Friday, April 21, 2017

Anti-social behavior spills into the workplace too!


Stop the Perpetual Beta Phenomenon...  
Stop the World, I Want To Jump Off!

Really!

By Nicholas Ashton, CEO/CIO, CommSmart Global Group


The perpetual beta phenomenon is a natural effect of a lack of purposeful execution.

Jeneva Ray, who is part of a solutions think-tank with GLIA, shows examples can be drawn with stereotypical Silicon Valley teams.

“It's common among Silicon Valley incubators and Venture Capitalists (such as Y Combinator, seed for startups) to require that the founding team is balanced - that it have the business know-how as well as the technical know-how.  These are contrasting, but complementary skills.  Technical know-how easily leads to many changes - the "perpetual beta", for example, and without the business aspect easily falls apart.  It's not hard to imagine a great website designer and a great database developer collaborating with great results but the little effect - it needs more than great ideas and a product to make a business.”

Now that we have an idea of what doesn't work, let's look at examples of success.

We shall use Google as an example.  

Google knows that it's a business first. The company's biggest resource is its people, and its bread and butter are advertising.  It encourages employees' involvement and innovation in new fields and makes plans to make the ideas a profitable reality.  This is what created the vast proliferation of other Google properties.  Some succeeded wildly (like Ad-words), and were refined from HTML-only templates to a pioneering interface.  Other ideas failed before they became reality (like Buzz and its transformation into what became Google+).  Still, other ideas have been extremely slow to pick up but have a great vision (like Google Checkout), and some ideas are still in the skunk-works (like Google Glasses was about two years ago).  The difference is - too often - execution strategies, and the quality of the strategy significantly affected the future of the product line.  Investment becomes so high and entraps the ability to go to the market and earn the revenue to continue.

Apple is also a great example.  It created some unprofitable but inspiring products (like the Newton), and it created some wildly profitable products (like its iPod/iTunes and the now the Apple Watch, which has become a comprehensive platform), and it even created some average products (like the PowerPC Macintosh).  The significant difference in its offerings is, again, execution. 

Bringing home the Bacon, so to speak, with no excuse to my many Muslim and Jewish friends. 

Execution strategies can come in many flavors.  Some strategies work, and others don't, and others are assumed to not work.  This is another topic entirely, but the worst thing you can do is to not have a direction at all.  

Let us now turn the direction away for highbrow technology business to street-level problems and societal blight.  Yes, there is such a stain on our landscape that others only wish could be swept under the carpet.  

Many of you close your eyes and turn your back on the issues that will close your doors and possibly, end your life!

It is said, urban decay (also known as urban rot and urban blight) is the process whereby a previously functioning city, or part of a city, falls into disrepair and decrepitude. It may feature deindustrialization, depopulation or changing population, economic restructuring, abandoned buildings, high local unemployment, fragmented families, political disenfranchisement, increased crime, and a desolate, inhospitable city landscape. Social rat holes that house people who really do not deserve this cloak of despair.

Since the 1970s and 1980s, urban decay has been associated with Western cities, especially in North America and parts of Europe. Since then, major structural changes in global economies, transportation, and government policy created the economic and then the social conditions resulting in urban decay.
Many have politically attempted to make a change, sadly the ways and means are personal to the political group and the underlying motive means failure.

It is back to perpetual beta and the end is never in sight and taken to a real solution that can bring these neighborhoods to the level of competency.  Livable, social acceptance, reduced or removed crime, removal of the drug supermarket and more over the intimidation.

That has a means to stop!  Listen… The Pied Piper is here…

A little-collected history first, in the United States, the white middle class gradually left the cities for suburban areas because of higher crime rates and perceived danger caused by Colored-American migration north toward cities after World War I (the Great Migration)---the so-called "white flight" phenomenon.

Some historians differentiate between the first Great Migration (1910–1930), numbering about 1.6 million Black migrants who left mostly Southern rural areas to migrate to northern and Midwestern industrial cities, and, after a lull during the Great Depression, a Second Great Migration (1940 to 1970), in which 5 million or more Blacks moved, including many to California and various western cities.

Between 1910 and 1970, Blacks moved from 14 states of the South, especially Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi, to the other three cultural (and census-designated) regions of the United States. More townspeople with urban skills moved during the second migration.  By the end of the Second Great Migration, Blacks had become an urbanized population. More than 80 percent lived in cities. A majority of 53 percent remained in the South, while 40 percent lived in the North and 7 percent in the West.

From the 1930s until 1977, Black Americans seeking borrowing capital for housing and businesses were discriminated against via the federal government legislated discriminatory lending practices for the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) via redlining. In 1977, the US Congress passed the Community Reinvestment Act, designed to encourage commercial banks and savings associations to help meet the needs of borrowers in all segments of their communities, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods.

