Reposted from Western Museums Association

The Indian Arts Research Center (IARC) is a division of the School for Advanced Research (SAR) in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The goal of IARC is to bridge the divide between creativity and scholarship by supporting initiatives and projects in Native American studies, art history, and creative expression that illuminate the intersections of the social sciences, humanities, and arts.

The IARC recently released guidelines to ensure successful museum and community collaborations. There are two sets of guidelines: 1) Community + Museum Collaboration and 2) Museum + Community Collaboration.

These guidelines were developed over a three-year period of collaboration between Native and non-Native museum professionals, cultural leaders and artists. The Community + Museum Collaboration guidelines are intended as a resource for community members who are working in collaboration with museums. The Museum + Community Collaboration guidelines are a resource for museums that are looking to collaborate with a source community. This is not a set of rules; instead, it offers ideas to consider when working with museums and source communities.

This project began with the desire to set the record straight. Source communities can work with museums to correct and add to the museum record. According to Jim Enote, A:shiwi A:wan Museum & Heritage Center, “The idea of bringing source communities together with collections is the right thing to do. The idea of building collaborations between communities and museums and their collections was a new level of engagement. And this was part of the essence of building our guidelines for communities to work with collections.” This work is relevant for communities because they can learn more about their identity and heritage through museum collections.

These guidelines were created with the belief that museums should be thinking about how to bring life to objects by allowing them to return or reenage with their source. The guidelines create a platform that offers museums and communities an opportunity to negotiate the best approach to achieve true collaboration.

The Guidelines for Collaboration are an excellent resource for communities that want to work with museums and museums that want to work with communities. These resources provide an opportunity for true collaboration and two-way learning. 

To learn more about this innovative project, download the guidelines, and view case studies visit the Guidelines for Collaboration website

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Reposted from DMagazine

The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts didn't think a police report was necessary when Irby Pace's work went missing. His Dallas gallerist disagrees.

When Irby Pace found out his art was stolen from the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, he was deflated. The hijacked stereo cards had been a challenge to craft. Pace liked the fresh way they allowed viewers engage with his work. Plus, his subjects — vibrantly colored smoke clouds — looked super dope in 3D.

Now he’d have to start over.

He posted the news to his private social media accounts: “Some of my art was stolen from the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts [fuming emoji, red emoji]” and added a doctored screenshot from the The Thomas Crown Affair.

As status updates go, it was simple and funny. Unless, of course, you’re the MMoFA. They weren’t thrilled with the shout-out. Due to the pieces’ scale and market price, they considered the whole thing a fender-bender of sorts — and they’d really rather nobody talk about it. To Curator of Art Jennifer Jankauskas, it didn’t merit a call to the cops.

“It’s not like a Monet got stolen,” she said in an interview. “The necessity of a police report doesn’t seem to make sense.”

Plus, Jankauskas told me, Pace’s work would not have been sellable after the exhibition, due to general wear and tear on the materials during the show’s run.

What followed was a charged exchange, one that would deal with free speech, the value of art, and the power politics between institutions and the artists they showcase. It also spurred other questions: Is successful interactive art less valuable due to material degradation, or more valuable due to its high level of engagement?

Pace’s gallerist, Ree Willaford of Galleri Urbane Marfa + Dallas, said that Pace wanted that human interaction, that DNA on the work. And besides: “Those could have been artist proofs,” she says from her Dallas showroom. “That’s not for us to decide. We all know Rauschenbergs don’t hold up well, but we’d all take one!”

“And it was supposed to be kept safe anyway, in any institution,” she says. “Whether it’s a gallery or museum.”

 Irby was teaching a class at Troy University when he saw three missed calls. A week had passed since the theft and Pace had kind of found peace with the whole thing.

“How mad can you be when somebody loved [the work] so much they risked whatever they could have risked to steal it?” he asked.

Besides, now his stereo cards are in the canon of Art Stolen from Museums, which carries its own panache. And nobody can take that from him, right?

He checked the missed calls and rang the museum back. They wanted to settle up, name a price and close the loop with the artist. The press had started sniffing around and they needed this thing resolved. Once a monetary agreement was reached, they had a few more demands.

“They asked me not to make any social media postings, they asked me why I made any social media postings, and then they dictated that I need to go onto social media and explain that the thing has been resolved,” said Pace.

In a follow-up email, he was asked to stop giving information to reporters and to try and kill the story.

By the end of it, Pace felt censored, used and insulted.

“I was told that my artwork, because of the nature of it and the size of it, isn’t as important as the Edward Hoppers or other permanent collection work that it would be associated with. And what would validate a proper comment or investigation of theft.” 

