fice formed an Imaging and Technology Services Branch. The 

 office also provided substantial support for professional train- 

 ing, including sponsorship of a high school seminar with the 

 White House News Photographers Association and a work- 

 shop for Native Americans cosponsored with the National 

 Park Service. 



Office of Protection Services 



Charles A. Mines, Director 



In FY 1994 the Office of Protection Services (OPS) continued 

 to modernize facilities and systems, advance security officer 

 training, implement strategic quality initiatives, and quantify 

 activities to empirically validate its current operational and fi- 

 nancial methodologies. 



On March 9, 1994, OPS decentralized and reorganized Pro- 

 tection Division, assigning senior level Security Managers to 

 manage security operations at each of the museums. The Na- 

 tional Performance Review, generally, and a specific compre- 

 hensive study conducted by the Analytical Systems Security 

 Corporation on OPS processes recommended decentralized 

 operations. Senior level managers are now located at the point 

 where OPS delivers security services. This decentralization 

 affords Museum Directors an opportunity to express security 

 concerns and expect prompt response. Concurrently, OPS now 

 has a senior representative located at the pulse of museum ac- 

 tivity, where OPS can solicit important feedback from vital 

 customers the organization strives to serve. 



On October 15,1994, the Health Services Division moved 

 into a new modern Health Unit located at LEnfant Plaza. Al- 

 though the Health Services Division will continue to provide 

 services at the satellite museums, the new facility dramatically 

 increases the space the Health Services Division requires to 

 manage the growing number of OSHA programs. Smithson- 

 ian employees now go to a single location for appointments 

 and occupational health services. Many occupational services, 

 such as hearing conservation and Tuberculosis testing will be 

 managed centrally at the new facility. 



Almost 400 security officers have now graduated from the 

 three week museum security training course titled Training the 

 Sentinels of Our Nations Treasures. Conducted in a joint venture 

 with Fort McClellan and Jacksonville State University, both 

 located in Alabama, the course provides 12 Continuing Educa- 

 tion Credits or 9 college semester credits, whichever is most 

 appropriate. The course is the first museum security training 

 course of its kind and continues to play an important role in 

 increasing the skills of OPS employees responding to an in- 

 creasingly diverse set of security challenges within Smithson- 

 ian facilities. 



Complementing the security training program in OPS, was 

 the acquisition of two Firearms Training Simulators (FATS) in 



FY 94. These simulators provide an opportunity for officers to 

 fire weapons in a simulated environment. A simulated envi- 

 ronment dramatically decreases real firearms training costs 

 (ammunition, range time and costs, man-hours, etc.) and in- 

 creases accessibility to firearms and weapons handling. The 

 training occurs in a room with a video screen that poses vari- 

 ous "shoot'V'no shoot" scenarios. The officer fires a real 

 weapon affixed with a laser and appropriately simulated 

 "kick" and sound. The screen registers and reports the results. 

 Many law enforcement agencies throughout the country are 

 using FATS as certification fot weapons firing. Also, OPS in- 

 tends to use the system in a classroom mode, providing con- 

 trol room operations, human relations and confrontations 

 management, security awareness, and crime prevention skills 

 to all SI and staff. Currently, one simulator is located in Ala- 

 bama, and one simulator is awaiting installation in Washing- 

 ton. OPS believes the acquisition is one of the most important 

 and exciting training developments in the Smithsonian. 



OPS continues to embtace and lead the cultural property 

 communicy in protection systems and procedures. In February 

 1994, OPS sponsored its eighteenth National Conference on 

 Cultural Property Protection. The theme, "Training in the 

 Year 2000 — the Human Factor," inspired over 250 attendees, 

 coming from all parts of the United States. Especially signifi- 

 cant this year was the large contingent of foreign attendees, 

 and the conference highlighted speakers from Czechoslovakia, 

 Russia, Canada, and Great Britain. 



OPS piloted an operations research study with the Massachu- 

 setts Institute of Technology and Queues Enforth Development 

 to develop a manpower methodology for security officer staffing 

 in the museums. This study compelled an exhaustive data collec- 

 tion effort to quantify security service requirements, protection 

 needs, and safety requirements, integrating them with geographi- 

 cal/spatial distribution in the buildings. The study analyzes the 

 National Museum of Natural History as its model, and OPS 

 hopes eventually to lay an empirical foundation under all of its 

 manpower requirements. As part of the study, OPS conducted ex- 

 ternal and internal surveys, questioning Security Managers, Mu- 

 seum Directors, and visitors about customer expectations, a factor 

 in determining manpower needs. These surveys have become a 

 pan of an OPS general effort to identify needs of the people the 

 organization serves. 



OPS greatly expanded its security responsibilities with the 

 opening of the Custom House in New York for the National 

 Museum of the American Indian. OPS hired an additional 50 

 officers, supervised the construction of a new alarm system 

 and control center, and reorganized security services at other 

 New York facilities. The new control center at the Custom 

 House will serve as the main control center for all of New 

 York, as part of a construction and renovation efforts at other 

 New York facilities. With the opening of the Custom House, 

 OPS assumed responsibility for a building that poses diverse 

 security challenges, and the opening marks the beginning of a 

 significant investment for OPS in security for an expanding 

 NMAI organization. 



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