people have a say in this stuff too, and if they do not support the effort because of whatever reason, then they will lend their support to forces like MEND (or ideas like MEND, because everyone acted under it’s banner to steal from Shell)

This stuff is extremely interesting to me because companies like Shell or Exxon Mobil are going into war zones or non-permissive environments throughout the world, and setting up operations. And in one year, they could go from working with a somewhat stable government to being in the middle of political turmoil, rebellion (arab spring), war, or some insurgency. They have to make incredibly tough decisions at all levels of involvement, and they have to be good at predicting what’s next.

So like a small country, they need a security/defense apparatus, and they need an intelligence apparatus in order to create and implement strategies wherever they are at. When Shell had the ‘third highest security budget in Africa‘, that is pretty significant. I wonder how the other companies compare?

Interesting stuff, and our industry and it’s lessons learned over the last ten years of war will be absolutely crucial to the resource extraction world–now and into the future… –Matt

 

Wearing an orange vest with camouflage?…

 

Shell spending millions of dollars on security in Nigeria, leaked data shows
Internal documents reveal oil company spent $383m over three years protecting staff and installations in Niger delta region
By Afua Hirsch and John Vidal
Sunday 19 August 2012
If it were a country Shell would have the third highest security budget in Africa.
Shell is paying Nigerian security forces tens of millions of dollars a year to guard their installations and staff in the Niger delta, according to leaked internal financial data seen by the Guardian. The oil giant also maintains a 1,200-strong internal police force in Nigeria, plus a network of plainclothes informants.
According to the data, the world’s largest company by revenue spent nearly $1bn on worldwide security between 2007-09: if it were a country Shell would have the third highest security budget in Africa, after South Africa and Nigeria itself.
The documents show that nearly 40% of Shell’s total security expenditure over the three year period – $383m (£244m) – was spent on protecting its staff and installations in Nigeria’s volatile Niger delta region. In 2009, $65m was spent on Nigerian government forces and $75m on “other” security costs – believed to be a mixture of private security firms and payments to individuals.
Activists expressed concern that the escalating cost of Shell’s security operation in the delta was further destabilising the oil rich region and helping to fuel rampant corruption and criminality. “The scale of Shell’s global security expenditure is colossal,” said Ben Amunwa of London-based oil watchdog Platform. “It is staggering that Shell transferred $65m of company funds and resources into the hands of soldiers and police known for routine human rights abuses.”

(more…)

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