Command Decisions

By Peter G. Hilton JD and Dr. James A. Kholos

There are approximately 1,077,520 private security guards employed in the United States (Bureau of Labor Statistics), with approximately 700,000 sworn police officers. The training for security officers can be a little as 8 to 40 hours prior to them being employed or assigned to a work location.

 

Security officers are on the front line of law enforcement work, and are the first responders in many cases where a citizen needs help. The advent of large Shopping or Commercial Malls across America has created mini city like environments that rely exclusively on the Private Security Forces hired to protect the property.

In many cases, the Security Officer will be alone in a crisis, and will have only their own thought process, education and experience to make that "Command Decision" that is needed to deal with the issue, crisis or crime in front of them, until back up or help arrives.

 

This book is intended to give the Security Officer a preliminary foundation of "Command Decision" level so they can understand how to arrive at the best decision for their own safety and that of others they are hired to protect.

 

The Book deals with the Philosophy of the person who enters the field of security and why they have chosen to do so, the Operation of how things work, or the law and process that define how they should act, and the conflict between the two, and how to resolve it in the Function of the work.

 

In many cases, the decision the Security Officer chooses at the time will decide the outcome and level of safety for the officer and citizens they are hired to protect. It is important that the Security Officer understands the decisions they make must be done based upon the training, law, and liability that results from the decision and action they take.

 

There is no right or wrong decision in law enforcement, only those which could have been better made, after all the facts are disclosed, known or uncovered?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Peter Hilton
• Release date: Jun 21, 2015
• ISBN: 9781513034478

Book preview

Index

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

CRIME DETECTION

CHAPTER ONE

THE FELON'S MIND: A TRIPWIRE FOR CONFESSION

THE SECURITY OFFICER AT WORK

HOW TO PROTECT AGAINST ASSAULT WITHOUTCOMMITTING OFFENSIVE ACTIONS

CHAPTER TWO

THE SEARCH FOR MEANING OF UNCONSCIOUS RAGE AND CRIMINAL INTENTTRIPWIRING A SUSPECT’S EMOTIONS

How to Measure a Radical’s Instinct

The New Consciousness:  Conquering Fear to Eradicate Terrorism

CRIMINAL INTENT AND HOW TO DETECT UNCONSCIOUS RAGE

USING THE TRIPWIRE PRINCIPLES

Can Moral Development be Learned in a Destructive Environment?

CHAPTER THREE

Criminal Intent and Unconscious Rage

HOMELAND SECURITY TODAY INSIGHT ANALYSIS, SEPTEMBER 2011

Intelligence Strategy

All This to Arrive at the Obvious; How to Interrogate Using Specific Tripwire Questions to Reveal Unconscious Rage.

CHAPTER FOUR

PRINCIPLES OF SUBJECT CONTROL

THE CONTROL THEORY

FIRST RESPONDER RULES

ARRIVING AT THE INCIDENT

ASSESS THE SITUATION

RAISING THE ALARM

EVALUATE THE INCIDENT

ENTERING INTO THE EVENT

STABILIZE

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

Check ABCs (Airway, Breathing, Circulation, and Cervical Spine)

Perform a Body Check

Treat to Your Level of Training (First Aid)

Continue to Monitor

Long-Term Monitoring

COMMUNICATION

DOCUMENTATION AND DEBRIEFING

Non-Contact Protective Self-Defense(Synchronicity with the Volatile)

Central Point Describing the Art of Fighting Without Fighting

CHAPTER FIVE

ROOT CAUSE OF CRIME

To Make a Possibility Out of Impossibility

THE CONTROL PROCESS

Control of Distance Proxemics

21 Foot Rule

Relative Positioning Chart

Suspect Threat Assessment

NON-CONTACT PROTECTIVE SELF-DEFENSE

Timing Your Defense

Mind Control (Psych Ops): The Black Science

A Case of Uncontrollable Rage

Teaching the Old Dog New Tricks

Tricks – The Snake Eats the Elephant

Know Your Enemy

How a Political Jihadist Thinks

CHAPTER SIX

CONTROLLING OUTCOMES

Antecedent Fact

Social Hypothesis

Cultural Relativity of Crime

Personality Analysis

Raw Emotion

Street Strategy

A Life-Changing Moment

HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE CRIMINAL MIND

Emotional Intelligence

NON-CONTACT PROTECTIVE SELF-DEFENSE

Empty-Handed Restraint

Hold ’Em, Cuff ’Em, Wait for the Arrest

Final Thoughts

CHAPTER SEVEN

IN SEARCH OF TRUTH

The Thought Process of the Trickster:  Basic Text Taken From the Bible

INTERVIEWING AND INTERROGATION

COGNITIVE INTERVIEWING

THE INTERVIEW PROCESS

KINESIC INTERVIEWING

INFERENTIAL INTERVIEWS

Degrees of Guilt

Review

Reach Out

CONCLUSION

SECRETS OF COURAGE

A Learned Behavior

Courage Defined

The Major Breakthroughs

Decision Points:  A Survival Strategy

Qualities and Personal Traits

A Dire Prophecy

Fitful to Furious: The Insecure Transmogrification

Discoveries Understanding the Unconscious Human Passions Applied to Criminal Psychology