Questions about logistics enter here, too. Does additional oversight need to be put into a space where the public directly handles the art? And if so, who decides that? And if work is damaged, broken or lost to theft, how do its custodians talk about that with the public —or can they sweep it under the rug and silence the artist?

Surveying the museum landscape today, the public’s appetite for interactive artwork is only growing. As these institutions move away from Old Paintings on Walls, they’re being challenged to consider new rules and protocols. Meanwhile artists like Pace are left assuming more risk and murkier definitions of value. Should artists’ work leave a museum less valuable than when it entered it?

Irby Pace moved his family to Montgomery, Alabama in 2014 to accept a teaching position at nearby Troy. They left behind a Dallas arts community wherein Pace’s work had been quickly noticed. For his 2012 MFA show he made national headlines by ripping abandoned pictures of strangers off Apple store devices, blowing them up and calling it art. He presciently captured the cultural moment just before “selfie” happened. He also got tangled up with Apple in a dispute over privacy rights, freedom of speech and appropriation in a time of rapidly evolving technology.

The Dallas Observer awarded him “Best Art Heist” for the affair. That irony isn’t lost on Pace. “It’s kind of like a climatic response to that,” he said about the theft and laughed. “You can’t be THAT mad.”

But again, that was before the museum’s phone call.

Pace’s stolen pieces were stereo card images. Shot on a special camera with two lenses, set at different angles, his work was laser cut and hand assembled over five months. It is the only set that exists. To use it, visitors place the cards into an antique viewer from the early 1900s and observe a three-dimensional illusion of his photography. It’s a fun gimmick that was popular more than one hundred years ago — another era when escapism was all the rage.

Their intimate size was part of what attracted Pace to the project. His big, blown up photographs were getting snatched up back at the gallery in Dallas and he’d have a few in this show as well. But he wanted to play with scale and guide viewers through his trippy environments in a more personal way. He chalked it up as a positive. The curators called the cards “minimal pieces” compared to the big guys on the wall and noted that they were replaceable.

Willaford again isn’t so sure this logic shakes out. She starts telling a story about her friend who ran a Houston gallery back in the ‘70s, who “sold (Donald) Judds when nobody wanted them.” For one fair in Germany, her friend carried the whole show in her purse. Cy Twombly had painted an entire series on popsicle sticks. “How much are those worth today?” asks Willaford. “That day they weren’t that valuable.”

While neither party is naming the settled payment price, both agree it’s enough to cover the material costs of creating a new set of slides. Pace may start a new series, but he won’t attempt to recreate the ones he’s lost.

“I’ll probably let that series be stolen and move onto the next one.” he says. Besides, he’s already considering other ways to bring his work to life, like large-scale holograms that dominate a showroom. And that seems like a great idea, one that’s really tough to steal. 

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Reposted from CNN

In a plot worthy of a Hollywood heist film, thieves mingled with other visitors to an exhibition in Venice on Wednesday before brazenly making off with gems of "indisputably elevated value," the canal city's police chief said.

The working theory being developed by investigating officers suggests that at least two people entered the Doge's Palace -- a popular tourist spot in Venice where a selection of Indian jewelry from the Qatari royal collection was on display to the public.

One suspect acted as lookout while the other grabbed the jewels from a display case, police believe.

Venice Police Chief Vito Danilo Gagliardi said that the stolen items were a pair of earrings and a brooch made of diamonds, gold and platinum. The pieces -- owned by Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah Al Thani -- were snatched in the bold daytime robbery on the last day of the exhibit. 

A preliminary investigation revealed that the pair were able to delay the alarm system for one minute so it wasn't triggered until the thieves were making their escape, Gagliardi said. He described the culprits as "skilled."

"They were certainly well prepared and hit in a targeted way," Gagliardi said.

The police chief suggested the jewels would be difficult to sell on because of their international recognition and might, therefore, be disassembled and sold separately.

Gagliardi earlier told Reuters that the jewels had a customs value of 30,000 euros (around $31,000), but indicated that the actual worth is more likely "a few million euros."

A Venice police spokesman told CNN that the stolen pieces were "of great value" but would not provide an exact estimate of their worth.

The spokesman added that authorities arrived at the scene at 10:17 a.m. (3:17 a.m. ET) on Wednesday after being alerted by the head of security, who told them that "some jewels had gone missing."

In a press release, the Doge's Palace confirmed the theft of "two objects" from the Al Thani Collection. The objects were described as "recently made and of marginal value compared to other jewels of greater historical value."