Later urban centers were drained further through the advent of mass car ownership, the marketing of suburbia as a location to move to, and the building of the Interstate Highway System. In North America, this shift manifested itself in strip malls, suburban retail and employment centers, and very low-density housing estates. Large areas of many northern cities in the United States experienced population decreases and a degradation of urban areas.

Inner-city property values declined and economically disadvantaged populations moved in. In the U.S., the new inner-city poor were often African-Americans that migrated from the South in the 1920s and 1930s. As they moved into traditional white European-American neighborhoods, ethnic frictions served to accelerate flight to the suburbs.

Early government policies included "urban renewal" and building of large scale housing projects for the poor. Urban renewal demolished entire neighborhoods in many inner cities; in many ways, it was a cause of urban decay rather than a remedy. Housing projects became crime-infested mistakes. These government efforts are now thought by many to have been misguided. 

For multiple reasons, some cities have rebounded from these policy mistakes. Meanwhile, some of the inner suburbs built in the 1950s and 60s are beginning the process of decay, as those who are living in the inner city are pushed out due to gentrification.

Without an identity, no one can gain a foothold, let alone a life that is worth living. It is not that folks are owed a living, it is the fact all human beings should and will have a chance to succeed. Today. It is on both sides of the tracks, White and Black, lack of money through economic downturn sees no color, nor there should be differences with a dividing line between people. It is affecting all colors, classes, and creeds and the sooner others understand this, it will and is changing.


The entitlement generation is over, the hands may still extended, by cities and government are broke!  There is no more available and we have a different real solution which will be a cohesive team effort close the increased crime gap, unemployment woes and placing trust, respect, and pride on the front porch for all to see.

Our first change is in the controlling of crime.  Right now, it is a “them and us” situation with bullying, intimidation, drug dealing, stealing to feed criminal habits and pure inhumane treatment of our follow man and woman.  Children are not just affected by what goes on around them, behind the closed doors, where domestic violence is rife, sexual abuse is part of the norm and a chance to survive is slim to none.  

Through those child’s eyes, the world is as it is, a total mess and they right now know no difference.  That is about to change in the zip codes of shame and the surrounding areas are targeted for social change.

The Pied Piper Project is a proven community and neighborhood model that when implemented with existing city and municipality laws, social code and the community itself.  They can see what can occur when a focused spotlight is highlighting the wants, needs, and demands of the residents.  Normality, like it, used to be in the times when people cared about each other.

The anti-social behavior has to be curtailed, stopped and removed for the neighborhood to ever have a chance to move forward.  It is the logical professionals in public safety that have to show the management of the city, from the Mayor down, why it has to change now, right now for any city USA, to have a chance to get out of the mire, before all are swallowed up and not spat out.

PUTTING VICTIMS FIRST –
MORE EFFECTIVE RESPONSES TO ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR

The mistake of the past was to think that Government could fix the problem with a “one size fits all” model. It cannot. Anti-social behavior is a fundamentally local issue, one that looks and feels different in every single area, city, and state, in every neighborhood and to every solitary victim. The answers lie in local agencies and proven programs that respond to the needs of residents, victims, and communities. They must take the problem seriously, have the freedom to do what they know will make a difference, and have the right powers to act.

I know that public safety, police, local authorities and social landlords are doing a great deal to tackle anti-social behavior — but not this way - they need to adapt, maintain and accelerate their work, and focus more on the impact that anti-social behavior has on victims and the social structure of the community.

Local government's role should be to support these local agencies and private enterprise with solutions to provide them with the powers they need to do this. 

We know that the current powers do not work as well as they should. More than half of all Anti-Social Behavior Orders (ASBOs) are now breached at least once and those that do get breached, are breached more than four times on average.  Tightening of the community via community leaders and law enforcement is on the front burner.

We want to enable victims and communities. Too often people in a local area are desperate to have the behavior that's blighting their neighborhood dealt with, they just don't know how to get the local elected authorities to take action.

Neighborhood beat meetings will help, but we must support local communities by introducing new Community Triggers, such as the Pied Piper Project to compel agencies to respond to persistent anti­social behavior and community social change.

Using existing laws on the books already and introducing faster and more effective powers to stop the dangerous and yobbish behavior of those who make victims' lives a misery. The powers will include a new court order available on the conviction that will stop the behavior of the most destructive individuals and will address the underlying causes of that behavior.

The sentences and restrictions placed on the individuals are available and for discussion with the public safety directors and officials.

