Law Enforcement Consultant – A New and Expanding Career Field

How many times have you turned on the news and heard stories about another far flung country such as Iraq, who’s police force was undergoing training in modern policing methods? Its happening more and more and who do you think is doing the training? What you may not know is that it is private contracting firms that are  employing law enforcement consultants to do the ground work and now you too can get on this new modern day gold rush.

An Expanding Need

As American and other western countries become more involved politically with so many of these undeveloped countries, one of their tasks is to insure that their police forces function in accordance with modern standards. This is because, with countries like the U.S. and England working in conjunction with these police forces, they must be sure that the citizenry that they come in contact with are treated in accordance with western policing standards.

More Employment Opportunities

With police departments across the U.S. now struggling to keep their own ranks filled, these private contractors are now having to offer extremely enticing wage and benefit packages to lure in law enforcement consultants to work for them. What this means for men and women across the U.S. that have completed their law enforcement training, is that they now have more employment options to chose from when deciding on where to work.

More Money and Better Jobs

Why should you choose to work for one of these private contractors rather than a U.S. police department upon completion of your law enforcement training? To begin with, they pay substantially more and thats not all. They also house you, feed you and provide plenty of vacation time as well. Also, the experience that is garnered by doing overseas law enforcement consulting work makes excellent resume material. This in turn gives you priority status, when you do finally return to the U.S. and begin to approach domestic police agencies for employment.


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When you are at work, do you get frustrated because things don’t seem to be happening the way they’re supposed to be? You see people milling around but nothing gets accomplished. And in the daily hustle and bustle, do you feel that your goals remain just that – goals. Then maybe its time for you to stand up and do something about it.

Most people are content just to stand around listening for orders. And it isn’t unusual to adopt a follow-the-leader mentality. But maybe, somewhere inside of you, you feel the desire to make things happen – to be the head, not the tail. Then maybe leadership just suits you fine.

Some people believe that great leaders are made, not born. Yes, it may be true that some people are born with natural talents. However, without practice, without drive, without enthusiasm, and without experience, there can be no true development in leadership.

You must also remember that good leaders are continually working and studying to improve their natural skills. This takes a commitment to constantly improve in whatever endeavor a person chooses.

First of all, let’s define leadership. To be a leader, one must be able to influence others to accomplish a goal, or an objective. He contributes to the organization and cohesion of a group.

Contrary to what most people believe, leadership is not about power. It is not about harassing people or driving them using fear. It is about encouraging others towards the goal of the organization. It is putting everyone on the same page and helping them see the big picture of the organization. You must be a leader not a boss.

First of all, you have to get people to follow you. How is this accomplished?

People follow others when they see a clear sense of purpose. People will only follow you if they see that you know where you are going. Remember that bumper sticker? The one that says, don’t follow me, I’m lost too? The same holds true for leadership. If you yourself do not know where you’re headed to, chances are people will not follow you at all.

You yourself must know the vision of the organization. Having a clear sense of hierarchy, knowing who the bosses are, who to talk to, the organization’s goals and objectives, and how the organization works is the only way to show others you know what you are doing.

Being a leader is not about what you make others do. It’s about who you are, what you know, and what you do. You are a reflection of what you’re subordinates must be.

Studies have shown that one other bases of good leadership is the trust and confidence your subordinates have of you. If they trust you they will go through hell and high water for you and for the organization.

Trust and confidence is built on good relationships, trustworthiness, and high ethics.

The way you deal with your people, and the relationships you build will lay the foundation for the strength of your group. The stronger your relationship, the stronger their trust and confidence is in your capabilities.

Once you have their trust and confidence, you may now proceed to communicate the goals and objectives you are to undertake.

Communication is a very important key to good leadership. Without this you can not be a good leader. The knowledge and technical expertise you have must be clearly imparted to other people.

Also, you can not be a good leader and unless you have good judgment. You must be able to assess situations, weigh the pros and cons of any decision, and actively seek out a solution.

It is this judgment that your subordinates will come to rely upon. Therefore, good decision-making is vital to the success of your organization.

Leaders are not do-it-all heroes. You should not claim to know everything, and you should not rely upon your skills alone.

You should recognize and take advantage of the skills and talents your subordinates have. Only when you come to this realization will you be able to work as one cohesive unit.

Remember being a leader takes a good deal of work and time. It is not learned overnight. Remember, also, that it is not about just you. It is about you and the people around you.

So, do you have the drive and the desire to serve required of leaders? Do you have the desire to work cooperatively with other people? Then start now. Take your stand and be leader today.