"Thanks to the timely intervention of the security apparatus operating inside the exhibition halls, and whose definition was shared from the outset with the Venice Police Headquarters, the Civic Museums Foundation was able to provide all the law enforcement agencies the elements necessary for a rapid solution of the ongoing investigation," the statement continued.

The exhibition displayed over 270 pieces of Indian Mughal jewelry from the 16th to the 20th century, according to the Doge's Palace website.

The exhibition closed on schedule.

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Reposted from The Boston Globe

The newest staff member at the Museum of Fine Arts doesn’t have much of an eye for aesthetics, which makes him a bit of a peculiar addition to the renowned institution.

He didn’t attend a fancy college where they teach students about art appraisals. And he won’t be able to differentiate a van Gogh from a Degas, or an oil on canvas from an ancient Egyptian bust.

But he does have this: a keen sense of smell that could help officials at the museum keep its many exhibits, both new and old, from going to the dogs.

Riley, a Weimaraner puppy, was recently acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts on a volunteer basis to detect insects and other pests that might be hiding on existing or incoming collections at the gallery.

Seemingly harmless moths or bugs have the potential to damage certain types of artwork, like textiles, wood, or organic materials.

And Riley will be tasked with sniffing them out — once he has been properly trained, of course.

“We have lots of things that bring, by their very nature, bugs or pests with them,” said Katie Getchell, chief brand officer and deputy director of the Museum of Fine Arts. “If he can be trained to sit down in front of an object that he smells a bug in, that we can’t smell or see, then we could take that object, inspect it, and figure out what’s going on — that would be remarkable in terms of preserving objects.”

The museum has existing protocols in place to handle any potential infestation issues before they arise, but bringing Riley into the fold will offer an added layer of protection, she said.

“Pests are an ongoing concern for museums,” Getchell said. “It’s exciting to think about this as a new way to address the problem.”

The arrival of the floppy-eared pup with the oversized paws and droopy eyes, marks a first-of-its-kind initiative for the museum. Getchell said she’s not aware of another institution using a dog for similar work. Riley’s assistance is being billed as a pilot project, as they get a sense of his effectiveness.

While the idea of a puppy at the museum might give art lovers more incentive to visit, Riley will mostly work behind the scenes, meaning he won’t be spotted by those walking through the galleries on a daily basis.

His scent training, which will take place with his owner, the museum’s head of Protective Services, will begin in the next few months.

“If it is something that works, it’s something that other museums, or other libraries, or other places that collect materials that are susceptible to any kind of any infestation like that could use as another line of defense,” Getchell said. “That would be an amazing outcome.”

The American Kennel Club describes the breed’s demeanor and personality traits as “fearless, friendly, and obedient,” and notes that Weimaraners — males can weigh anywhere between 70 to 90 pounds when full grown — are always “eager to please.”

“The Weimaraner is a graceful dog with aristocratic features,” the website says. “Bred for speed, good scenting ability, courage and intelligence, he remains an excellent game hunter and active participant in other dog sports.”

Sue Thomas, who owns Rhode Island-based Camelot Weimaraner and has been breeding the dogs for 40 years, said they’re known for their olfactory capabilities.

“Anything that is determined on ability of sense of smell could be done with them,” she said. “I think they’re smart, and I think they’re very trainable.”

Although Riley is still very young, that sort of untapped potential could bode well for the museum and its mission.

“It’s a fun way to think about how we might be able to improve our care. That’s why we are here, to care for and share these works of art,” said Getchell, of the MFA. “If we can do that through an adorable dog, it’s pretty awesome.”

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Reposted from The New York Times

Since Al Qaeda and then the Islamic State began calling on would-be terrorists to drive cars and trucks into pedestrians, officials in New York City have grappled with how to better protect people from vehicular attacks.

It is a concern that gained urgency last year, first after a driver high on PCP drove three blocks on a Midtown Manhattan sidewalk, and then after a man plowed a rented truck down a West Side bike path in a terrorist attack that killed eight people.

On Tuesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the city would spend $50 million to secure high-risk public spaces from attacks by vehicles, and from vehicles that go out of control because of a medical emergency.

The money will go toward a range of safety measures, including installing 1,500 metal bollards at some of the city’s most-visited locations and placing large planters at other vulnerable spots.

At a news conference in Times Square on Tuesday, Mr. de Blasio said the bollards — metal posts intended to block vehicles — would replace some of the concrete cubes and barriers that had been placed as temporary measures near pedestrian areas vulnerable to attack.

