 everybody and welcome back to the Think Tech Hawaii studio for another exciting episode of Security Matters. I hope your 2D is going well. I hope your post-pandemic efforts are helping you get back to some sort of new normal. We're going to kind of get to what normal might be looking like. We'll kind of take a future look near the end of the show of what maybe what some of the security trends that are happening around the island might foretell anyway. My guest today, Ed Howard, is brilliant as you're going to find out. I think Ed's been on before, but he's in a different role now. So he's in the middle of the pandemic actually. He retired from his previous role and started consulting work out here in Hawaii. And it's great because we really don't have an active consulting community here like they have on the mainland. So Ed brings a lot of wisdom and experience to that role. And he's been out and about in Hawaii. So we're going to see what he's been up to. Ed, thanks so much for joining me today. I know you're busy and I appreciate you taking the time to join us here and share a little bit with our community. It's a pleasure. Thank you for having me. No worries. Well, let's give some of the folks who may not know you. A lot of folks from the industry watch the show on the mainland. So maybe as much of your history as you want to share, I know we don't give everything away on social media these days. But as much as you can sort of walk us through and bring this up to you present work with that pack fellow. Yeah, sure. So I'm actually the way I look at it is I'm kind of coming on my last ride of my career. This is actually like kind of my third career, so to speak. You know, I had law enforcement for 26 years. And then last 15 years, it's been in security management and healthcare. And I decided in October of this past year to retire for my corporate job and really do what I always wanted to do, which was on my own business one and two, you know, help people in the industry and share my wisdom, my knowledge and my experience. So this is kind of a dream come true for me and something that I'm embracing and I'm really happy with. That's awesome. Yeah, and you you were doing a lot of outreach actually, you know, in your role with the from the healthcare industry. I recall, I know you did some training at one of the shows that we put on. I think you were really, I think, insightful for helping people understand the sort of violence that can occur in the healthcare workspace. Can you talk about that a little bit and how you were able to share some of that with the healthcare community in Hawaii? Yeah, sure. So as I mentioned earlier, the last 15 years, I've been in, you know, what I would call a specialty of healthcare security and safety. And, you know, as I mentioned in your previous show in my presentations that I do, healthcare, one of the major concerns in healthcare and the healthcare setting and environment is workplace violence. And it is something that has been trending up over the years. And it's something that is now being highly regulated in particular in California. And it's just plans and processes and procedures that we need to build around on. So I've been able to share a lot of my experience, you know, building these plans and procedures and implementing programs to help mitigate the issues of workplace violence. Yeah, and that's a, you know, related to the pandemic. I remember, you know, folks getting, you know, we saw this was sort of in the paper and in the media that, you know, people would get sick and then get isolated. And then their family couldn't even talk to them. And people were enraged that they couldn't be there at the end. And I, it's such a, the healthcare environment is there's so much emotion going on there for the people. Do you, in your experience, is that a, that emotionality that occurs, is that kind of unique to the healthcare space? And maybe, maybe a bar fight? I don't know if there's a comparable, comparable area where that level of people just don't even recognize in themselves how, how heightened their behavior become. Yeah, absolutely. And but let me address the COVID comment that you made, which was really interesting is as COVID ramped up and started to spread out and become a really major concern of ours, you know, the security officers working in the healthcare facilities were placed on the front line to actually, you know, give out the word of no visitors allowed. So if you can imagine that, you know, following those marching orders, and, you know, it was all for good reason too, obviously. But when you try to explain that there's no visitors allowed and you have a loved one in the hospital, workplace violence really skyrocketed at that, skyrocketed at that point from, you know, really strong verbal abuse to physical contact. So those healthcare security officers, I have to commend on the front line, enforcing an almost impossible standard, so to speak, or direction. And I really took a toll on a lot of, a lot of as far as, you know, healthcare in itself. Yes, there are many external type risks and factors that come into the healthcare setting that drive emotion. And it could be, you know, someone that might be, besides being very sick or having a medical issue, you know, you have homelessness and you have drug abuse and, you know, you have gangs and you have all different types of external factors that come into the healthcare setting that cause a lot of emotional reactions and behaviors. So it's just a dynamic type of atmosphere and environment that you learn to, or you specifically get trained and learned how to work in those type of environment. Is the focus on that escalation that can occur with people and, you know, when you're trying to, trying to help mitigate violence and, you know, the worker from getting injured, right, who has to do their job, I remember, you know, when we