How to Prevent ‘Active Assailant’ Situations or Stop the ‘Active Assailant’ Utilizing Emerging Technology? Welcome to the final article for the year 2018 in the ‘Looking to the Future’ series where I discuss emerging technologies with experts from across various industries. As always, my goal is to share my ideas, knowledge and experience to receive feedback from you to continuously learn and improve. Whilst there is a broad range of literature on the “Run–Hide-Fight” response to an Active Assailant situation, the theme of this article is “Emerging technologies that can prevent or stop Active Assailants”. In this article, I welcome back Scott Taylor COO of Southern Cross Group, as we explore the all too real threat of an ‘active assailant situation’. Typically, active assailant situations would involve the shooter using a gun or firearm to kill people in a compact but populated area. An Active Assailant is defined as an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in confined and crowded areas and in most cases, there is no pattern or method to their selection of victims. It is also important to understand that it may also involve multiple attackers. From recently reviewed statistics, 96% of active assailants are male and 40% of active assailant incidents end in suicide. However, the heinous act can be carried out using a weapon other than a gun, as witnessed in a recent knife rampage in Melbourne. As reported by Sky News, a knife rampage took place in Melbourne in November this year which left one-person dead and two others wounded. The identified attacker was of Somalian origin and the incident was being treated as a terrorist attack. Of course, not all ‘active assailant’ situations are terrorist attacks or are carried out using a knife, as can be seen below. Reported by the New York Times, a mass shooting took place in Australia this year that left a tiny community in a state of sorrow. Considered the worst mass shooting in Australia in two decades, the shooting claimed 7 lives and occurred in a village near Margaret River—a tourist town 170 -miles south of Perth. Many recommendations have been made following these two incidents to control ‘active shooter’ situations in Australia, with ‘gun control’ being the solution most proposed. However, a lot more than ‘gun control’ may be required to prevent these situations or limit the damage caused by them when you consider the fact that Australia’s strict gun control laws could not prevent the mass shooting that took place in the village near Margaret River and that a knife was used to attack the police and bystanders in Melbourne. Perhaps, the best solution lies in the use of emerging technologies built for security purposes.
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