“That was necessary to immediately secure those areas in light of these new trends we’ve seen,” Mr. de Blasio said. “But we knew we needed long-term solutions, we needed permanent barriers.” Bollards, city officials said, will allow pedestrians to move more freely than the concrete barriers, which take up more room and are more cumbersome to navigate in a crowd. “People have to be able to get around, but they have to be safe at the same time,” the mayor said.

Aside from Times Square, city officials declined to say where many of the bollards would go and noted that it would take a few years to install all 1,500 of them.

In a 2010 article in its magazine, Inspire, Al Qaeda encouraged adherents to use vehicles “to mow down the enemies of Allah.” But the tactic did not really catch on among would-be terrorists until several years later, when the Islamic State began to call publicly for vehicle attacks. Since then, counterterrorism officials in New York City have watched with concern as men in cars and trucks rammed pedestrians in a string of deadly attacks from Quebec to Nice to Berlin.

The spate of vehicle attacks prompted discussion about what more the city could do to insulate pedestrian areas from traffic, and whether, in Times Square at least, it made sense to further reduce traffic along some blocks.

At the news conference, the mayor did not take questions and said little regarding tactics, besides installing the bollards.

Bollards are not new to Times Square. They were installed by the dozens in the area in 2016.

Last May, bollards on 45th Street eventually stopped the car whose driver, high on PCP, had driven along three city blocks of sidewalk, killing an 18-year-old woman and injuring 20 people.

The city’s transportation commissioner, Polly Trottenberg, said that installing bollards is complicated because of the infrastructure and subway lines below some of the city’s busiest areas. “If you want to make them so they can really stop a vehicle, they need to go some distance into the ground,” Ms. Trottenberg said.

A spokesman for the Transportation Department, Scott Gastel, said that there are “nearly 50 locations with such permanent bollards” around the city, but that they had mainly been installed by private entities, or diplomatic missions.

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Reposted from The Guardian

Police forces are to receive a £50m funding boost to help the fight against terrorism.

The extra cash will increase intelligence and surveillance capabilities and pay for armed officers to patrol city centers.

The home secretary, Amber Rudd, secured the rise in next year’s police counter-terrorism budget to at least £757m after convincing the chancellor, Philip Hammond, more money was needed to protect the public.

Rudd said: “This represents our commitment to backing the talented and brave counter-terrorism forces with the resources they need to keep people safe.

“Since 2015 alone we have increased counter-terrorism spending by 30% and pledged more than £500m in increased funding for the counter-terrorism budget, to protect the UK from the ongoing threat posed by terrorism.

“This [latest funding] will allow counter-terrorism policing to meet head on the threat we face, working closely with our communities and continuing to disrupt those who would want to harm us.

“We are also reviewing our counter-terrorism strategy to make sure we meet the unprecedented challenge.”

Counter-terrorism police and the security services have disrupted 22 plots since the murder of Lee Rigby in May 2013, and nine since the Westminster attack in March this year. They are currently running well over 500 live operations.

There were 400 arrests for terrorism-related offences in the year ending 30 September, an increase of 54% compared with the previous year.

Rudd said: “Time and again our police officers have been at the forefront of our response, putting themselves in harm’s way to keep others from danger.

“We will never forget the sacrifice of PC Keith Palmer who was fatally stabbed while defending our parliament.

“This government stands alongside them, ensuring they have the resources, capabilities and powers they need.”

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Reposted from The Times-Picayune

A rifle used in the Battle of New Orleans that went missing from the Confederate Memorial Hall was returned to the museum over 30 years after it was stolen, FBI and state police investigators and museum officials announced Monday (Jan. 8), the 203rd anniversary of the battle.

The weapon, a .38-caliber long rifle was used by William Ross during the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812, the assistant to the curator of the Confederate Museum Joseph Ricci said during a news conference. Ross fought in a local militia under Capt. Thomas Beale, and his rifle was used to help win the battle, Ricci said.

Ross, a New Orleans flour inspector, earned $22.48 for his service during the war, Ricci said. The rifle, the only known verified weapon to be traced back to being in use during the Jan. 8-18, 1814 battle, was donated to the Confederate Memorial Hall Museum on Dec. 31, 1884 by Ross' grandson, Elijah Steele Ross.

According to Ricci, the gun was documented as "hanging on the walls" in the museum in 1935, and appeared in various inventory lists as late as the 1960s. Although investigators are unsure when exactly the rifle went missing, investigators learned the gun was at some point located in a store in the French Quarter.

In 1982, the rifle was traded for "several other weapons," and came into the hands of the person from whom the rifle was ultimately recovered, according to FBI special agent Randolph Deaton.

