ISC East Keynote Provides Comprehensive Look at Security Industry
Former NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly delivers an insightful keynote at the 2017 ISC east.
PHOTO BY SDM STAFF
The keynote speaker at this year’s ISC East was former NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly, who spent more than 50 years in public service, including the Marine Corps and as the longest serving police commissioner in New York City history.
Kelly said he learned about leadership from the Marine Corps and has 14 traits of leadership that he follows written in a daily schedule. “If you act like a leader, talk like a leader and make decisions like a leader, you are a leader. I internalized [the leader traits taught by the Marine Corps].
On community and race relations, Kelly said they are not as bad as people think. He said it is important to meet with community groups and have a close, person-to-person relationship to avoid conflict. As hard as some departments might find it, Kelly said, it is important to open themselves up to the community, explaining what they will be doing and when. “Things are generally better than activists and the media portray,” he said.
In the area of security technology, he said the despite the reticence in places such as New York, drones, the “poor man’s helicopter,” will continue to increase in use. Also, he believes access control security must be improved in many places. “The further you move west [from New York] the less access control security you see,” he said.
Kelly said that while security organizations and government agencies have become very efficient at stopping coordinated terrorist attacks, the simple lone wolf type attacks are the ones that will be much harder to foresee and prevent.
Companies need to create crisis management teams as well, Kelly said, to combat the rising cyber threat. “They need a business game plan and a crisis management team to implement it.”
To be successful in this, Kelly said companies must get the CEO involved. “People listen to the CEO,” he explained. “We will continue to lose ground in the war unless we get plans.”
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In his closing remarks about leadership, Kelly said he considered the most influential leadership traits integrity and courage (both physical and mental). “You generally know what the right thing to do is, but that usually isn’t the easiest.”
Kelly also urged security professionals to continually develop their job knowledge. “Stay up on your game; be steeped what’s going on in your field.”
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