Recently, senior members of the DSS leadership team met with security experts and representatives of international law enforcement agencies at a major overseas conference on counter-terrorism.
The 8th Annual Global SHIELD Network (GSN) Conference attracted hundreds of leading law enforcement officers, intelligence analysts, and corporate security directors to Antwerp, Belgium. The conference was hosted by the Antwerp Police Department.
Mario J. Doyle, CPP, President and Chief Executive Officer of DSS, together with Joe Martino, the Chief Operating Officer, and Greg Sanfilippo, Vice President of Intelligence, Risk Advisory and Strategic Initiatives, attended the conference on behalf of DSS.
The annual conference emphasizes the important role that cooperation between the public and private sectors plays in assisting law enforcement in dealing with emerging security threats.
The Global SHIELD Network, based on New York City’s pioneering NYPD SHIELD program, is an international alliance that connects law enforcement agencies with private sector organizations and security experts. It assists public authorities in developing lines of communication with private parties in the fields of transportation, maritime shipping, utilities, finance, and commercial real estate to aid in information sharing.
The GSN is based on the principle of “countering terrorism by sharing information” and was established to act as a force multiplier for counter-terrorism agencies. Member organizations receive timely bilateral threat intelligence updates, tactical advice, and security training, all aimed at detecting and preventing emerging terrorist plots, organized crime, and threats to public safety.
This year’s conference was concerned with changing security strategies from a reactive approach of mitigation to one of proactive, intelligence-driven prevention, with a special emphasis on protecting important logistics sites and urban areas—something that is particularly pertinent in view of Antwerp’s strategic status as one of Europe’s major ports.
The conference featured talks on improving Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) frameworks, which involve incorporating security planning into the design of commercial infrastructure and urban planning; on the analysis of transnational organized crime, asymmetric threats, and local violent extremism; and on setting up quick notification systems between the enterprise operations centers and local emergency responders in the course of active, multi-vector incidents.
The conference ended with a call to expand automated threat-reporting channels and to further connect the regional SHIELD groups in Europe and North America into a single unified defensive network. DSS is proud to offer our support to organizations such as the GSN, which aim to reduce and prevent terrorist activity and help to protect our communities.