The value of the trade was about $18,000 in 1982, Deaton said.

Detectives with the FBI and Louisiana State Police started the investigation for the weapon in August 2017, and the rifle was found in a private home in south Louisiana in November, Deaton said.

Deaton said the gun was, "hiding in plain sight," over the roughly 35 years it was missing, saying "the people who possessed the rifle for the past 30 years were extremely cooperative," during their investigation.

The names of the store and individuals who were in possession of the weapon are not being released as neither are the subjects of a criminal investigation, Deaton said. As to the person who took the gun from the museum, Deaton said, "we may never know."

Ricci said the William Ross rifle was made by Virginia gun-maker John Jacob Sheetz. It is a Kentucky style flintlock with a 42-inch barrel and is engraved with an inscription reading, "this rifle was used by my father Wm. Ross, a member of Cap. Thos. Beals company of New Orleans Riflemen in defense of N Orleans in 1814 and 1815."

The rifle is now on display at the Confederate Memorial Hall Museum.

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Reposted from ASIS Security Management

​The classroom door flies open. An emotionally distraught student rushes into the doorway, produces a semiautomatic pistol, presses the muzzle of the gun to his temple with his finger on the trigger, and proclaims, "I can't take it anymore."

How will the teacher respond to this stressful, high-stakes situation? Will she intervene with verbal tactics or physical ones? Will she inadvertently put other students in danger by reacting too quickly?

An analysis by school security firm Safe Havens International found that teachers and administrators who had undergone traditional active shooter training were more likely to react to this situation by opting to attack the student or throw things at him, rather than taking the action steps outlined in the school's policies and procedures, such as calling 911 or instigating a lockdown. In other scenarios, trainees reacted in a similar manner that could intensify and aggravate the situation when time allowed for safer policies and procedures to be applied.

In the wake of high-profile massacres at schools and college campuses, institutions are preparing themselves for the emergency situations with scenario-based training programs.

The percentage of U.S. public schools that have drilled for an active shooter scenario rose from 47 to 70 percent from 2004 to 2014, according to a study by the National Center for Education Statistics. But the intensive search for solutions to these deadly events can lead to hasty planning and decision making, ultimately resulting in an ineffective response.

The number of teachers and administrators who opt to attack or otherwise approach the armed perpetrator indicates that current active shooter programs may be overwhelming for participants, causing them to respond to threatening scenarios in a dangerous way. Schools have also become narrowly focused on active shooter scenarios, when most deaths and accidents on campuses do not involve an active shooter.

Taking these factors into consideration, an all-hazards approach to scenario-based training allows schools to prepare for a range of incidents, including bullying, sexual harassment, and natural disasters. Fidelity testing then allows administrators and teachers to put those plans to the test and see how participants apply the training under stressful scenarios.

School leaders can then learn to rely on the solid foundational principles of policies and procedures, as well as communications and emergency plans, to diffuse potentially hazardous situations. Using these basic elements of active threat response and evaluating training programs to identify gaps could save lives.​

Evaluations

During the stress of an actual crisis, people often react differently than they have been trained to do. Fidelity testing of a training program can help determine if there are gaps between what the trainer thinks the trainees will do, and what actions trainees will take in real life. This was the aim of evaluations completed by campus security nonprofit Safe Havens International of Macon, Georgia.

Methodology. Analysts conducted the evaluations at more than 1,000 K-12 public, faith-based, independent, and charter schools in 38 states. More than 7,000 one-on-one crisis scenario simulations were conducted by Safe Havens International in a series of school safety, security, and emergency preparedness assessments over the last five years. The participants were observed and scored by analysts who had completed a 16-hour formal training program and one day of field work.

Prior to running the scenarios, analysts came up with several action steps that should be taken in each scenario. These steps included initiating a lockdown, calling 911, sheltering in place, or pulling the fire alarm, for example. Based on those steps, the analysts developed a standardized scoring system to keep track of participant performance in the scenarios.

This type of training is known as options-based active shooter training because it gives the participants various responses to choose from. Many popular options-based programs are based on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Run. Hide. Fight. approach. 

Drawing from Safe Havens International's repository of more than 200 audio and video crisis scenarios, analysts ran the simulations and let administrators, support staff, and teachers respond accordingly. These simulations covered a range of scenarios, which were presented in several formats.

For example, some participants were guided through an audio narration of a school bus taken hostage by an armed student. The audio was paused, and the trainees were asked what they would do next in that situation.

Similarly, video scenarios depicted potentially violent situations that left participants with a number of choices on how to react.

