America's Best Engineers, Manufacturers, and Security Firms Gather to Discuss Stopping Vehicle Terrorism
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(New York, NY) On May 10, 2018 VIRSIG's Shelomo Alfassa made representation on behalf of VIRSIG at a Policy Briefing focusing on physical security measures to protect against hostile vehicle attacks.
This event, organized by the Security Industry Association (SIA), was held in Washington DC. Convened in the Hart Senate Building, the event included several prominent members of the security industry, Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), and officials of the US Department of Homeland Security / Science & Technology Directorate. The program was facilitated by Robert Reiter, a national expert on vehicle incursion accidents and co-founder of the Storefront Safety Council.
Entitled ‘Policy Briefing: Preventing Vehicular Attacks’ the participants addressed safety in public spaces and how security can be enhanced through engineered solutions. Topics of the presentations presented included: Defining the Threat from Vehicular Attacks against Pedestrians and Crowds, Matching Countermeasures to the Threat, Best Practices for Protecting Public Spaces, and other topics.
Dean Alberson, Ph.D., P.E., Chairman of the ASTM working group spoke on trends in protective devices. Shelomo Alfassa, VIRSIG’s Emergency Management Planner, queried him on the sensitivity of obtaining proprietary crash-test analysis data in regard to vetting a manufactured device for liability mitigation reasons. "It may be difficult, but it's important" Dr. Alberson said.
Congressman Dan Donovan (NY), Chairman of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response and Communications, was the Special Guest. The Congressman addressed the participants on the importance of the United States standing up and being prepared against terrorism, and he took questions. Mr. Alfassa asked the Congressman if there was any “national legislature for the mandating of protective bollards during new building construction,” as Alfassa had heard there were plans to do so. “I haven’t heard of any presently, but it’s not an unreasonable idea” said Rep. Donovan.
Regarding the event, Alfassa said: “It was an important topic and a great event. SIA brought the best of the best together to discuss engineered solutions to mitigate vehicles crashing into pedestrians and structures.” He added, “we used to worry about terrorists driving a car bomb next to a building, now we worry about the terrorist using the car itself as a weapon.”
VIRSIG is a national technology company focused on secure networks, video surveillance, detection, and access control solutions. They protect people, places and data by identifying then addressing cybersecurity, infrastructure, perimeter, and site vulnerabilities.
VIRSIG is a state and federally certified Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Company. They can be found at www.virsig.com.