Anshin Consulting specialises in the identification of those persons who wish to cause harm to you or your organisation. By identifying the threat actor, it becomes possible to develop strategies to guide, counter or neutralise that actor prior to a physical attack.
Criminals and terrorists follow an identifiable and often predictable pathway in their intentions and actions to attack an organisation. Those person’s or group’s that are identified early provide opportunities to develop alternative options to guide them away from harmful intentions. Counter narrative strategies and tactics can be put in place to deter growing harmful intent that will deter threat actors and force them to change their intentions and plans. Should identification occur when intent has turned to the attack cycle, tactics can be put in place that will neutralise the threat actor prior to the attack.
Case study
Reducing burglary crime in the Canberra suburb of Kambah, by 42%
The Challenge
In 2017 the Canberra suburb of Kambah had the dubious reputation for having the highest burglary crime rate in all of Canberra. This was not only by reputation, but also identified in news posts by Steven Trask of the Canberra Times, stating, ‘The most burglaries (in Canberra) occur in Kambah’. This statement by Trask was reinforced by local law enforcement’s burglary crime statistics.
At a luncheon with colleagues, this issue was raised with David Harding of Anshin Consulting. It was proposed that since his consulting firm was based in the suburb, he should volunteer some of his time and expertise to undertake to help reduce the incidence of crime in Kambah.
Subsequently, David volunteered to start a Neighbourhood Watch group in Kambah West, where a large portion of the suburb’s burglary crime took place. David became the Neighbourhood Watch Kambah West Area Co-ordinator.
Solution
David decided to utilise a method that he had successfully used against gangs, armed robbers, terrorists and insurgencies. Although obviously he would have to change aspects of the method to suit a residential area in Australia’s capital city. The solution required using ethnography to learn about the beliefs and behaviours of varying deviant communities that were the root of the issues. Then developing and implementing interventions that would divert these communities along different non-deviant pathways. The interventions were delivered through the community program of Neighbourhood Watch (NHW).
By developing an understanding of the deviant communities, and how individual burglars went about their business, David was able to identify weaknesses in peer and social networks that the ‘gangs’ formed in, as well as the planning, preparation and intelligence gathering that the potential burglars utilised. David was also able to identify what the burglars were most fearful of. With this information, David was able to develop interventions that would guide potential burglars along alternative non-deviant pathways.
The interventions
Directed information was disseminated through NHW regarding the specific methods that the burglars were using, such as how deviants identified their target house, where the burglars would leave their getaway vehicle, and how they conducted their surveillance. Residents were provided with ways and means to identify burglars in the process of planning their burglary, and ways to prevent the burglary. This was based on the knowledge that had been gained through the ethnographical research that was conducted throughout the entire intervention period.
Results
The aim of this method is to divert deviants to non-deviant pathways. For example, in some cases, peers and siblings were recruited to influence deviant siblings along non-deviant pathways. As one elder sibling said:
“When I found out that my brother was in with that shit (referring to a small gang), and probably breaking into places, I changed his attitude.”
In other cases, NHW newsletters were delivered to high-risk areas of Kambah. These newsletters were also given to possible deviants that were identified within the same area. The purpose was to alert burglars that residents knew of the deviants’ methodologies and would identify and report suspicious behaviours.
As a former burglary offender said:
“If you had walked up to us and handed each of us a newsletter of this type, I would not want to go back to this area for a long time. This says exactly what we used to do. I would be worried that you, or some of the neighbors would be watching all the time.”
The Incidence of Burglary
After exhaustive research to find other possible causes for the drop in crime, the interventions were found to cause a 42% drop in burglary crime.
Conclusion
The method outlined in this project is substantially different to developmental crime prevention methods which focus on ‘at risk’ individuals, or environmental crime prevention methods which focus on changing the environment. However, as can be seen by the results, this method can substantially reduce crime. Also, when implemented through community programs such as Neighbourhood Watch, the method offers a very cost effective way to reduce the incidence of burglary crime.
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The methodology describe above has been peer reviewed and published in the Journal of Applied Security Research. You can read the entire article by following the below link:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19361610.2021.1956268?src=
Reference
Trask, S. (2017, March 6). Canberra’s crime hotspots revealed. The Canberra Times.
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6035774/canberras-crime-hotspots-revealed/
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