Threat Management And Protection, Inc.

Threat Management And Protection, Inc. is a fully integrated security solutions company that operates at local and international levels. TMAP has a history of effective responses to the multiple challenges that today’s businesses face. I am confident that we can provide the level of service and response your firm requires. Threat Management And Protection, Inc. is positioned to provide workplace violence crisis response, risk management, armed security, investigative and consulting services to multinational corporations, Fortune 500 companies, the middle market and other organizations and high net worth individuals. CEO RJ Kirschner, MBA and Senior Director Paul M. French bring over 60 years of hands on experience that focuses on delivering the goods and personalized client service. Our commitment to quality work performance has driven our growth across the country and around the world. Our investigators, armed security personnel and consultants are poised to respond to wherever our clients operate. They collectively provide an integrated and cross disciplinary approach to problem-solving and crisis resolution focused on the bottom line, both financially and ethically, in compliance with applicable laws both at home and abroad.

CLIENT PROFILE: Threat Management And Protection, Inc. operates on a client centric philosophy. Our key task is to assist in preventing or resolving client issues and helping our clients continue to build their business success. Our Investigators, Consultants and Armed Security Professionals are dynamic experts who deliver the goods, while maintaining a personalized, client-oriented orientation, unmatched in the industry. TMAP is experienced across all industries, ranging from government services to energy to telecommunications. TMAP’s global reach can deliver the goods on any client need, anywhere, and anytime the need may arise. www.tmap-worldwide.com RJ Kirschner, MBA’s Specialties: Threat Assessment, Risk Management, Security and Business Consulting, Corporate, civil & criminal investigations, Executive Protection, Armed Security, Pre-Employment Background Screening www.tmap-backgrounds.com - Litigation support: intellectual property, global projects, employment matters-personnel investigations/crisis response of security personnel, financial matters & fraud investigations, dispute resolution support, Due Diligence for M&A, product liability & toxic tort & other matters.

Risk Management

Dead clients don't pay

By Lou Moench EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The new 'First Car' has super powers. But other extreme safety measures are out there for the rest of us. Full-time service runs $100,000 a year up to several million.

When Barack Obama was elected president, America got more than just a new leader. It also got a new car. A foot taller than all the other Secret Service cars and loaded with the newest advances in probably unnecessary technology, it caused a media stir on Inauguration Day. In a recent article in the Los Angeles Times, automobile reporter Dan Neil wrote, "Barack Obama's new limo -- code-named Stagecoach -- is a massive, mobile redoubt, a cross between a Cadillac and a hardened missile silo."

Neil speculates that America's new 15,000-pound First Car has several inches of outer armor, an undercoating of Kevlar and other materials to prevent damage from grenades and bombs beneath it, thick bullet-resistant glass in all windows and an interior air system made to prevent the entrance of poisonous gases. Combine those measures with "run-flat" tires that will drive safely even when shot out, and you've got something quite effective against everything from a mob of people carrying pitchforks to commandos with high-powered weapons.

But if you want your own version of a Stagecoach, don't call its maker, General Motors Corp. Even though GM could use the business, it's not going to sell you one. In fact, you can't even buy a used version because they're destroyed and replaced every four years. Instead, you'll need a company like the International Armoring Corp., with plants around the world that equip cars with armor. In its 16-year history, IAC has sold 5,500 armored vehicles in 58 countries.

Armament options are similar to Stagecoach, but not as intensive. All armor is hidden: The entire passenger compartment, including pillar posts and floorboards, is sheathed from inside with ordnance- and shrapnel-stopping material. There is a balancing act here: Retrofitting is done to existing cars that were never meant to carry that much weight. That can make for sluggish handling, even though to survive an attack a car must be nimble enough to get away.

"The most critical area to armor is your glass," says IAC chief executive Mark Burton. "Ninety percent of the rounds are aimed at your glass, but because they're bad shots we armor the rest of the vehicle as well."

There are several international standards for protection -- all based around what kind of firepower you think you might encounter. IAC uses the European "B" system, and its two most popular ratings are B4 and B6. A B4 will stop a .44 Magnum. If you worry less about Dirty Harry and more about the Taliban, a B6 rating will defend against an AK-47, an M-16 or a high-powered rifle such as a .308 Winchester. To stop armor-piercing rounds, you'll need a B7, usually requested for heads of state. A B4 and above will thwart explosive devices from underneath the car, protect the fuel tank and provide run-flat tires. Extras such as a bullet-proof battery, dual-ram bumpers and an internal oxygen system are available. It's all a matter of cost and weight.