In one scenario, a woman screams at staff in the school office while brandishing a claw hammer. In another, a student on a school bus jumps up with a gun and yells, "Nobody move, and nobody gets hurt!" The video is stopped and trainees are prompted to say how they would react.

Based on action steps that were predetermined to be ideal, analysts then scored the trainees' responses on tablet devices. The scoring was be tailored to individual clients. For instance, if analysts were training a school district that has a police officer on every campus, its response would be different from that of a rural district that does not have a law enforcement officer within 20 miles.

Results. The results of the evaluations consistently showed that participants who were provided with options-based active shooter programs had lower scores than those who had not completed any type of training.

This outcome shows that current active shooter training methods may be overwhelming for administrators and teachers because they provide too much information—prompting them to attack when it is not necessary.

In an assessment in the northeastern United States, test subjects completed an options-based active shooter training program that was three and a half hours long. Evaluators found that the 63 administrators and staff members from 28 schools missed 628 out of 1,243 critical action steps that should have been implemented. That's more than 50 percent.

For example, participants failed to initiate or order a lockdown when it was appropriate 70 percent of the time. More than 55 percent of participants failed to call 911 or the school resource officer in scenarios depicting a person with a weapon, and 39 percent of participants failed to pull the fire alarm in situations involving fire.

During an assessment of a school district in the southwestern United States, 32 people from two groups participated in scenario simulations. One group completed a five-hour live training program based on the Run. Hide. Fight. video, developed by the district's school resource officers. The second group did not receive the training or view the video.

The simulation results revealed that none of the top five scoring participants had received any type of active shooter training. All five of the lowest scoring participants, on the other hand, had completed the training program.

The overall score was also significantly lower for the group that had completed training than it was for the untrained group. The lower scoring participants often opted to attack in situations where it was not the best option.

Opting to attack. For the scenario described in the beginning of the article, where a student is potentially suicidal, analysts found that in one out of every four incidents, a school employee who had completed an options-based active shooter training would try to throw an object at or attack the student armed with a weapon.

Many of the participants in the simulations responded by opting to use force for almost any scenario involving a subject depicted with a gun. If the student in question was suicidal, such a reaction could be deadly, possibly leading to the student to shoot himself or others.

Participants who had not received formal training began talking to the student, encouraging him to put the gun down, and asking if it was okay for the other students in the classroom to leave. These basics of communication are essential in an active suicide threat situation and can help defuse possible violence. 

Another scenario featured a drunk man who was 75 yards away from a school at the same time that a teacher and her students were 25 yards from the school building at recess. The analysis found that 30 percent of participants playing the teacher chose to approach—and even attack the drunk man—even though he was three-quarters of a football field away from the school.

The best option in this scenario is for the teacher to instruct the students to go into the school and put themselves in lockdown, then go into the building and ask the office to dial 911.

In November 2017, a school in Northern California initiated its lockdown procedure when the school secretary heard gunshots nearby. The gunman tried to enter the campus but could not find an open door. Because school faculty followed policies and procedures, countless lives were saved.

Active Threat Approach

The narrow focus on active shooter incidents has left many schools ill-prepared for other active attacker methods, including edge weapons, acid attacks, and fire. Relying on active shooter training also neglects response to incidents that often go undetected, such as bullying and sexual harassment.

The Safe Havens International assessments revealed that many K-12 schools lack written protocols for hazardous materials incidents or do not conduct any training or drills for these easy-to-orchestrate, devastating types of attacks. Evaluations also revealed an unwillingness among some school staff to report incidents of sexual harassment.

Policies and procedures. Edu­cational institutions have written policies and procedures on a range of issues, including bullying, sexual misconduct, signing in visitors, and traffic safety. Scenario-based training will help demonstrate whether staff are prepared to apply those policies appropriately. All staff should be included in this training, including bus drivers, cafeteria employees, and custodial workers.

Scenario-based training can reveal the gaps between what procedure dictates and what staff would actually do when confronted with a threat.

For example, in one simulation conducted by Safe Havens International, a student sat in a classroom with a teacher after hours. The teacher stroked the pupil's hair inappropriately and used sexually explicit language. Some custodial staff faced with this scenario responded that they did not feel comfortable reporting what they saw to school administrators. Janitors, who may be more likely to witness such incidents, said they felt an imbalance of power among the staff, leaving them unwilling to speak up.

Administrators should address such issues by using multiple scenarios related to sexual misconduct to demonstrate to employees that they are not only empowered but required to report these situations. Reviewing these policies and procedures as part of scenario-based training, and incorporating possible threats other than active shooter, will bolster preparation among staff.