The Secret of Finding Courage

How NOT to Become a Bad Cop

Eliminate the Illogical by Systematic Reason

Meaning of a Qualified Law Enforcement Agent

The Terrain of the Job

Summary

The Hierarchy of Understanding Behavior

FINAL THOUGHTS

ARE YOU FIT ENOUGH TO HANDLE THE JOB?

Nutritional Support v. Determination to Reshape the Self-Image

Rules to Live By

The Go for It! Mentality

The Breakthrough

How to Beat the Odds

AFTERWORD

PREFACE

The primary aim of a police officer is to neutralize or halt an attack and to confine the attacker with minimal injury to either officer or suspect. The police officer, having sworn to uphold both the US and State Constitutions, acquires governmental immunity, with either full or limited protection, based upon the extent of the act committed and whether it was within the course and scope of authority. The private security officer does not have the luxury of government immunity, and therefore must always act within the scope of authority or the tenets of self-defense at all times.

Learn how conflict resolution is first implemented to avoid a physical assault by a younger, stronger enemy.

The man who is secure within himself has no need to prove anything with force, so he can walk away from a fight with dignity and pride. ~ Sensei Will Duvall

However, serving the public obliges a transfer of responsibility to a licensed professional with the burden to decide what actions best protect the safety of self and others.

Philosophy, Operation and Function are necessary concepts that must be understood by the security officer. Philosophy is the way you see yourself and why you act the way you do; Operation is the laws and procedures that govern you and sometimes prosecute you for doing wrong; and Function is the balance between the first two and the way you apply yourself to the situation to resolve the issue confronting you.

We are also going to discuss ethical considerations that apply to the work of a security officer and the disciplinary considerations that result when the ethical standards of Philosophy, Operation and Function are ignored.

One of the first lessons taught in thinking self-defense is being one step ahead of your antagonist.  Using the first of many tried and tested tricks with an explosive defensive move that must look more unpremeditated than contrived is creative defense.

The psychological aspect of getting the suspect in abeyance by the unseen is without conscious awareness. The art of gaining control and dominance in a precarious situation will be fully explained in the following chapters.  During an attack, the mind must flow, triggering the hands to strike intuitively (empty hand, sticky finger technique) and rendering the antagonist susceptible to being handcuffed.

This disarming move may look accidental and not recognized as using force, but in essence, it is designed to be consistent with affecting a lawful arrest (actual restraint of the suspect) or deflecting an aggressive attack by the suspect (self-defense).  When correctly trained, your body will perform the proper footwork, sidestepping the antagonist by a flank move turned into a reflex foot action, arm bar maneuver or any other move that gives you the upper hand to protect yourself and restrain the attacker.

Pictured graphics will demonstrate the hooking-arm technique and how to disarm the attacker. Using his off-balance momentum to bring him into your inner space enables the use of a finger-nerve reflex control point to compromise any aggression, defeating his intention.  The sticky-hands method (Wing Chun) is all it takes.

Defensively, you engage your opponent in the middle of his attack by taking his charging energy, stepping back and deflecting his head into a direction he did not want. This forces him to change his perspective from attacking you to realizing that, one way or another, he is going to hit the ground.  No punches, simply two fingers to the attacker’s sensitive areas will change the his/her thought process from attacking you to now protecting themselves from (a) falling or (b) being defensively restrained and arrested.

Later in this book, we will discuss the spiritual aspects of Zen and how to remain calm in a burning building, figuratively as well as literally.

Security officers often face life-threatening danger. Through the instructions described herein, martial arts expert Will Duvall’s teachings, while designed for an amateur, can transform you from insecure to being tenacious in your bearing and bigger than you are.

It is our hope that by reading this book, the security officer will increase his/her learning curve to be able and fit to defend themselves and others when confronted with an attack.

INTRODUCTION

We were asked why we have written a book of guidance for security officers.  These private law enforcement professionals must be able to safely and effectively protect themselves, and the people and property under their authority, from the criminal forces that prey upon them. This is vitally important, both from the perspective of personal and public safety and the impact criminal activity has on the economy.