IAC can armor almost any newer model of automobile, from Porsches to Suburbans. If you bring your own car, IAC will fit it to a B4 level for about $48,500, and a B6 level will set you back around $65,000.

Once you've pimped your ride, you or your driver will need to enroll in one of the many schools around the country teaching evasive driving. Head out, for example, to Willow Springs Raceway, in the arid high desert of southern Kern County in California, next to Edwards Air Force Base, where the Rick Seaman Stunt Driving School is located. Chris Christensen, one of the school's trainers, stripped to the waist and dangling a cigarette from his lips, will take you for a demonstration ride in a dented Chevy Caprice. He starts slowly with a couple of sideway skids, then accelerates, roaring the unmuffled, V-8 powered car up to 40 mph. Deafening screeches of tires and clouds of black, acrid smoke accompany neck-snapping changes in direction. He makes a series of 90-degree, high-speed turns, mixes in several 180s and a 360. Then comes the coup de grâce: a reverse 180. Taking the car down a ramp backwards at 50 miles an hour ("You have to be going at least 50," he explains while driving), he whipsaws it around until it heads forward again.

For $2,675, owner Rick Seaman offers a three-day course to train you in such evasive techniques. If under attack, he says, "there are three moves a security driver needs to know: a 90-degree skid turn at high speed, a 180-degree turn for the quickest way to change direction and a reverse 180." Also included in the package is a way to thwart a bad guy attempting a "PIT" -- pursuit intervention technique or precision immobilization technique -- maneuver, shoving your rear bumper from behind at high speed, sending you into a spin. Seaman teaches a countermove that puts you in position to perform the PIT on the other car and send the other driver off the road, presumably to his doom. The course also provides security experts who teach how to plan the safest driving route possible, how to employ alternate routes and how to look ahead while driving to avoid choke points and spot warning signs of potential ambush.

If your security issues are serious enough to armor your car and learn to drive like Steve McQueen, an ounce of prevention might be worth several reverse 180s. Companies such as World Protection Group Inc. offer a constellation of personal security services. Although its web site lists a Beverly Hills address, WPG is actually headquartered in a nondescript office near one of Southern California's smaller airports. ("We don't want the bad guys to know exactly where we are," says CEO Kent Moyer.) Moyer, a former karate instructor who opened several martial arts studios before working security for the Playboy mansion in Los Angeles and launching his own firm, is the author of the dignitary protection training curriculum for the Los Angeles and Orange County sheriff's departments. He says WPG operates in 20 countries, has a full-time staff of more than 200 and a pool of about 5,000 trained agents to call on worldwide. He touts his company as more than simply a bodyguard service. While off-duty police and big-muscled bodyguards are trained to react to problems, he promises to proactively seek them out and prevent them.

In addition to security agents who accompany a client, he might recommend a three-level security system for the home, consisting of an outer fence with cameras, ground patrols, the creation of a secured safe room and maybe even agents inside the home. Moyer's firm offers threat assessments, countersurveillance and Secret Service-style advance teams who secure a client's future stops.

Moyer relates a cautionary tale about travel to Mexico. A few years ago four businessmen traveled to a large Mexican city to inspect a resort for possible purchase. Their host, purporting to own the property, arranged accommodations and security. They were picked up at the airport in an armored Porsche Cayenne with motorcycle escorts wearing Mexican police uniforms. Their host soon revealed that he did not own the hotel; in fact, he was the leader of a local drug gang. He beat one of the businessmen and demanded a large ransom. Before the ransom could be delivered from the U.S., the men managed to escape to the airport and returned home. The men contacted WPG after their return, and Moyer says his investigation led U.S. officials to make property seizures and arrests that left the drug lord crippled.

"Right now Mexico is looking like the new Iraq," Moyer says. "For work down there, we set up security on this end and only use local agents we have worked with or trained ourselves."

There are other security outfits similar to WPG. One such firm is Threat Management and Protection Inc. CEO R.J. Kirschner and senior director Paul French emphasize their ability to protect a company's assets, computer systems, intellectual property and personnel.

Kirschner, a former California State parole agent and private investigator, and French, a former British military officer who managed security for the Royal Family, worked together with different security entities for years, then merged their talents in TMAP. "Personal protection is a cerebral function, not a physical function," says French. "We expect our agents to have standardized training and far more skills than just their protective skills. One example: I may be the first responder to a medical emergency suffered by my principal in a remote location in South America. He might be a man in his 50s or 60s, a little overweight, suffering a lot of stress. He may have a heart attack. There's a saying in the security business: 'Dead clients don't pay.' It's our job to keep him alive, to know where the nearest medical treatment facility is and get him there no matter what."

