Security and the Bystander Class

In the private sector, the security function earns its keep by preventing losses. Chasing down agents of loss, whether thief, embezzler, vandal, or assassin, is the plot of make-believe that pays in only two places: fictional entertainment and societal policing. The one produces bold heroes, dastardly villains, and stories that consumers buy in the form of a novel or a blockbuster movie ticket. The other aims at a social benefit of catching bad guys to prove that crime doesn't pay. Or at least that it doesn't pay that much or without risk of punishment that offsets potential gain. In the private sector of a going concern, where every function must contribute more than it costs, however, those lofty goals earn little more than lip service.

Security directors who concentrate solely on catching crooks and making cases for their successful prosecution may be tolerated when the enterprise is profitable enough to afford them. Perhaps such directors hail from the FBI or local police chief's office, bringing positive public relations value with their marquee billing. But if that is all they do, these security directors seldom survive the first corporate crisis or rise to the level of trusted adviser to executive management. Why? Because their value is mainly postmortem. They react to the loss rather than prevent it. In the past, they may have at least intervened while a loss was occurring to curb its severity, as in stepping forward to block a punch aimed at a boss or to catch a wayward employee before the latter has bolted with the entire bank deposit and the business's weekly profits. These days, however, security finds it harder and harder to safely make such interventions. The liability for making a wrong call or interfering with civil rights, employee status,or presumed repute all but foreclose security's chances of making routine protective interventions. (Another term for such intervention as applied to the workplace is lawful disruption, which takes up a chapter in Managing the Insider Threat: No Dark Corners -- a diverting romp for compulsive readers.)

We have become a nation of bystanders. Gone is the day when the average citizen would rise to a call for help from a stranger or even from a friend being victimized on the job or in the street. Again, liability deters intervention, assuming one has any concern for coworkers or fellow citizens in the first place.

What do we tell our general public? Don't put yourself at risk. Call the professionals. Let the police or the security staff handle this. It's what they are paid for. What do we then tell security? Observe and report. Don't play cop. Don't think you have any more arrest power than any other citizen, and don't expect your employer to defend you in a lawsuit if you get this wrong. What do we tell the cops? Prioritize. There aren't enough of you to go around, so send your officers only where you need them most.

Result? Predators soon figure out that their chances of getting away with victimizing people and organizations keep getting better all the time. We are programming society at large to turn into bystanders, and we are discouraging intervention on the part of average citizens, security staff, and even police who are in the best position to curb loss events in progress. At the same time, prevention takes a back seat. It isn't sexy or spectacular -- just vital and cost effective.

Some 20 years ago, Charles Sykes pronounced us a nation of victims in his book of the same title. Today, we are not only easy victims but passive bystanders. In this context, all it takes to savage us is a robust class of daring villain. Such villains need not scheme in dark corners to strike behind our backs if we program ourselves into chronic self-neutering that comes with the ascendancy of the bystander class.

-- Nick Catrantzos