Safety & Security Consulting

Today the world is a much more complex and tumultuous place than it was even ten years ago. Every day the demands of the world and security therein become confusing. Compliance with local, state, and federal regulations also must be navigated, while maintaining the right amount of security.

At USTASC we provide consulting on key areas that our clients have come to expect and demand from a security consulting provider.

Facility Planning

When designing, building, or upgrading a facility it is imporant to take into account the requirements of the state, federal and local government. It is also imporant to provide u fettered access to those who should have it and prevent and discourage those who would take advanatge of key security flaws. We review blue prints and overviews of facility plans to advise where to place cameras, access control systems, and alarm systems as well

as to provide emergency planning for staff members in the event of an active shooter incident, burglary, robbery natural disaster, medical emergency and alike. Our knowledge of state and federal guidelines makes our services invaluable to our customers.

We evaluate key access points and vulnerabilities both physical and electronic for new or existing facilities such as hospitals, schools, medical facilities, cannabis-related facilities, places of worship, and the workplace. The old saying, "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail" is very true when related to security by design. A failure of due diligence for any organization to take into account key security vulnerabilities can result in catastrophic aftermaths as seen in active shooter events. Organizations can be held civilly liable for claims against them if proper security protocols are not followed or planned for. Let us plan for the worst, so you can do your best" SM

Neighborhoods/HOA's

USTASC has provided security consulting to various neighborhoods and HOA's across the state. As security consultants, we take an overhead look at the neighborhood, demographics, crime statistics, entry/exit points, traffic control, speed issues, pedestrian safety, interaction with police, interview residents, security patrols, alarm systems, and much more to deliver a report to the board of directors on the current state of their security within the community as well as recommendations for improvement. This report includes a comprehensive detail of statistics as well as direct observation over the course of several days working within the community.

Hospitals/Schools/Places of Worship

We also contract with hospitals/schools/and places of worship to review their security protocols, security equipment, security training, and access control in order to determine recommendations for change to enhance security protections. Many times, these are soft targets which must be hardened through upgrades and security equipment, changes to policy, training for security staff, and upgrades to environmental security.

Active Shooter Prevention

Unfortunately, active shooters are a sad part of today’s society. While the government, local, state, and federal authorities try to grapple with the social problems of active shooters, one thing is clear, it will not stop and the government does not have the answer. Active shooter incidents are only getting worse and society clearly can’t depend on law enforcement to protect active shooters from invading our workplaces, places of worship, schools, shopping centers, and hospitals.

The main question is how to stop, prevent, or curtail an active shooter incident. There are only two ways:

Security by Design

The harder it is for a person to enter a premise, gaining access to areas of mass congregations of people, the harder it is to kill or harm them. This is where USTASC steps in by observing the property, policies, and procedures, and recommend changes and upgrades. USTASC can even install access control, cameras, and alarm …systems. Security stations such as those in airports help prevent people bringing weapons aboard an aircraft however, those complex systems are not practical in everyday life. Some properties cannot be secured because they are publicly accessible, such as a shopping mall. In this situation, we secure the premises as best possible for instance with surveillance and then turn to training of personnel.

Training of Personnel

Although there are many different programs for active shooter prevention such as ALERT, ALICE, and alike, they break down in two critical areas:

1) They are cookie cutter programs designed for mass audiences. The programs are “roadshows” that typically go from venue to venue providing the same training no matter what the environment.

2) They do not take into account the layout of the facility. They do not provide training specific to the location.

USTASC provides specific training for each facility. Once we meet the personnel and observe the layout of the facility we provide active shooter training specific to that facility space. We also train personnel on how to react under stressful conditions.
There are two types of incident response for citizens, armed and unarmed.
The training for unarmed citizens is to prevent, control, and survive an active shooter incident using only what is provided for around them at the location. We train personnel to utilize cover and concealment, exit strategies, and direct aggressive action. Typically, this is a one day course (8 hours).

Armed personnel training is a much more complex in that we train for the following: Basic handgun manipulation, tactical pistol (moving and shooting, shooting from cover and concealment, line of fire issues, the force continuum, less than lethal options, command presents, dealing with the police, writing a police statement, laws and use of force, and shooting under stress), and lastly live simulated training with roll players in the environment. The major gap with most active shooter training for citizens is they tend to be more informational than direct action related. In an active shooter situation, unfortunately, many times the direct action is required to save lives.

For most locations we recommend our four day classes which can be spread over the course of two or four weeks:

Day 1 – Basic Pistol for armed staff (meets Delaware and Florida out of state permit requirements)
Day 2 – Tactical Pistol for armed staff (meets Maryland handgun permit requirements)
Day 3 – Prevention and awareness training for unarmed staff and guests
Day 4 – Direct simulations of active shooter in the facility utilizing the most realistic training possible, UTM marker rounds and live roll players.

Special Police Department Training and Establishment

Maryland Special Police Officers are police officers that have full arrest powers but are constrained to the limits of their property, although they may pursue suspects off their property in order to conduct an arrest. Special Police Officers maybe armed or unarmed depending on your needs.

Special Police officers require a minimum of 80 hours of training that is mandated by the Maryland Police and Corrections Commission prior to application for a special police officer commission. It is also required that Special Police Officers are employed directly by the property they patrol and cannot be employed by a contract security company. The property must be a ligitimate business and have a lease or own the property that the Special Police Officer patrols.

We offer specail police officer training as well as consulting services in order to establish an effective and legal special police department for private businesses throughout Maryland. There are many factors that must be considered in establishing a legal Special Police Department that may require businesses to hire a security consulting company, like USTASC, in order to maintain compliance, perform audits, complete licensing requirements/training, and establish policies and proceedures. The establishment of policies and proceedures is a critical componant of having an effect Special Police Department because it limits liability and establishes clear lines of conduct and proceedures for employed officers.