Of course, the challenges may also be of a standard shoot-'em-up variety. French tells of four geophysicists working for an oil company in Ecuador who were attacked by Colombian guerrillas while traveling in a a three-vehicle convoy. The security team, faced with AK-47 fire, decided their only hope was to accelerate through their attackers. They got their clients away unharmed.

So now you've got an armored car, can re-create the chase checkpoint scene from "The Year of Living Dangerously" and have bodyguards who can deliver a baby and declaim on Proust. But you're still lacking an important piece of your security umbrella: air power. Not only a chopper and crew to whisk you from a private jet in Teterboro, N.J., but one to extract you from a dicey situation in Central America as well.

Michael Rogers, CEO of Los Angeles Helicopters LLC, personifies this side of security. Rogers flies, rents, charters, repairs, and sells helicopters. Rogers has an important place in TMAP's web of professional relationships.

"Say we have to extract a principal in Central America very quickly," says French.

"We can call Michael, and with his contacts -- which are global -- he has the credibility with locals there to get us an aircraft that can help us do the job."

Costs for these kinds of services? For full-time service the price can range from $100,000 a year up to several million. Is it worth it? Besides remaining alive, WPG's Moyer offers his own definition of value as well: "Failure of an assignment is any incident that embarrasses the client in any way."

Workplace Violence News - WorkplaceViolenceNews.com

Mass layoffs put bosses in the line of fire

On Nov. 14, 2008, Jing Wu, who had been terminated from his engineering job at software startup SiPort Inc. a few hours earlier, returned to the company’s Santa Clara, Calif., headquarters and requested a meeting with three executives. They agreed, and the four went into a conference room. At some point, Mr. Wu allegedly pulled out a gun and shot all three to death. He was captured the next day and now faces murder charges.

While Mr. Wu was reportedly terminated for performance reasons, many observers fear similar scenarios during the next several months because the number of layoffs at companies nationwide is expected to rise.

There is no ironclad guarantee someone will not become violent after being laid off or fired, experts say. But there are steps companies can take to significantly mitigate the risk, thus ensuring the safety of their employees and protecting their firms from potential liability.

Many experts say they expect more such incidents. "We know that’s going to be happening more and more as the economy worsens," said Michael Tabman, president of Kansas City, Mo.-based SPIRIT Asset Protection L.L.C.

Observers recommend having a layoff security plan in place. "The critical thing is to have a plan, have an established method for releasing people," said Paul French, senior director at Threat Management & Protection Inc. in Huntington Beach, Calif. "When the numbers don't look good, you have to have a planning meeting, and you have to have a strategy already in place" to handle layoffs, he said.

Employers should give as much warning as possible of an impending layoff, observers say. "The tendency of many employers is to keep everything as secret as possible," so when the news finally does break, people feel taken aback, and believe the employer has acted treacherously, said Richard Denenberg, director of Red Hook, N.Y.-based Workplace Solutions Inc.

"The temperate approach would be to try to share with the employees whatever the fortunes of the company are," and warn them it may become necessary at some point to downsize operations, he said.

Be sure to give employees the reasons for the layoffs, making it clear individuals are not being singled out, experts say. "Let them know as fully and completely as possible," why they are being selected for the layoff, said Mr. Denenberg.

If you know, for instance, they have worked very hard, tell them, "You’ve done a great job, but the particular product that your team is making is one that we're going to have to discontinue."

Treat employees with dignity, say observers. "You’ve just got to treat employees with the same dignity and respect as you did to hire them, which is being professional about it, but also being empathetic and sympathetic," said Deborah Manning, former director, recruiting and affirmative action program manager at Houston-based energy company Dynegy Inc.

Avoid the "walk of shame," said Gregory Bangs, vice president and worldwide crime, kidnap, ransom and workplace violence product manager at Warren, N.J.-based Chubb & Son Inc. "Give them the courtesy of not marching out with a security person."

At Dynegy Inc., laid-off employees would be accompanied by a manager when they went back to their desk to remove their personal belongings, said Ms. Manning. Layoffs also were scheduled for the lunch hour, or when other employees were not around, while another manager might be posted by the door to divert anyone from coming in, said Ms. Manning, who is now an executive recruiter. Experts also advise giving laid-off employees as much help as possible including, for instance, outplacement services.

At Dynegy, the company would verbally explain issues such as severance and unemployment when workers are being laid off, but also give them a letter outlining those issues, recognizing people often do not really hear what is being said when they are upset, said Ms. Manning.

Be alert to what line supervisors and managers say about particular employees to identify those who may become violent, then take appropriate security measures, experts say.

