Principals and stakeholders, you need to understand this: Like war, business, and these senseless murders, it’s all about YOUR “OODA Loops” and YOUR ability to interrupt/stop/change your adversary’s/competitor’s OODA Loops.
Col. John Boyd’s Decision Making Process (Observation, Orientation, Decision, and ACTION) or the “OODA Loop” lies in the very heart of this issue, and ignoring it will only exacerbate the problem.
This is partly due to the fact that the bad guys initiate their planning well in advance of the attack: that is to say, they are already completing numerous OODA Loops prior to their attack. This could be hours, days, weeks, even months, or years in the making. The point here is that there are lethal OODA Loops being planned and closed in this process; they are planning, are you?
This is true across the spectrum of violence from the individual to the army, to the nation-state; it’s universal. While this article is focused on the San Jose murders, one could easily copy and paste with different times, places, and events, but the outcome would remain the same for ignoring this reality.
From the article: “The sheriff’s office is next door to the rail yard”.
Let that sink in – and NO, it’s NOT a critique of police response times, tactics, policies, or procedures – it’s about reality. It’s about time, distance, will, the right tools, and sufficient training. Again, it’s all about OODA Loops.
You have probably heard people offhandedly comment that “When you have seconds to live the police are only minutes away” but what you need to understand is that this is a truism – it’s not a joke.
The LEOs most often have sufficient training, the tools, and the will by the bushel basket load (at least the ones I interact with), but even after they are notified and dispatched, they must travel a distance to act – and that takes time. And when you are not actively working to affect change in your adversary because you’re waiting on someone else to save you and your loved ones, time is working against you – because you are not effecting change on any of your adversary’s OODA Loops.
When the bad guy picks the time and place and you and your loved ones happen to be in the immediate vicinity and in the crosshairs, you are quite literally “out of time.”
This is where all passive security fails you, where your security theatre shatters.
Start the clock, because in that time and in that place, you ARE the only “first responder” on hand – and your failures will be the most costly of your life.
The U.S. Department of Justice tells us that in the average mass shooting situation one life is lost about every seven seconds.
To be fair, these numbers aren’t entirely made up of people who are immediately killed on the scene; they are people that were wounded, whose lives could have been saved with simple “stop the bleed” tools and training that you can have, and all of which the EMS does have. But EMS will not apply their skills until the “scene” (your enterprise) has been secured by the police. And while you’re waiting, if you don’t have the appropriate tools and training, people are bleeding out WHILE more victims are being created. Time is life, and it’s running out for all the wrong people at this time, in this scenario. It can be a really long wait for the survivors and wounded alike.
Your direct proximity to a hostile event means that there is NO (or very little) time required for your adversary to close the distance and work his will (closing his OODA Loops) on your enterprise – your employees/family/friends.
Conversely: If you had the will to resist violence, and you had both the tools and the training to be able to effectively exercise your own will in order to change the outcome dramatically by interrupting/stopping/changing your attackers OODA Loops, this would be an entirely different scenario.
However, if you don’t have the tools AND training already in place – if you haven’t completed your OWN planning OODA Loops and lack the ability to interrupt/stop/change your attacker’s OODA Loops at the time and place of contact – it’s too late.
And this answer’s Gov. Gavin Newsom’s question about his observation of “There’s a sameness to this…” which in turn “begs the damn question of what the hell is going on in the United States of America?”
The Governor, like many Americans, is seeing a pattern – because it’s there. The pattern we are seeing is the pattern of failure, of applying the wrong strategy to a tactical problem that can’t be fixed with a slow, centralized security response – because it’s a rapid, decentralized threat. We are seeing proper techniques and tactics being applied correctly – but at the wrong TIME.
You would have to be in denial or delusional NOT to see it. Hell, most in the security industry have been screaming about it for decades, and decades, and decades – no joke, true story.
Unfortunately, people like Gov. Newsom and other elected politicians seem to know nothing about Boyd’s Decision Making Process and therefore about reality. Instead of acknowledging the problems and trying something different, something that has been proven to work in both simulators and real life, they instead double down on the same failed paradigms and policies. They seem to be the “high-minded” who believe by wanting something badly and throwing more of the same at the problem will change things for the better.
They are dead wrong, and Americans are paying the price for their ignorance and impenetrable hubris every day.
Centralized solutions to decentralized threats can’t and don’t work. The slow, centralized model is fragile and ineffective when faced with decentralized threats. And they don’t work on an exponentially increasing scale the further away (time/distance/action/reaction) from the immediate problem at hand, because in every second that the victim’s OODA Loop is expanding, the attacker just keeps closing his own OODA Loops.
Again, this is universal. Boyd is in fact, in the details.
Having said all that, there IS hope, because you CAN, in fact, change everything. It is surprisingly inexpensive to move your enterprise from a passive, defenseless state to a truly ACTIVELY defended enterprise. For the cost of one licensed and armed, full-time contract security guard, you can vet, select, equip, and train six or more fully capable security operators from within your own workforce.
You CAN quickly move away from expensive and ineffective security theatre that could leave your friends and family members dead or dying, traumatized, and everyone in both emotional and financial ruin; to a very real and capable defense.
An active defense empowers your enterprise to saves lives right NOW, at the point of contact, when your actions matter the most, in the middle of the “critical response gap” when you would otherwise be waiting for first responders who are deadly minutes away – precisely when there is no help but your own to be had.
Again, from the article: the Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith told reporters that when “our deputy saw him, he took his life.”
Catch that: there was NO fight. The bad guy’s OODA Loops were simply interrupted by the sheriff’s, and he ended his own life.
This comes as no surprise. As is most often the case, credible armed resistance ends the nightmare scenario almost immediately, precisely BECAUSE it interrupts/stops/changes your adversary’s OODA Loops right “now.”
On the other hand, waiting (expanding OODA Loops) for help to arrive – even when they are just “next door” – costs lives, livelihoods, and inflicts needless and yet preventable trauma on not just your enterprise, but across the community and our nation as a whole.
You can build the ability to confidently and competently defend your enterprise right “now.” Doing so is the most effective, decentralized, achievable, empowering, moral, ethical, legal, and scalable – and the simplest, wisest, and most cost effective action your enterprise can take to truly secure itself.
Stop relying on ineffective and expensive passive security theatre that hinges on others’ response times. Develop an extremely effective ACTIVE defense that you, your loved ones, and your community can rely on 24/7/365.
You can do this and it’s easier than you think. Contact us, it would be our honor to show you how.