Attack methods. While mass shootings garner the most media attention, most recent homicides at schools were caused by attacks that did not involve active shooter events, according to Relative Risk of Death on K12 Campuses by school security expert Steven Satterly.

The 2014 study revealed that of 489 victims murdered on U.S. K-12 campuses from 1998 to 2013, only 62 were killed by active shooters. The Columbine, Sandy Hook, and Red Lake Reservation School shootings made up 74 percent of those 62 deaths.

Several weapons possibilities exist, and should be acknowledged in training programs, including edged weapons, explosive devices, and fire.

There have been dozens of mass casualty edged weapons attacks in schools, and serious damage can occur in a matter of minutes. A mass stabbing and slashing incident in Franklin, Pennsylvania, in April 2014 left 21 victims injured when a sophomore began attacking other students in a crowded hallway. Similar attacks have occurred in China, Japan, and Sweden that have killed and seriously injured students and school employees. 

Acid attacks are occurring more frequently in the United Kingdom, as well as in India, East Africa, Vietnam, and other regions.

For example, in September 2016, a student rigged a peer's violin case with acid at a high school in Haddington, Scotland. The victim's legs were disfigured as a result. 

These types of attacks are relatively easy to carry out because acid is inexpensive and can be concealed in bottles that appear harmless. The injuries sustained in these attacks are gruesome and irreversible, and there are concerns that this attack method may become more common in the United States.

Many active shooter training approaches also fail to address combination attacks, in which the perpetrator uses two or more attack weapons, such as firearms and explosives, firearms and fire, and so forth.

In the 2013 attack at Arapahoe High School in Colorado, a student shot his classmates and a staff member several times before throwing three Molotov cocktails that set part of the library ablaze. The student then shot himself.

Combination attack methods can present complications for first responders who may have to decipher where each threat is located and which one to deal with first. These campus attacks demonstrate the danger of training concepts that focus intently on active shooter incidents, while not offering viable options for other extreme attack methodologies.

There are ways to better prepare school staff to react to violence and reduce the chance of unintended consequences. Scenarios that present a range of threats and situations help trainees learn to react in the most effective manner, and remind them to rely on existing policies.

Fidelity testing that includes a scoring system for action steps will help determine whether active shooter and active threat training concepts have been received by the faculty. Including all staff members who have contact with students creates an inclusive environment where everyone feels empowered to report misconduct.

Putting a mirror to current school emergency preparedness will reflect where changes need to be made. If there are significant gaps between the training concept and application of those concepts when reacting unscripted to scenarios, improvements are in order. By applying these principles, schools can prepare themselves for the common emergencies, the worst-case-scenarios, and everything in between. 

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​Sidebar: keeping simulations safe

​Even the most well-intentioned scenario-based training can result in injuries. Training programs that teach throwing of objects, taking people to the floor, punching and kicking, or similar uses of force can wind up hurting trainees and trainers alike.

At least one popular active shooter training program has resulted in high rates of serious injuries among trainees, according to Jerry D. Loghry, CPP, loss prevention information manager for EMC Insurance.

Loghry verified that EMC Insurance has paid out more than $1 million in medical bills to school employees for injuries sustained in trainings from one active shooter program over a 22-month time period. In addition, one police department is being sued due to those injuries.

Instructors can be trained on how to engage participants in use-of-force in a safe way. Reasonable safety measures should be put into place, such as floor mats, and participants should wear protective padding, goggles, and even helmets if necessary.

Safety rules should be written in advance and observed during training simulations.

Local law enforcement can be a valuable resource for simulating active threat situations in a safe manner, because police officers complete similar close-quarters combat training on a regular basis. Observing these best practices can help prevent litigation and liability issues, as well as enhance the overall experience of participants and instructors.​

sidebar: fidelity Testing

For stereo systems, fidelity means that the sound generated by the speakers is nearly identical to the sound of the music that is recorded. In marriage, fidelity means that a person will be faithful to their promises to another.

In the world of school safety, fidelity indicates a close alignment between what is intended by safety policies, plans, drills, and training, and what people do in reality. Fidelity testing is the best way to verify the level of alignment between intentions and reality.

In the case of active shooter preparedness, fidelity testing involves efforts to measure whether there is a close match between theory and what people will actually do under the stress of a violent incident. 

With properly designed active shooter preparedness approaches, practical application under extreme stress should mirror, to a reasonable extent, the theoretical expectations of the approach. If people cannot correctly apply the active shooter survival options they have been provided under simulated conditions, their performance will likely not improve when they are placed under extreme stress.