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The EU Data Protection Supervisor – the independent EU supervisory authority responsible for protecting personal data within the EU – recently pushed for the EU ePrivacy directive to be amended to provide for a pan-European data breach notification requirement. In parallel, the UK Information Commissioner, who is charged with enforcing the Act in the UK, has been given powers to levy ‘substantial’ fines in cases where the UK’s Data Protection Act has been ‘recklessly’ disregarded.

Changes to data security regulation are inevitable after twelve months of increasingly dramatic press headlines about failures to safeguard personal data records, including the UK’s HMRC CD-Rom fiasco, the prolonged theft of TJX credit card records, and incidents such as the hacker infiltration of the customer database of a Berlin Best Western Hotel.  

In France, Germany, Spain the national data protection commissioners have been stepping up their enforcement activity, which includes increasingly substantial fines for non-compliance. Organisations now urgently need to assess the size of the issue, the potential impact on their organisation of a data breach, and the best practice steps for mitigating the data breach risk.  

Last Year’s IT Governance Data Breaches Report stated that spectacular data breaches are not caused by the misdemeanour of a junior employee but arise, rather, from systemically inadequate information security arrangements at the organizations where the incident occurs.        

A data breach is ‘the unauthorised disclosure by an organization of personally identifiable information, where that disclosure compromises the security, confidentiality, or integrity of the data that has been disclosed.’ which can come about via employee caused Data Leakage, Hacking caused by a lack of, or ineffective, penetration testing or ethical hacking activities, or deliberate theft or disclosure.

The Attritiondatabase shows a ten-fold increase in the number of reported data breaches – in the US, the UK and across Europe – since 2004. The peaks in reported data breaches following the disclosure of nationally significant breaches such as the UK’s HMRC data loss, suggests that there were – and probably still are – many data breaches that go unreported and research suggests that organizations are reluctant to officially report data breaches unless they have already been exposed. The evidence suggests that waiting to be found out is not the best strategy  

Data protection is receiving so much attention for three reasons:

Identify theft is a low-risk, high return option for organized crime.  Traditional crime, including violent robbery and theft, has clearly identifiable risks.  It is easy to be recorded on video by CCTV, seen by witnesses or caught by means of DNA, and the returns are relatively low.  High-tech crime, on the other hand, creates real problems for the police force[3] and is, conversely, relatively low-risk for the criminal. Contributing factors include the perpetrator’s anonymity, the speed at which crimes can be committed, the volatility or transience of evidence, the trans-jurisdictional nature of cybercrime and the high costs of investigation. Legal and regulatory compliance initiatives, such as the EU Data Protection directive and California’s data breach disclosure law, SB1386, have both formalised the concept that personal data must be legally protected, and introduced penalties for failing to do so. The recent amendments to the UK Data Protection Act (DPA), and changes to regulatory activity across the EU that are introducing significant financial penalties for non-compliance with the Directive, make this a particularly urgent issue for UK organisations. The proliferation of mobile data storage devices – laptops, USB sticks, PDAs – has changed the boundaries of where we store our data and effectively eliminated “fixed fortifications” as an effective tool for preventing data breaches.

The last Ponemonreport commented that “the investment required to prevent a data breach is dwarfed by the resulting costs of a breach” and ” the return on investment (ROI) and justification for preventative measures is clear”.

Costs of data breaches – legal costs, the costs of restitution, brand damage, lost customers and so on – are significant; for financial services organisations, it was about £55 per compromised record.  

Whilst not involving legal compliance, if an organisation has a credit card-related data breach and is found not in compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), there are potentially severe contractual and financial penalties, including a bar on the business accepting payment cards.  

All these factors make the protection of personal data a key business and compliance responsibility. There are nine key steps that every organization should take:  

Encrypt all personal data on laptops; whole disk encryption is a more secure solution than folder or file level encryption, and FIPS 140-2 is the recognised standard for encryption engines. Encrypt all removable and portable media that might contain personal data, including USB drives, CD-Roms and magnetic backup tapes. Establish rigorous procedures to ensure the physical destruction of redundant computer drives, magnetic media and paper records prior to disposal, and ensure that disposals are made in line with a formal data retention timetable. Organizations that accept credit and other payment cards should also comply with the PCI DSS. Provide regular training and awareness on legal responsibilities for all staff that deal with personal data. Deploy outward-bound channel (email, instant messenger) filtering software with customised dictionaries for relevant legislation such as Data Protection Directive, PCI, etc Establish a vulnerability patching programme and implement anti-malware software. Implement a business-driven access control policy, combined with effective authentication. Develop an incident management plan that enables the organization to respond
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