You want to make change contact and discuss, if not move on...
STOP THE PERPETUAL BETA PHENOMENON, 
BEFORE THE WAR ON THE STREETS
TAKES OVER US ALL

copyright 2017




Thursday, April 20, 2017

Online map tracks crimes for Hendersonville, NC residents


Online map tracks crimes for Hendersonville residents
By Andrew Mundhenk
Times-News Staff Writer 



Hendersonville residents have a new tool to find out what’s going on in their neck of the woods.

The Hendersonville Police Department have partnered to provide an updated online interactive map to inform the public about crime occurrences in the city.
The map, available on communitycrimemap.com, uses Google Maps to analyze and pinpoint crime data, providing basic information on specific incidents in the city limits.

“We feel that citizens have the right to know,” Police Chief Herbert Blake said. “We want to make these occurrences available to them.”

Residents can view a map and grid showing all of the crimes in their area, and sign up for neighborhood watch reports that automatically email a breakdown of recent crime activity. Residents can also look up crime occurrences within a specific range of dates.

The map automatically syncs with HPD’s records system to keep crime information updated online. The map cleans and geocodes crime data and then displays all the incidents on a Google map.

Residents can click on a specific occurrence, which will pull up basic information on the incident, including the type of crime, location, block-level address, date and time.

Blake believes the department can improve trust, initiate community engagement and hopefully prevent and solve crimes by making the mapping information available to the public.

“When people see that these things are happening in their neighborhood, they can actually take some steps to not become a victim of a crime, especially the larcenies in particular,” Blake said.

The department has used a similar online crime mapping program for several years, he added. This is a chance to enhance the information that is available.


Not only is it an update, but it saves the department money. Typically, agencies can spend thousands of dollars annually through other crime mapping programs. 

CommSmart Global Group, a LexisNexis Risk Solutions Partner offers the map as a free service to any law enforcement agency that wishes to participate.


copyright 2017


Wednesday, April 19, 2017

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Tuesday, April 18, 2017

The Most Costly Death a City and Police Department Will Ever Face!


In-Custody Deaths - Excited Delirium, It Not Only Kills, 
It Can Be Financial Ruin For a Department and a City.
By Nicholas Ashton, CEO/CIO, CommSmart Global Group


Being caught off guard as a police officer is not the situation we want to walk into.  It is hoped, that the 9/11 dispatcher has gleaned enough information from the caller to prepare us for the type of service call it is that we are attending.  

We then can source analytic based information, through Digital Policing methods where the officer can pull more direct information from the database to more prepare. 

Sometimes though, we have to fly by the seat of our pants and be ready for any eventuality.

Arriving on the scene and observing a crazed individual running among traffic or inside a house being violent and deranged is not a pretty sight.  Then, when they take no heed to your commands whatsoever, what are you going to do to subdue and control? 

Now you must eliminate the risks to all, including the culprit.  Training has taught us to control with the best methods at hand including tasering, fighting and a good old dog pile on the rabbit.  

All applications that are used in the field have their successes, but we have seen the failures and really never knew why.

Excited Delirium or Bell’s Mania is contributing to in-custody deaths worldwide.  Last year alone we saw some 360 deaths that are connected in some way to this dire event. It is not just the death, it is the legal costs that follow. 

One of the things that can cause excited delirium is stimulant abuse, particularly PCP, cocaine, or methamphetamine. 


However, people can have excited delirium with no drug use.

The symptoms of excited delirium include:

· Paranoia

· Disorientation

· Hyper-aggression

· Tachycardia

· Hallucination

· Incoherent speech or shouting

· Superhuman strength when trying to be restrained

· Hyperthermia


Hypothermia would explain why some of these people tear off their clothes and attack others whilst running naked through the streets, disregarding all commands. 


There are many descriptions to be found in medical journals and the Internet.

Excited (or agitated) delirium is characterized by agitation, aggression, acute distress and sudden death, often in the pre-hospital care setting. It is typically associated with the use of drugs that alter dopamine processing, hypothermia and, most notably, sometimes with the death of the affected person in the custody of law enforcement. Subjects typically die from cardiopulmonary arrest, although the cause is debated. Unfortunately, an adequate treatment plan has yet to be established, in part due to the fact that most patients die before hospital arrival. While there is still much to be discovered about the pathophysiology and treatment, it is hoped that this extensive review will provide both police and medical personnel with the information necessary to recognize and respond appropriately to excited delirium.

Excited Delirium (EXD), first described in the mid-1800’s, has been referred to by many other names – Bell’s mania, lethal catatonia, acute exhaustive mania and agitated delirium. Regardless of the label used, all accounts describe almost the exact same sequence of events: delirium with agitation (fear, panic, shouting, violence and hyperactivity), sudden cessation of struggle, respiratory arrest, and death. In the majority of cases, unexpected strength and signs of hypothermia are described as well. While the incidence of EXD is not known, the purpose of this review is to identify what is known or suspected about the pathophysiology, outcomes and management options associated with EXD to assist medical professionals in the future.

