CHICAGO—Breakfast bright and early featured George Rosebrock, security manager for the McCormick Place. That's where ASIS's 59th annual Seminar and Exhibits will be held, here, Sept. 24-27.
Rosebrock, a native of Chicago with deep experience in the Chicago Police Department, including working as a police officer, plain-clothes officer, sergeant and lieutenant before becoming a commander, has been at McCormick since his retirement from the CPD five years ago. He had many great insights, including his learning curve coming into a situation where there's 2.6 million square feet of exhibit space--the largest in North America—and where ASIS expects at least 20,000 visitors in September. I'll share his thoughts in an article for SDN coming soon.
After breakfast, we set off on a tour of Columbia College Chicago and the city's Office of Emergency Management and Communications.
At the college, with 16 buildings spread out across the South Loop area, Robert Koverman, associate vice president of campus safety and security at the school, and Martha Meegan, director of campus safety and security, discussed the challenges associated with protecting an urban campus. They talked about the school's security evolution over a very short time, four years, from evolving from home burglary-type alarm systems in buildings to a state-of-the-art 24/7 command center. "It was very bare bones before," Koverman said. He credits developing a relationship with the college's IT department, and its cooperation, for his success. There were no access card readers when he arrived on the job, but now most students have them, he said. He had a lot more to say, as did Meegan, who has been instrumental in proactive efforts in the public/private security partnership realm. More about that later, too.
At the Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications, Executive Director Gary Schenkel showed our group around the newly renovated 911 floor, which gets 5.3 million calls a year, the control center and operations center. Very high-tech.
Especially of note was a presentation from Jonathan Lewin, managing deputy director for the city's OEMC, overseeing Public Safety Information Technology from the city's Departments of Police, Fire, and Emergency Management. He is responsible for the city's advanced police crime surveillance camera network, described by the Department of Homeland Security as one of the most advanced in the nation.
We heard about Lewin's next step: Inputting variables from all the city's available databases—from information about gangs and their alliances, sex offender registries, troubled buildings and more—to identify those people likely to become victims of crimes or to become criminals. "We take that data and leverage it," Lewin said.
Tomorrow is another full day, thanks to ASIS.
Stay tuned.