did, I did Navy police work, but we would, like drunk people would swing kind of wildly in their, in their emotionality, like it can be super calm and the next minute crazy is that emotion that goes along with the, like, medical type concerns or that environment. Is it more of a slower type escalation or do people just go off because they're so stressed and they're trying to control themselves or do you have just a, the complete range? I just don't know how you could be aware, you know, of that, that escalation problem, you know, coming at you, right? When you've got so many other concerns, you know, if you're an officer there on the front line and trying to hold the door and a bunch of people, you know, wanting to get inside, right? Like that's a, that's a critical situation for a worker. Yes, the word would be unpredictable, but, but being prepared. So, you know, when I used to train my officers, and this goes across the nation and healthcare security, people who really know the industry and know what the risks are and the vulnerabilities out there specific to violence, we all prepare for it. And it's down to the training of not only your clinical staff, but your security. And it's very specific signs. It's the escalation signs. It's it's actually, believe it or not, it's, it's actually your service that's being provided to a lot of individuals as well. So customer service or what we call patient satisfaction. There's so many components and variables that play into it. And you really got to try to keep an even queue with everything to help you manage, you know, that type of environment. Wow. So did, did you see, you mentioned that it was very difficult for a lot of the officers. So did it during the pandemic that a lot of folks choose to maybe change their career path or or were they, did you have to augment the training or augment the shift so that they weren't so exposed, you know, because this was a long, it wasn't like this only lasted for a few days or a few weeks. This was like over a year, you know, I mean, really difficult situation for everyone on, on all sides. Right. That's a, that's a really good question. And I can tell you, and this is not only happening in healthcare, it's happening across the whole industry as well, is that, you know, the need and the demand for more security just has continued throughout the COVID proper, you know, the COVID pandemic situation. And, you know, a lot of it is because there is a lot of emotion involved. There's a lot of compliance and enforcement of rules that your, your average worker is not going to do. It needs someone who has a special specialty in doing it or their experience in those type of confrontations. You know, not only providing good customer service, but there's going to be times where you need to be somewhat confrontational to enforce rules and to, you know, get compliance. And that usually is just security is relied upon to do that. So as we talk about when COVID started, you know, the security industry in Hawaii did not fade out. As a matter of fact, it became more robust because of the various screening, the various rules and regulations, compliance, even though businesses went down, those businesses, businesses that were open and that were implementing COVID practices and restrictions on certain things still needed those processes to be enforced and to have compliance. And a lot of times they had to bring in security, sometimes not to actually be involved in the screening process, but to be that strong security present. Because you did have people that got upset or, you know, got angry about no, no whole entire changes and the way things are, you know, managed with this, and particularly in healthcare. So we lost a lot of officers, but we also gained a lot. And there it came to a point where, you know, we had to really up the training as well. Wow, good. Well, I'm glad that our community responded. You know, we're the Aloha state and it's not a situation that fosters Aloha, you might say, when you have to tell everybody, look, I'm sorry, but I have to do my job and you have to leave now or this door is closed to you or whatever it may be. So that's a really difficult, I'm sure, for a lot of the frontline officers. Go ahead. I was just going to say, you know, as far as the COVID and the industry here in Hawaii, the COVID situation saw some very interesting things. So one, we had security managers and directors and we had supervisors because of laid off staff, particularly in the hotel industry, hospitality industry, we had them still working, but they were now taking on the frontline role. So we had bicycle patrols, we had them patrolling the property to ensure that, you know, things were being kept well and safe and secure. So, you know, we had that type of, we had to kind of change up and adapt to what was going on, you know, out there in the whole changing world at the time and continues to this day. The other interesting thing we saw is as they started to hire more security because it was specific to COVID, we started to get people that had never worked in the industry before. So that was your bartenders and your waiters and others that had lost their jobs during the time. So what we were starting to see is a workforce coming in that was very inexperienced. So training, training, training, oversight, monitoring, you know, getting your post orders and all those things down, right? So they were comfortable in performing the job and were able to perform the job. So those were some of the dynamic things that was happening so we could adapt to what was going on. Wow, that's awesome. Well, I'm glad we've gotten as far as we've gotten. I'm shocked we've been on this for 15 minutes, but we're about midway. We're going to take a quick break and we'll come back and we'll get into what things might look like heading up the road. We'll be right back with Ed Howard. Stick