EXD has gained increasing public attention recently due to the number of post-mortem explanations offered by medical examiners regarding the death of individuals being restrained by police or being taken into custody. This diagnosis has caused concern because EXD is not a currently recognized medical or psychiatric diagnosis according to either the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IVTR) of the American Psychiatric Association or the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-9) of the World Health Organization. 


Likewise, the authors of one review article found enough evidence in the literature to suggest that excited delirium, rhabdomyolysis, and neuroleptic malignant syndrome might represent the clinical spectrum of a single disease. Although more research is needed to elucidate cause and effect, it is important to note that a lack of recognition of the condition in the context of law enforcement activities does not negate the significance of the behavioral and physical signs referred to as EXD. For instance, one important study found that only 18 of 214 individuals identified as having EXD died while being restrained or taken into custody. If anything, the possible association with other life-threatening syndromes only gives impetus to the need for critical emergency medical intervention when encountering a person thought to be in a state of excited delirium.

Although reports of patients with similar symptoms first appeared in the 19th century, the first modern mention of EXD was in 1985. The presentation of excited delirium occurs with a sudden onset, with symptoms of bizarre and/or aggressive behavior, shouting, paranoia, panic, violence toward others, unexpected physical strength and hypothermia  An extensive review of reported case series reveals that in a majority of cases EXD was precipitated by stimulant drug use and in much fewer cases psychiatric illness (such as mania, depression, or schizophrenia) or systemic illness. Methamphetamine, PCP, and LSD have been reported in a few series, but by far the most prevalent drug of abuse found on toxicology screening was cocaine. 


Since the victims frequently die while being restrained or in the custody of law enforcement, there has been speculation over the years of police brutality being the underlying cause. However, it is important to note that the vast majority of deaths occur suddenly prior to capture, in the emergency department (ED), or unwitnessed at home.

Prior to 1985 most reported cases of sudden death from cocaine intoxication involved “body stuffers” who died secondary to massively high exposure to the drug after packets they were carrying burst. 


A report published by Wetli and Fishbain in 1985 was one of the first case series to examine recreational cocaine users who died following episodes of excited delirium. They noticed that these deaths differed in both presentation and average blood cocaine concentrations from typical cocaine overdose fatalities. In fact, cases of agitated delirium were often associated with lower blood levels of cocaine. Explorations by Pollanen et al and Ruttenber et al showed blood levels of cocaine in EXD cases to be similar to levels found in recreational cocaine users and much lower than levels found in people who died from cocaine-associated intoxication. Moreover, the reports found that the blood levels of benzoylecgonine, the primary metabolite of cocaine, in the cocaine-associated EXD cases were higher than in recreational users, suggesting the cocaine use prior to death was consistent with recent “binge” use. More recently, Stephens et al., in an analysis of the significance of cocaine upon a specific death, confirmed that a pattern of chronic cocaine use characterized by repeated binges is associated with the development of fatal EXD.

In 2013 forward, especially today, we are seeing more and more cases where Zombie drugs are being cited as the cause. This includes “Bath Salts”, readily being sold over the counter and through the Internet by retail sites such as Amazon.com.


No one likes death, especially an in-custody death on your watch and it is becoming more common in the last three years and now is nearly a daily occurrence.

It has reached a point where we cannot ignore the problem any longer.  We must take responsibility for the monetary liabilities being placed on departments and municipalities in the form of civil lawsuits.

The action that is required is one of pure understanding of what we have walked into.  It is recognizing the scene that is unraveling in front of our eyes and how will handle the situation.  It is all tied to a chain of events of which, you were not present at the onset and you will only have to guess the story line.

Training assists on handling all the steps that will protect the individual, the officer, and the city or municipality.  It is the documentation and the reports that will assist your attorneys in the following civil court cases.

You must afford to have all preventive steps to be taken.

Shoring up your Standard Operating Procedures and having team strategy in protecting your citizens, police officers, medics, emergency room doctors, medical examiners, city, county or state lawyers is of the utmost importance.  Civil lawsuits when an in-custody death occurs are expensive to defend and if you lose, even bankrupt a city.

Training your whole operation in how to handle this in-custody death phenomenon which is costing us all dearly, most be a priority.  Budget cuts have reduced your resources, so why risk this situation?


WE are in the NOW and
KEEP YOU; in the KNOW…

www.commsmartglobalgroup.com

Call: +1 (515) 300.6130



Copyright 2017