A high degree of fidelity helps reduce the distance between what people ideally do under stress and what they are likely to do. A reasonable level of fidelity testing of active shooter survival concepts should document that people are able to:

• Demonstrate the ability to identify when they are in an active shooter situation.
• Apply each option they are taught in an appropriate fashion when tested with scenarios they do not know in advance.
• Apply each option under limited time frames with incomplete information.
• Demonstrate knowledge of when applying each option would increase rather than decrease danger.
• Demonstrate the ability to identify when they are in a situation involving firearms that is not an active shooter event.
• Demonstrate the ability to properly address a wide array of scenarios involving weapons other than firearms.​

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Reward Offered for information leading to the location and recovery of this stolen vehicle.

Art Recovery International (ARI) requests assistance from the public to help recover this 1966 Jaguar E-Type.

On 25 November 2017, this iconic classic was removed from a nearby storage facility and parked outside the home of the theft victim on Camberwell Grove, London SE5 8RF in preparation for a drive in the country the following day. The car was covered overnight and discovered missing on the morning of 26 November 2017. 

The theft has been reported to the Metropolitan Police under crime reference number 3035479/17.

Art Recovery International is offering a REWARD up to a maximum of £10,000 to any person or organization for information leading to the arrest and conviction of any person(s) who committed this crime.

Tips may be submitted online, or by phone to:

Christopher A. Marinello

chris@artrecovery.com

Italy mobile: +39 329 693 2606

UK mobile:  +44 (0) 7702 206 913

All tips may be submitted anonymously, and on a confidential basis.

Vehicle Information

1966 Jaguar E-Type Fixedhead Coupe (4.2 Litre)

Dark blue with grey leather interior

VRM: NGP 425D

Chassis No.: 1E21052

Engine No.: 7E64159

Mileage: 19 Aug 2017, 64,970

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Reposted from the Telegraph India

A thumb-sized chip attached to the back of a 6th century Buddha statue at the Gandhara Gallery of Indian Museum is likely to go unnoticed. But the chip will go a long way in ensuring the safety of the priceless exhibit.

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags are being fitted to art objects at the museum and Victoria Memorial in a phased manner under a scheme of the Union ministry of culture. The museum and the memorial both function under the ministry.

The RFID scheme also covers other prominent museums across the country such as the National Gallery of Modern Art and National Museum in New Delhi, Salar Jung Museum in Hyderabad and Allahabad Museum.

The system entails fitting a small radio frequency device to the exhibits for identification and tracking purposes. It also includes a tag, a reading device, and a host system application for data collection, processing and transmission.

The gates at the entry and exit points will have sensors that will raise the alarm if a tagged object passes through it. The tags will also help in locating the object during stocktaking.

"The project is part of the Digital India campaign. Not only will it prevent burglary and theft but also help in digitising our inventory," said Rajesh Purohit, the director of Indian Museum.

A 5th-century sandstone half-bust of Buddha was stolen from the museum in December 2004. It was recovered from Odisha a month later.

There are 108,000 objects at Indian Museum. Only around 20 per cent of them are on display, while the rest are in the store.

"Maintaining a checklist of the items and verifying it after visiting hours every day is an exhaustive task. A hand-held reader will make it easier to check the stock. On a trial basis, the reader is detecting every tagged object within a 10-ft radius," said Satyakam Sen, the nodal officer of the RFID project at the museum.

The tender for the project was floated by the National Council of Science Museums. A Chennai-based firm has been awarded the contract to install the system across the museums.

At Indian Museum, the tagging began in July. Some 1,800 objects have been tagged. "We have set a target of tagging 10,000 objects in this financial year," said Purohit.

The Victoria Memorial museum has around 35,000 artefacts, mostly paintings and photographs. "In the first phase, which began in July, 6,000 objects have been tagged. The second phase will begin next month," said Jayanta Sengupta, the secretary and curator of the memorial.

Sengupta explained the utility of the system. "In a museum, some objects are on display, some are in the store, and some are in the conservation lab. We also loan some objects to other institutes. Once all the objects are tagged and the application is ready, detailed information on any object will be available with the click of a finger," he told Metro.

The authorities are taking precautions to ensure that the objects are not damaged during the tagging process. "The adhesive used to stick the chips are undergoing a pH (potential of Hydrogen) test to determine their alkaline or acidic nature. Especially in case of organic objects like skeletons, fossils and textiles, we have to ensure that the adhesive is not too acidic in nature," an official at Indian Museum said.

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