Combat training of video surveillance operators.

As a rule, all the «jambs» of security services in emergency situations are a direct consequence of hiring untrained personnel or employees who do not have practical experience in critical conditions. Having witnessed unfamiliar and therefore unqualified events, most people tend to panic; this, in turn, significantly reduces the ability to adequately assess the situation and convey it to those responsible for making operational decisions. In reality, this manifests itself in incoherent hurried speech, the inability to focus on priority areas and even simply explain in which specific place of the facility the abnormal situation is observed: «There, they broke in, what to do?! » Who «they» are, where exactly they broke in and why the operator is asking questions, what should he do — becomes clear only during the investigation. In real incidents, all the imperfections of the decision-making chain come to light. For example, the response of the duty officer of the response service also plays an important role — one ill-considered phrase can finally plunge the operator into panic and reduce the effectiveness of the security actions to zero.

Once, during a training alert, the head of the security service of a large company decided to play the role of a security violator — he entered the protected perimeter without warning. While the response unit was figuring out what had happened and what actions needed to be taken, the chief managed to enter the control center and silently stand behind the operators. And they continued to enthusiastically argue with the security, trying to explain where exactly the violator had «infiltrated». What to do?

To begin with, inform the employees involved in ensuring security that the organization plans to periodically conduct training events. They must understand that these events are aimed at stimulating their career growth and increasing their work potential — and no sanctions will be applied to those whose actions are inadequate.

Introduce training scenarios in increasing degrees of complexity — so that operators can get used to the gradual tightening of requirements and levels of responsibility. That is, at first, time standards can be «stretched out», and the set of possible actions can be limited. And increase the complexity of tasks from one event to another, while reducing the standard response time.

Make sure that training events are not too predictable. For example, you should not involve employees in the details of what they will encounter during the exercise. If, say, you are training an emergency medical service, then employees do not necessarily need to know in advance what kind of physical injuries they will encounter — otherwise, you will not be able to understand whether the resource entrusted to you will cope with their tasks in the conditions of a real incident.

A LESSON FOR GOOD LUCKS
Transcript of an audio recording made at a security post.
— Okay, shift is on site. Who saw a yellow «Zhiguli»? Yesterday between 22.45 and 23.10 it drove in. When it left — ****** knows.
— (inaudible)
— WHAT?! What model?! I should be asking you! You're fired! Get your things out! Question for those who remain: has anyone seen a yellow «Zhiguli»?
— (inaudible)
— Archive? Well, where is your archive, show me.
— (inaudible)
— How did it get «deleted»? Who deleted it? Did you save space on the hard drive? But you lost your work space. Goodbye, get out. Well, who saw the yellow «Zhiguli»?
— I see it, I see it! A «Kopeyka», a rusty one, 21-17 MGB?
— Where are you looking, ******?
— Out the window. There it is, the «Zhiguli», it just drove up to our porch.
— Okay, everyone is free, disperse! (steps, door creaks, steps again)
— Sergey Evgenievich, I… was talking about pay…
— You're a bit early. Here, take your five hundred. Your «kopek» saved us. I told you — they were sleeping on duty, and you were afraid. What's there to be afraid of, even if there was an alarm — we don't even have any weapons left. Oh well. The main thing is that the problem of downsizing has been solved.
— Well, I'm glad. If anything happens, contact me…
— And according to our plan, training is scheduled quarterly. I'll call in April, bye, thanks for your work.

Pay attention first of all to how the operators communicate key details of what is happening — the location of the incident, descriptions of the people and what they are armed with, etc. Carefully analyze the verbal communication during the training incident.

The main focus should be on how effectively the employees communicated with each other during the exercises — whether they remained calm, whether they controlled the intonation of their own speech, whether they accurately conveyed information on the facts of what was happening. Make sure that you managed to avoid or promptly «resolve» conflict situations. Identify potential points of service disagreements and conflicts with other interested services and employee groups, as well as ways to overcome them.

Be sure to have a «debriefing». The most effective way is to first focus on the positives, then go over the weak points, and then return to the positives again. And finally, address the employees with a short message, the purpose of which is to strengthen mutual trust, not destroy it.

Give the trained employees the opportunity to formulate the results themselves, as well as the useful lessons learned as a result of the event. Focus on how the conclusions made by the staff can be useful in a real situation or during the continuation of the training process — so that they understand the practical value of the classes.

Why drills? Often we have to observe the following picture: the operator mistakenly believes himself to be well prepared, and the drills conducted become an impetus for reconsidering his attitude to work. In a situation close to reality, such employees realize the real requirements for the set of operator skills and abilities — and therefore begin to make efforts to meet these requirements. This is a wonderful means of stimulating advanced training, and good development of one aspect of activity can lead to «pull-ups» in other areas — already due to the fact that operators begin to pay attention to their own reaction to events and begin to manage it.

For security video surveillance operators, the skills obtained as a result of drills can be very different — from mastering the intricacies of using cameras and understanding the capabilities of the system to identifying the behavioral features and details of the observed scene and mastering effective communication techniques. That is, priorities are given to training events, as a result of which each employee has incentives to improve their professional level. However, with regular training, events can also be used to hone group skills — improving the response parameters of the entire security service as a whole and giving the management team an understanding of how various subsystems of the same service can work together.

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