around. Hey, and we're back and we're talking with Ed Howard and we've been kind of kicking around what the security industry was like in Hawaii during the pandemic. As we sort of move forward, what are you seeing and what are you thinking is going to happen next with this workforce and security in Hawaii in general? I think the workforce is going to expand more as far as security is concerned because as you got your businesses opening up, in particular the hospitality industry, food service, and those types of things, we are going to see opportunities for more security hires. The contract security companies out there will be entertaining more contracts. So I think that's going to be a good thing. We are going to lose the people that have come into the industry. Let's call it on a temporary basis as they get called back to their other jobs. So we're seeing that as well. We are also facing as any other industry out there that there is a lack of applicants because of what's happening with subsistence from our government. But as that starts to fade away, I think we'll start to see more employees or people looking for jobs in the security industry. Do you think other avenues other than patrol and sort of like guard duty, guard services, do you think will there be an increase also in the technology investment as we get back and people are looking? We saw a little bit of an influx, for example, of the temperature monitoring and the mask detection and the way to ask your guests to answer the questions, have you had COVID or have you been in contact with anybody? All that sort of technology showed up in the front offices or in the visitor spaces at a lot of places. Do you think we'll continue to see some investment in technology or do you think technology helps us play a role in getting a little better security going related to the pandemic? Well, what I found out in there, which really fits well in my consulting role is what I have found out dealing with clients over the years and recently is technology is usually not something they know about. Yeah, they know about a camera and they know about a monitor, but they truly don't know how security can help enhance or technology can help security and enhance it. So a lot of it is education. And when I do point out the various tools that are out there or the various technology solutions that are out there, they use their pretty maze with it. And so I'll come up as a consultant and talk to them about that. And if not everything is guard manpower, right? Not everything is guard force. It's how do we blend those things together? So my biggest things that I have been reached out by from clients is how to address homelessness is number one. Any type of violence, a lot of my clients are now asking for security awareness training and personal protection. These are businesses that are concerned about their employees. And not necessarily as crime increasing, but it is becoming more advertised, so to speak, or it's becoming more news. A lot of times I think you may know this that people get emotional when something happens or there's knee jerk reactions to things. And a lot of that goes back to just doing very simple general security assessments and other types of vulnerability assessments to help you understand what you're actually facing and what are those risks and vulnerabilities out there. So those are the type of things that I'm getting. It's all conducive to what's happening out in our environment. And a lot of times it's just a lot of education. And I come away very pleased when I talk to a client and I'm able to educate them on things that I've never heard of before or never thought of. And they see security in a whole different light after that and they see that there's hope. And that's really what I like about what I'm doing. Yeah, it's awesome to share that too. Our industry is, you know, those of us, the practitioners in our industry know we're at the end of the day protecting lives and protecting assets, right? And so we take that to heart. But how we do that and how that comes across to the end users, you know, that need security and don't often think about, you know, the risks that are there, you know, day in and day out. They may see someone hanging around and not know that they're being cased, for example, or something like that. You know, they just, I just don't think it's top of mind. And do you find it, I've talked with other people that felt that, you know, security is like, it's kind of like that insurance bill, right? Like you have to pay your insurance bill, but you rarely ever use it. And you really don't like to have to think about it. And I wonder if security is not top of mind for people who don't work in the space all the time, you know, because of that, you know, is it just, leaves you a little bit uneasy to have to think that you are at risk, you know, instead of, you know, keeping your head on the swivel all the time. And maybe it's just too stressful for most people. What's your, what's your thoughts on that with the clients that you talked to? No, and it's not top of mind on a daily basis, like it would be for myself and you and others in the industry. We look through things, we look at things through a different lens with security. For majority of my clients and businesses that I've been talking to, it's usually back burner stuff. Or it's, you know, when something bad happens, right? And all of a sudden we got to do things. So when I come in and consult and I talk to them, you know, I talk to them about taking ownership of security and taking ownership of your property and taking ownership of things to do to create a secure and safe environment. And there's just so many things out there you can do rather than always number one, call 911, call 911, call 911, please. They are part of the solutions and they're part of managing, you know, your issues. But it kind of has to