"You have to look at whom you're releasing and why," said Mr. French. "What do we know about these people? What do we know about their lifestyle? What other influences are there in their worlds? Do they have four kids in college? Is one of their relatives critically ill? Are they going through a messy divorce? All of these things are additional pressures."

"We all have our tipping point," said Mr. Tabman. "If you know your people, and you keep your ears open, you'll know how dangerous an environment you're entering" and can approach it with the caution that may be called for.

J.R. Roberts, of Savannah, Ga.-based J.R. Roberts Security Strategies, said if somebody is a known hothead, "then typically you'll have a security presence" to deal with the situation.

"You have to have some sort of security there to maintain peace," either somewhere they can monitor the situation or in the room "in the guise of being an individual from corporate," said Mr. French.

In addition, "We always tell people, ‘Never, ever, put your key people together in a meeting" with employees being terminated, said Mr. French. "It puts you in a position of negotiating something that’s already happened."

There also should be security measures in place after the layoff, say observers. "Ramp up the security during the ‘golden week’ after a firing," said Judd N. Green, president of the Indianapolis-based Green Consulting Group Inc. Hire additional security guards and change access codes, he said.

If a person comes back with a gun and cannot get in, "chances are they're just going to go away," said Mr. Bangs.

Richard F. Kane, an attorney with Moore & Van Allen P.L.L.C. in Charlottesville, N.C., said, "If you identify any particular individual that you think is prone to violence, then I would have security pay particular attention" to that person’s movement, including knowing their car’s make and model and calling for reinforcement if he or she shows up in the parking lot.

At Dynegy, workers are warned against lending their building access badges to laid-off workers, or inviting them back into the workplace, said Ms. Manning. If they do come back, they are subject to the same security measures as other visitors, including a metal detector, she said.

Most observers recommend employers refuse requests for meetings after an employee has been laid off, because there is little to be gained, and it could put employees at risk. "What’s the point of bringing them back into the workplace and rehashing things?" asked Greg S. Labate, an attorney with Sheppard Mullin Richter & L.L.P. in Costa Mesa, Calif. "That leads to further problems."

Most observers recommend against laying people off on a Friday. Historically, laid-off people who are subsequently violent were let go on a Friday, said Mr. French. "They have two days to sit at home and basically brood about what happened," he said.

But not everyone agrees. Human resource professionals recommend layoffs be conducted on a Friday "because the thinking is a weekend at home with the family will help calm things down," Mr. Kane said.

Experts say many problems can be avoided much earlier, if companies conduct careful pre-hiring background checks. "The biggest measure I think people fail to pay attention to is pre-employment screening," said Mr. French

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Threat Management And Protection, Inc.

HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA UNITED STATES HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif., Feb. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Southern California- headquartered risk management company Threat Management and Protection, Inc (TMAP) has launched a program to minimize the risk for employers downsizing their workforce. "Emotions are running high. Workplaces are tense enough in this economy, but when you throw in the added tension of layoffs, the stress can produce violent outcomes if not properly managed," said TMAP President R.J. Kirschner.

Kirschner noted the tragic case of a terminated employee in Santa Clara last November who returned to his former workplace the same day and executed three senior executives; and last month's case involving the fired Los Angeles health services worker who killed himself and his family citing his own financial troubles while blaming his former employer.

"It does not have to be like this," said Kirschner. "In late 2008 we identified the potential for lay-offs and workforce reductions in several of our client's business sectors," said Paul French TMAP's Senior Director. "Our experience in providing workplace violence intervention and mitigation services allowed us to draw upon previous case data to develop an effective and cost sensitive program for companies facing difficult employment decisions."

"We understand that companies are forced to consider downsizing because times are tough financially. Our programs are designed to be cost-effective for companies of all sizes," said Kirschner. The TMAP program stresses the five preventive steps every company must take before any downsizing. Companies interested in protecting their workforce through these turbulent times are encouraged to call Paul French at 888-926-8110.

According to the US Department of Labor in December, there were 2,275 mass layoff actions, involving 226,117 workers. California recorded the highest number of initial claims filed for unemployment benefits, due to mass layoff events in December with 43,265. The rate of unemployment reached nearly 10 percent.

"When we look at previous cases involving the potential for workplace violence, we have identified pre-incident indicators and behavioral warning symptoms," said French." Our plan integrates this knowledge with security and investigative tools that complement a company's Human Resource and Legal department's response. When it comes to the release of any employee, prior planning pays."

http://www.threatprotect.com Contact: Paul M. French Threat Management And Protection, Inc. 888-926-8110