The tragic events of September 11th, 2001 clearly demonstrated the reality that no government functions effectively without the support of both its public safety community and its citizens. In the few short moments following the suicide attacks upon the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, nearly every aspect of our way of life has been altered.

In the last year, we have witnessed the incredible power of nature during Hurricane's Katrina and Rita, and recently experienced the destruction and devastation brought about by flooding resulting in federal declarations of disaster in 20 New York counties.

Certainly these events highlighted the professionalism and heroism of our public safety community and the incredible challenges they will overcome in service to their fellow man. Yet they also demonstrated gaps that needed to be addressed, if we were to improve our abilities and capabilities at "prevention, response, and recovery to, and from incidents of significance", be they natural or manmade.

To that end, as part of an overall comprehensive strategic initiative, Governor George Pataki signed legislation in August of 2005 which directed the New York State Office of Homeland Security to certify a training curriculum that would enhance and improve the capabilities of the New York Security Guard Industry. Over the past year our office has undertaken an extremely comprehensive program development process which involved subject matter experts from the security guard industry in cooperation with professionals from the public safety community, to produce an Enhanced Security Guard Program, designed to better prepare the security guard industry for the ever evolving challenges it faces.

In recognition of the fact that an estimated 85% of the critical infrastructure assets in the United States are owned and secured by private industry, it is incumbent upon all of us in the public safety community to ensure that security guard specialists have the training necessary to fulfill the vital roles and responsibilities with which they are tasked.

In many instances security guards serve on the front lines in the war against criminal and terrorist acts and provide vital forward observation of potential attacks, or efforts which may support attacks against our infrastructure, our citizens', and our way of life by criminal or terrorist elements.

DR Security & Training (along with all of its instructors) is certified to deliver both of the courses developed by the New York State Office of Homeland Security, in support of this program.  The two course include:

• New York State Enhanced Security Guard Training Program

• New York State Enhanced Security Guard Train-the-Trainer Program

Pre-requisites

Completion if the following training and certifications will be REQUIRED prior to being accepted into either of these courses:

• NYS Eight-Hour Pre-Assignment Training

• NYS Security Guard or Armed Security Guard License

• Red Cross 6 1/2 hour First Aid Training with CPR and AED

The following will also be required prior to attending the 'Train-the-Trainer' course:

• Certification by NYS DCJS and a Security or Armed Security Guard instructor

Optionally, students wishing to attend the student version of the training (non Train-the-Trainer), can reduce their total classroom time by 8 hours if they have the following FEMA certifications:

• IS-00700 National Incident Management (NIMS) and Introduction

• IS-00100 Introduction to the Incident Command System (ICS 100)

Both certifications can be obtained through independent study at: http://www.training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/