start with a commitment. And again, it goes back to that education. There's just so much out there that businesses, CEOs and others just, it's a new world for them. So educating them is key. Well, that we may, we may just have to set you up on stage and that you just do this like all the time. Like maybe you should have a weekly sort of CEO, you know, call to secure, because I don't think they know, you know, to your point, a lot of the, you know, the policy and procedure and all the things that they can do. There's no, like you have to go buy something, you know, there's all these things that they can do internally to help their staff, you know, protect themselves and be aware of what's going on in the environment, you know, immediately in their office and, you know, right there nearby. You know, all the times we talk about, you know, if we save one life, you know, we did our job. If we stop someone from getting injured, you know, we did our job. And that's the whole point and it can happen instantly. I think that a lot of the business owners are so focused on their business all the time that they don't build security into their, the way that they practice their business. And so therefore, they kind of leave their employees vulnerable and they don't mean to do that. It's just, again, not top of mind. How is your training received? Are you, I think I saw a video you had, it looked like maybe 10 or 15 people in a class. I'm not sure what you were teaching on that one, but what sort of requests are you getting for training some of these businesses? I think that's a great service. Yeah, no. Well, the one I think you're referring to was some loss prevention training for story detectives. Awesome. That one. Yeah, the training I'm getting is a request for is, you know, active shooter and active statement, assailant responses, work based violence, personal protection, security awareness. You know, those are kind of the big ones. As far as the consulting part of it, it's number one, again, as I go back to the homeless population, which is unfortunate, it does have an impact on businesses and a lot of people. But, you know, there's a lot of strategies that you can work with them and things that you can do. So I get a lot of requests for that. That's probably my top one right now. Wow. Awesome. Well, that seems to be a problem that, you know, I've watched, I don't know how many administrations come through here, nobody seems to have the solution yet. We've got some job security there. Yeah. And sometimes, you know, it's real simple solutions as well. And sometimes they're a little more difficult where you've got to have police intervention more than you probably want to. But you go in with a plan and, you know, you show the respect and the interactions are positive. You know, it can send a strong positive message. That's awesome. So are you available to do these trainings on site primarily? Or do you do them? Are you going to, like, advertise some classes and maybe host them at UH, you know, or something like that? Do you see that sort of demand? I think that there's a need there. I think it's always been there. So hopefully, that's a service that people take advantage of if you can scale that up. Yeah, I think that might be something that I can look at down the road. But right now, what's actually happening, which is I'm fortunate with, is the businesses that I am working with, I'm crafting very specific training for them in their workforce. So kind of customizing by working with them on training. And it can really, you know, doing it that way too really helps to get to the core issues of the company and what they want to see and how they want to roll it out with their employees. Yeah, I like the custom approach. I've always said that every security solution is site-specific, right? And so I do think that managers and non-security practitioners can take some of the sort of generic information that's out there from DHS or FBI or whatever it may be. But they may miss some of the nuances for how to apply it within their facility. So that's good, so good that you're going on site and helping these guys build something that really addresses their people. Right. And one thing that I'll always tell my consultants, and I even put this in my assessment reports, is, you know, I commend these organizations and these businesses that seek out the assistance and the help, because that is a major step. But when you have businesses that do that, they want an assessment, they want to know what the current state and they want to know what the vulnerabilities and risks and problems are, so they can make informed decisions or they can, you know, they can either accept risks or they can mitigate them or deal with them. I really commend that and that's one of the things I always do when I go to my meetings and I interact with the CEOs and other administration and leadership. Yeah, security definitely has to come from the top. But we've got a minute or so left, maybe some final advice for our Hawaii community as we get out of the pandemic. Well, we're heading in the right direction, obviously, right? So we are going to see a lot of things opening. We're going to see more opportunities for the security industry. I see bright futures ahead, bright future ahead, and we still want to obviously be safe and follow the protocols and precautions that are out there because, you know, this may never go away or, you know, it will take longer than we think. But yeah, we'll continue to work on those issues and educate yourself, I think is the big thing or take the opportunities to learn more about, you know, security and what you can do to protect yourself not only individually but your businesses. I love it. Thanks so much for the advice and thanks for sharing time with us today and time with our community. Everybody, stay safe out there and we'll see you next Tuesday. Aloha.