ISDA Member Darryl Biggs has been in the profession for many years, and since 1994 has attended a dozen EP and EP related courses. Darryl offered his 24 years of experience in this post which originally appeared in a Facebook EP Group.
From Darryl
The first as an employee of Vance International (1994) and the second Tony Scotti “Scotti School” (1995) and since then have in essence judged all courses based on these two training courses and my experiences.
I have attended some great ones, some good ones and of course a couple I won’t even put on my CV. My opinion is due diligence is the foremost importance when looking and selecting a training provider. Times have changed, and so has the technology.
I remember my first laptop was a 286, then a 386 Thinkpad, dos and windows 3.1 operating systems, using floppy disks. Using Word Perfect, Microsoft Works or Word. Unfortunately, it seems that either some training providers haven’t changed with the times or they don’t teach what they practice.
The last EP course I took was in 2016, and they were still instructing using old techniques and cookie cutter forms. During the break, I asked if they do it this way for their details and was told: “No, we just don’t have time to teach people how to use programs, computers, etc., with all the information we have to cover.”
We did a 4 hour block of death by powerpoint and during that time, not once, was there an example how an Advance should look like, how it should be formatted, or tools that could be used to make a professional looking document that was not only readable, but presentable and then we had 3 hours to do a mock Advance.
Almost every training course I have attended, used basically the same forms, same powerpoint, same mock Advance and drills that I was first introduced to in 1994. 22 years later, it was the same training, just packaged differently.If you can’t teach someone to do it right, you can’t learn to do it fast and correct.
I attended a course in the mid-2000’s and remembered going through a 4 or 6-hour block on a facility security survey, covering 22+ Areas of Interests, and after the module, another trainee asked if he had an example handout for the class and the instructor said: “No, that’s privileged information.” Seriously, some people paid close to $4,000 to attend the course, not counting food, rental vehicles and flight, to be told the information was privileged. I was lucky, the corporation I worked for footed the bill, but once I returned, another person was never sent there again.
If you’re not going to provide samples, don’t teach it. All you’re doing is leaving people confused and causing more harm than good. Also don’t try to sell something that you’re teaching, i.e., “If you want to learn, join ASIS and study the CPP program.”
Every Threat Assessment and Protective Intelligence packet is different. My opinion is each should be tailored made for that specific client. Yes, there is no problem using cookie cutter forms, but you should be updating your forms and questions to fit your client’s needs. A DV packet should look different than an HNW packet. A celebrity packet should look different than a dignitary packet. Different questions should be asked depending on that client and learn how to ask specific questions of a client is imperative. I have seen people use the same forms asking different clientele the exact same questions.
If you’re not a member of ATAP, my suggestion is to become a member. It is LE and corporation heavy, some of their training costs are outside of some people’s budgets when looking on how to utilize your dollars best, but the local chapters are a great resource and educating yourself regarding RAGE-V is a definite benefit.
Here are two good resources:
http://ppcta.unl.edu/ctap/documents/2011%20webinars/ASIS-SHRM_WPV_American_National_Standard_RAGE-V.pdf
Great book
https://www.amazon.com/Violence-Assessment-Intervention-Practitioners-Handbook/dp/1420071122
Regarding the Advance, my personal opinion is that the training should cover at the minimum how to use Word, PowerPoint and Adobe Acrobat. I utilize Visio, SmartDraw, Word, Excel, Adobe and a couple of other programs for my Advance.
Personal Note: If you haven’t turned on the Developer tab for your Word Document, you should, a lot of great tricks you can use with that when formatting your documents.
I’m a definite believer that an EP course should require attendees to bring some laptop device to teach how to conduct an Advance correctly and then how to formulate it into a usable document.
If you’re looking to attend an EP Course, do your due diligence. Ask them to provide how and what they teach on certain modules, whether it is a Threat Assessment, Protective Intelligence, Advance, etc. Ask to see work product and if they refuse, take your money to someone else that will. There are more EP Courses out there than you can shake a stick at that will provide you some excerpt of their coursework product.
Darryl’s Email
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