Peter G. Hilton, JD, will offer his legal arguments and ensure the rights of the security officers to be oriented with the proper legal and ethical procedures not to violate the scope of their duties. His professional career in private security and investigations spans 35 years, with service in the British Parachute Regiment, Greater Manchester Police and, since 1985, as the owner of Los Angeles Loss Prevention, a fully licensed private investigation/security and training company in California.

Hilton’s long-standing work in the investigation and apprehension of bail fugitives, child concealments, and high criminal cases has exposed him to thousands of encounters with suspects intent on continuing their escapes from justice.His realization of the philosophical, operational and functional contexts needed in the apprehension of those individuals has led him to develop training techniques and disciplines that:

limit the security officer’s exposure to liability;

minimize the potential for arrest due to accidental violations of the law; and

protect the private investigator and/or security officer from unscrupulous and misguided members of law enforcement, who may either dislike or lack respect for private security and investigators and try to arrest them.

Coupled with tracing, tracking, catching fugitives and investigating crime, the private investigator can gain valuable insight about people and their motivations to commit crimes. The skilled investigator or security professional knows when to observe and report and when to become involved in the actual prevention of a crime, which may include the arrest of the individual. Hilton’s goal is that these actions should be conducted with the precision of a surgeon removing a vital organ. The skilled security officer knows when to act and when to secure the suspect from the main population to protect them from harm and seclude them into custody for official arrest and prosecution.

This book will outline the philosophy of interrogation techniques, the operational context of self-defense, and the functions needed to think clearly and act quickly when faced with aggression from a suspect.

Dr. James A. Kholos, as a young man at college, took employment as a campus security cop at a major university.  The city police trained the university’s security unit as a task force, patrolling city streets while posted at the university hospital to secure the emergency medical complex.  The unit was overrun by gangs and predators interrupting the commerce of doctors, nurses and staff.  This major Midwestern city had a reputation for corruption and, unfortunately, continues as an embarrassment to the nation.

As a young security officer during this period, he encountered civil unrest among radical students who stormed and occupied the university administration buildings.  The same protests currently ravaging American cities, known as the Occupy movement, hearken back to the days when Kholos was in uniform being pelted, spat upon and insulted by an unruly, riotous group.

Being witness to a social revolution in America had a profound impact on his sensibilities.  Later in his life, he was able to finish a medical degree while continuing his interest in criminology and law.  He sees parallels in the society today, stemming from the economic downfall and leading to a crisis point of social unrest the likes of which we have not seen in decades.

Pragmatically speaking, good men and women (security officers) will again be on the front lines to confront civil disobedience on a wider scale and for different reasons that are too complex to easily explain.  The precious gifts of American liberty must be defended at every level of public affairs.  The manpower required to step into the void to protect our country are the men and women to whom Kholos dedicates this treatise on personal  self-defense.

As ordinary citizens with an extraordinary mission, security officers cannot predict the future, but they will work in earnest to defend our democracy from the forces that threaten from without and within our borders.  Preparedness is the only course of action to implement logic by men and women upholding American values against the forces of evil who would commit treason.

Will Duvall is called sensei in this book to honor his more than 40 years of travel, research and teaching with the military, law enforcement and the general public. He has assembled a bag of tricks collected form Combat Tai Chi, Wing Chun and Tibetan   Kung-Fu. These techniques do not require brute strength but instead are designed to turn an attacker’s strength against himself.

His contribution to the functional parts of this book will allow the security officer to realize that, even though they might carry weapons for self-defense, they may not be the best defense at a particular moment. However, the security officer will always have his/her mind and body, and in many cases, this is what may best protect and defend them.

ENLIGHTENED GUIDE FOR SECURITY TRAINING

The person who decides to become a security officer will have a predetermined philosophy about the work they want to do and the reason they want to do it. This book will educate you about the work of a security officer. As you read the chapters, you will understand more about yourself and your goals and allow you to think in a much more beneficial way about why you are choosing the profession.

The book will twist you until you are wrung dry of your preconceived notions as to why you want to become a security officer and enlighten you about the misguided philosophy you may have developed about why things are.

We will take your concept of choice, and the way you make those choices, and lead you to a lake of knowledge. You will reach a level of understanding of Philosophical, Operational, and Functional processes that you can use throughout your working life, no matter what your profession, and in your personal life when you need to make a decision.

When you have completed the chapters and have developed a fuller understanding for the elements presented, you will grow into a much more efficiency-driven person who will use ethics as a way of life as normally as you breathe.

Each decision will be made for the right reason. It will be the best choice you can make under the circumstances, and it will save your life as you work the day-to-day routine as a security officer.

The concepts will open your heart to a better understanding of your fellow human beings and allow you to interact with them with empathy, compassion, and respect.

CRIME DETECTION

In order to make a legal detention of a person and properly conduct an interview, whether in the field or in a confined space, the security officer must know the fundamentals of crime detection.

To give the security