The James Mintz Group Building Security and Emergency Preparedness Services team helps commercial property owners and their property managers (1) assess vulnerability to natural hazards and man-made threats at both the corporate and property-specific level and (2) develop comprehensive emergency preparedness, security and response plans.
Working with a property owner’s risk management and communications advisors, the Mintz Group security team has as its goals optimizing limited resources dedicated to protecting people and property, and minimizing owner loss, legal liability and insurance costs.
The Challenge
Ours is a world of uncertainty. On any given day, a building and its occupants may be exposed not only to the commonly understood hazards of fire, flood, wind (and in some areas, earthquake), but also to threats arising from civil disturbance, workplace violence, crime, disease, interrupted utilities service, or acts of terror, including those involving explosives and chemical, biological and radiological devices. This is especially true for properties in densely populated, urban areas.
Too often, complacency rules the day. Property owners are satisfied by assurances from their property managers that they are ready for any contingency. Too often, the reality is that emergency preparedness and response is an afterthought. Plans, if they exist at all, sit in discarded three-ring binders on a shelf.
In this era of the global war on terror, building owners are receiving from an array of public and private sources considerable advice and counsel on managing physical security, some of it contradictory. The reality is that each owner, as we learned on 9/11 and during Katrina, is on his or her own, and never more so than at the onset and in the immediate aftermath of an emergency. Each owner must decide individually what level of response is appropriate for his enterprise and his property, ranging from no response, the lowest cost option, to securing his buildings against all threats, at considerable cost.
The James Mintz Group advocates a rational, balanced approach to physical security that begins with a professional, fact-based assessment of risk and results in a plan that puts together people, process and equipment for maximum effect. To be successful, the plan must be responsive, reasonable and repeatable. All three ingredients are critical.
Services We Offer
For the property owner who wants to actively manage risk, prevent loss, reduce liability and lower costs, the Mintz Group provides a full suite of consulting services that will build capacity to respond appropriately to any eventuality.
Even before a building enters an owner’s portfolio, the Mintz Group provides valuable information through its due-diligence activities or pre-construction design reviews that highlight potential vulnerabilities and lead to superior resource allocation decisions.
At the enterprise level, the Mintz Group assists in the creation and refinement of security and emergency preparedness standards to guide property managers and ensure uniform and consistently superior management practices that prevent loss, reduce liability and lower costs.
Once guidelines are established and embedded in plans, the Mintz Group acts as auditor and coach, conducting periodic "tabletop" emergency exercises to ensure that each member of the owner’s team is clear as to his or her role and responsibilities in the event of an emergency.
In summary, the James Mintz Group's services include:
- Pre-acquisition due-diligence
- Pre-construction security design review
- Security and emergency preparedness assessment
- Development of enterprise level security standards
- Risk management and loss prevention coordination
- Risk management and loss prevention coordination
- Coordination with crisis communications provider
- Equipment procurement and installation oversight
- Emergency simulation (tabletops)
- Pre-lease due-diligence (tenant background checks)
The James Mintz Group Building Security and Emergency Preparedness Services team is sophisticated, experienced, focused and sensitive to each owner’s and each property’s unique challenges.
- Bruce Kennedy is a security and anti-terrorism expert with more than 30 years of hands-on technical and field experience. Bruce heads JMG’s building security and emergency preparedness practice and also consults with dozens of JMG clients on responding to physical threats, planning for emergencies, combating computer hacking, investigating information leaks and technology thefts, as well as a variety of other security issues. As the New York Police Department’s “go-to” expert for technical support and tactics, Bruce helped plan and implement security for virtually every major public event in the city from 1974 until his retirement from the department in 1987.
- Jim Rowe is the executive vice president of the James Mintz Group and managing partner of the Washington, D.C. office. He supervises JMG’s building security and emergency preparedness practice. He is the former chief counsel on the U.S. House Judiciary/Crime and Criminal Justice Subcommittee and a former vice president of Harvard University and NBC. Jim has been a white-collar criminal defense lawyer who has extensive experience in overseeing due-diligence reviews as well as complex litigation matters.
- John Zakotnik is a senior investigator in the James Mintz Group’s Washington, D.C. office who administers JMG’s building security and emergency services practice, coordinating internal human resources with client needs and ensuring the timely delivery and quality of our work product. John is a former journalist and publishing executive with over 25 years of experience.
- Michael Anthony is a senior vice president of the James Mintz Group as well as the managing partner of the Chicago office. While Michael handles JMG’s building security and emergency preparedness effort in the Midwest, he is available to travel anywhere on short notice as the situation demands. He also has extensive experience in conducting, supervising and managing all types of investigations.
- Jane Ebert is a senior investigator who recently opened the James Mintz Group’s Los Angeles office. A former police office and self-employed investigator, Jane has been an integral part of JMG’s building security and emergency preparedness team for several years, helping conduct numerous building audits.
