Strategic Security Management

necessary; however, the security department employees should not be the

people taking the corrective action.

The remainder of this chapter discusses two major types of policies and pro-

cedures: the security manual and the emergency management plan. While other

policies and procedures are important, these two are universal among all types

of organizations.

Security Plan

The security plan is a written document that defines the organization’s secu-

rity mission, provides an overview of the complete security program, and iden-

tifies all methods in use for the protection of organizational assets. The security

plan documents the organization’s security policies, procedures, functions,

measures, and strategies for providing a safe and secure environment and pre-

venting crime and other security incidents. It is a living document in that it

adapts as the organization’s security needs change and serves as a training aid

for security awareness across the organization. The security plan articulates

how the security program is usually organized through personnel and function

organizational charts, flowcharts, and descriptions of specific countermeasures.

Security plans also describe the common security measures utilized through-

out the facility or facilities, as the case may be, and how these measures operate

on a daily, routine basis. Security responsibilities are clearly delineated, and reg-

ulatory compliance measures are described in detail. As described in the pre-

ceding section, the security awareness component should also be articulated in

the security plan. Threat-dependent measures and activities are enumerated in

the security plan. The security plan also sets forth guidelines for quality control,

benchmarking against industry best practices, and metric development and

analysis.

As a written document, the organization’s security plan defines the security

mission. What is a security mission? In its most basic form, the mission of any

security program is the protection of assets. Depending on the nature of the

organization or facility in need of protection, the mission may be more

complex or unique. For example, a hospital’s mission statement may encom-

pass not only security for the facility, but also the maintenance of a safe envi-

ronment for patients and their families. The security plan, as an overview of

the complete security program, identifies the many and various ways in which

security is provided. These methods include policies and procedures, physical

security measures, and security personnel. While a proper balance is ideal, some

organizations may rely more heavily on one of these general security measures,

and thus the security plan will focus on that measure.

176 Strategic Security Management