DETROIT – Members of Eastern Michigan InfraGard were treated to a behind-the-scenes tour of the General Motors Renaissance center on December 7th. GM security staff provided some eye popping factors on the numbers they are responsible for and how they maintain order in a structure that houses more people than many towns. The walking tour included crisis response centers, the control center where all systems monitoring is done, as well as discussion on coordination of emergencies and responses to GM staff worldwide.
One tip provided is that it is never safe to scratch a private spot in or around that building! GM staffs 24 EMT trained personnel and three paramedics on premises, and between the workers on the floors and the hotel guests respond to a large number of calls and make on average 35 runs a month to local hospitals. Video monitoring is coordinated between GM and local law enforcement, which aids in identifying any monitoring that may be occurring at multiple locations that would not be noticed otherwise.
GM security is also the voluntary provider of the InfraGard summary that most members receive in their emails each morning. The event was well attended and provided everyone with a first-hand experience of how a world class security organization is designed and operated. Thanks to everyone involved from General Motors for hosting us.
On a Federal level
Back in July of this year a group of US and Canadian Mayors attended a Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) Summit just south of us in Windsor, Ontario. Those attending focused on:
? Allowing uninhibited legitimate flow of people
? Providing readily available, accessible and low cost documents
? Improving capacity and accessibility of FAST/NEXUS
? Accepting a combination of documents, driver?s license with birth certificates and/or another secondary document
? Providing short term passes for discretionary/spontaneous travelers
? Special consideration for minors
? Extending the implementation of WHTI
? Setting a voluntary pilot project
? Recommending U.S. government undertake a cost/benefit analysis
? Engaging Canadian Government
? Engaging the public ? Communications/Marketing plan
A few days ago the WHTI was extended. A recently signed bill passed primarily to relieve taxpayers of the Alternative Minimum Tax also had several attached amendments. One of those repealed the implementation date for WHTI until mid 2009 with the ability for it to be extended further if necessary by the Director of Homeland Security.
While WHTI was created with the idea of protecting American Citizens from terrorists, the fact must be considered that the Canadian / US border sustains over $551 Billion in product traffic each year with a significant percentage of that amount inter company movement. To negatively impact this large a portion of our economy would be devastating to those communities affected, which stretch across the entire border separating the US and Canada.
Other states besides ours are concerned with the economic impact of WHTI. The state of Illinois counts Canada as their single largest trading partner, with $33.4 Billion done bilaterally – larger than their next five foreign markets combined.
To illustrate to the Mayors attending the summit the importance of a smooth transition for citizens on both sides of the border, attendees were treated to a Detroit Tigers game hosted at Comerica Park in Detroit. The Tigers played the Sox that night, and regardless of the Tigers triumph, none of the Mayors missed the point that if WHTI was in effect several of those mayors would have been stopped at the tunnel border because they don’t possess passports or passport like documents.
As a security community, we need to remember that security has to be balanced with pragmatism. This means looking at not only the letter of the law, but also at how it is to be implemented. We also can work with our fellow professionals in other affected states to make sure that when this topic comes up, we are looking at solutions that will build not only our safety, but our economy as well.
This column was written by Michigan InfraGard board member Hans Erickson, who also is CIO of the Detroit Regional Chamber and an MITechNews.Com security columnist. If you wish to contact Hans to provide him with column ideas, email [email protected]
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