Gangs and Corporate Assets: The Impact and Protection Strategies

1. Gangs and Corporate Asset Protection G.I. Wilson

2. Gang Definition • Absence of an universal definition for gangs. • Gang is an “alternative-loyalty group” of three or more individuals bonded by relationships and networked together by race, national origin, culture, turf, politics, ideology, or territory. • Gang provides social and economic benefits to members and community.

3. Paradox • While crime rates are down across the United States, gang membership is flourishing. • As gang membership expands, advances in technology are expanding their capabilities and reach. • For example, gang activities migrating into computer hacking, social engineering, and ID theft

4. Key Questions • Are gangs adapting to the shift from the industrial age to the information age? • What are the indications that gangs impact the corporate world? • How should gangs be conceptualized in terms of corporate security and asset protection? • Is there a useful gang concept for the corporate environment and asset protection assessment ?

5. Paradigm of “Locks and Cops • Traditional corporate security paradigm of “locks and cops” finding little utility in dealing with threats that are asymmetrical and analogous to third generation street gangs. • Risks posed by gangs to the corporate sector bottom line is their criminality. • Gangs consist of every kind of criminal ranging from vandals and drug dealers to the most violent of predators presenting an especially difficult problem for law enforcement and corporate security

6. Generational Gang Theory-Model • Generational gang model useful way to conceptualize gang activity in the context of corporate security. • Sullivan’s analysis of gangs determined gang evolution was paralleling the development of ‘netwar’ actors as described by Arquilla and Ronfeldt • Sullivan’s research reveals gangs may evolve through three generations—transitioning from traditional turf gangs, to market-oriented drug gangs, to a third generation that mixes political and mercenary elements.

7. Gang Generations

8. Organizational Design (OD) • Network-netwar theory identifies the importance of organizational design mechanisms (e.g. mechanistic, organic, and matrix) and external connectivity. • Organizational design (OD) has universal implications for gangs, social venues, and corporations • Organizational design (OD) refers to the form and functions of an organization. Industrial age design is drastically different from information age design.

9. Network Topologies

10. Generational Gang Categories Netwar Typologies Levels of Operations Organizational Design (OD) 1st Generation Gangs Chain Tactical Mechanistic 2nd Generation Gangs Hub Operational Organic 3rd Generation Gangs All Channel Strategic Matrix-Hybrid Comparison

11. Reach • Technology allows gangs to “reach out and touch some” exercising direct action and influence, infiltrating, and achieving objectives that once were unimaginable. • Internet, social networking, Facebook, MySpace, texting, email, Twitter, cell phones, websites, etc • As gangs spread they are increasingly able to infiltrate corporations, police departments, and even the U.S. military

12. Examples of Gang Impact on Business • West African criminal gangs infiltrating banks in the UK and elsewhere. • London Times reports organized gangs are more active than ever, with a proliferation in VAT frauds, ID thefts, and other forms of white-collar crime. • Cumulative public cost to clean up graffiti in the United States is more than $12 billion a year • Two female gang members followed a woman to her car in the parking lot of a Chicago McDonald's and then knifed her to death in front of her family a few days before Christmas.

13. Examples of Gang Impact on Business • Gangs can have economic impact in ways not always contemplated (i.e. maritime gangs; piracy). • National Football League saw a player gunned down and killed following a row with known gang members. • Drug gangs resorting to kidnappings of corporate executives and people to generate revenues . • International gangs infiltrate Northern California

14. Examples of Gang Impact on Business • Areas once thought of as sanctuaries and “off limits” to gangs and street violence by both corporate security and law enforcement are high-risk scenarios today. • To the contrary, hospitals, doctor’s offices, clinics and other health care facilities are frequent venues for gang activity. • Gangs and workplace violence often go hand in hand and this is very costly: premise liability, workmen’s compensation claims, loss of business, loss of life, insurance, law suits, negligent hiring-retention.

15. Examples of Gang Impact on Business • Australian air and sea ports infiltrated by gangs • Gangs have infiltrated Britain’s leading banks to commit fraud. • Gang members infiltrating Paparazzi • Gangs infiltrating Canada's biggest airports; many are airport employees, baggage handlers and customs personnel.

16. Examples of Gang Impact on Business • Lack of background investigations and a absence of “a cautious selection hiring process are resulting liability charges of wrongful or negligent hiring, negligent retention, and negligent supervision. • Security professionals need to take stock of the gang activities and collateral legal repercussions. • Lawsuits involving gangs with respect to personal injury, premise liability, negligent hiring, and negligent retention have found their way into the judicial system.

17. Examples of Gang Impact on Business • Gangs members in the workplace are garnering considerable attention. • Businesses can be--and have been--the victim of internal theft, fraud, computer crime, extortion, and large-scale drug dealing spearheaded by employees who are gang members. • Research shows gang members in the work force increases the potential for violence on the job.

18. Recommendations to Mitigate Gang Threats and Influence • Background Investigations • Know who you are hiring (HR) • Who they associate with • Corporate Red Teaming • Biometrics • Leverage legacy systems • Integrate biometrics

19. Recommendations to Mitigate Gang Threats and Influence • CPTED • Injunctions • Other Civil Actions • Southern Poverty Law Center suing the Aryan Nations, its leader Richard Butler, and several followers. • Center won a multimillion-dollar judgment against the Christian Knights of the Ku Klux Klan