Recap HSD Café: Human Factor in Physical Security

What is the effect of security professionals’ behaviour on society? What are signals of malicious intent and what is the importance of proactive intervention for public safety and security? These and other Human Factors related questions were discussed during the HSD Café “Human Factor in Physical Security” on Thursday 22 November at the HSD Campus.

Many security professionals from different fields contribute to the safety and security of Dutch Society. Professionals in governmental services like the National Police, The Royal Netherlands Marechaussee, (special) investigators from municipalities, but also private security organisations and citizen initiatives like civil guards are the eyes and ears of our society. But they all have biases and imperfections that need to be taken into account or countered.

“The Signs Are There if You Read Them”

The topic “Human Factors in Physical Security” at the HSD Café was approached from four different angles, with profiling as central theme. Nick Glynn (Senior Program Officer at the Open Society Initiative for Europe) spoke about governance policy for police work and the problems they are confronted with like ethnic profiling. Ran Cohen (Founder & President of SDR Academy Nederland BV) showed that you can read the signs, because they are there, but you have to know what to look for and how to deal with your own limitiations. Also, Bas Boïng (Programme Leader at the Nationale Politie) took part and talked about the importance of collaboration with local communities and instruments for more effective inspections. Peter de Vries (University professor Psychology of conflict, risk & security at the University of Twente) shared scientific insights about lie detection for instance based on analysis of social media conversations.

After the four keynotes, participants discussed the innovation needs in smaller groups with the speakers.