Comprehensive Asset Protection Program (CAPP)

You may have seen movies where the Bloodhound dog is baying as it tracks the escaped prisoner.  You may have seen the dog at the international arrival area sniffing passengers for forbidden fruit.  Or, you may know that dogs are being by the police and military used to detect explosives in bombs or illegal drugs.  But what about a dog that can detect stolen property? 

That's only one part of a new, comprehensive approach that also includes using microdot technology developed in the spy war era and applying all of these techniques to protect valuable assets.

An ARK-9 detection dog and handler screen tools and identify
a group of tools that have the Calidus scent and DNA microdots applied.

BSSG’s Comprehensive Asset Protection Program (CAPP) and is the most comprehensive asset protection program available.  CAPP is designed to help businesses and companies protect a full range of assets as diverse as gold and copper wire, metals such as aluminum and stainless steel, high value equipment, computers, tools, parts, etc. 

The CAPP approach is especially unique because it is the first use of laboratory developed scents invented by a Florida chemist specifically for use, in conjunction with, trained dogs to detect the scents on stolen property.  The first scent, know as "Calidus" (Latin for "hot" - or stolen in street jargon) allows trained dogs and handlers to screen large volumes of property and will "alert" only on the property that has the scent and, thus, belongs to the company.  The dog can be used at personnel and vehicle gates, in warehouses, in salvage yards, chop shops, etc. to screen large quantities of materials.  When the dog identifies the property as belonging to a company, it will specifically alert on particular parts of the property which also contain covert, laser-etched "DNA" microdots, smaller than a grain of sand.  These microdots, applied with appropriate adhesives that vary depending on the temperature and moisture they will have to weather, provide yet another, redundant means of positively identifying property.

What makes it comprehensive is that the CAPP approach is based on employing a program with multiple components.  As with everything BSSG does in the security realm, we believe the approach should start with a risk assessment.  The recommended approach typically includes effective security policies and procedures, a "hardened" target with quality locks and appropriate integrated security measures.  It also includes using a tip hotline and neighborhood watch program integrated with rewards, warning signage, as well as employee, public and law enforcement education and awareness.  As information is reported from the companies, tips/informants and police, it will be analyzed and the resulting intelligence will enable sensible, cost-effective deployment of covert surveillance teams and covert cameras, even sting operations.

BSSG Asset Recovery K-9 Unit (ARK-9) dogs are trained at a canine training center where dogs have been used for a number of new and exciting roles.  It was clear dogs could become a key cog in an asset protection program.  Some of the best evidence is cited in a report prepared by the Institute for Biological Detection Systems (IBDS) of Auburn University (Auburn, AL), which explains dogs have the following capabilities:

Sensitivity:  Documented limits of olfactory detection for the dog range from tens of parts per billion to 500 parts per trillion.

Discrimination:  Dogs are extremely good at discriminating a target vapor from non-target vapors that are also present, even at relatively high concentrations of non-target odors.

Odor signatures:  When being trained to detect a substance, dogs learn to alert to one or two of its most abundant vapor compounds.

Multiple odor discriminations:  Dogs can easily learn as many as ten odor discriminations.

What BSSG did was put all of those capabilities together in a manner that is designed to help companies deal with the problem of positively identifying their property.  No longer do electric companies have to wonder about how they can positively identify copper wire.  An all-weather adhesive, covert microdots and a special scent can positively identify the property.  Cell phone companies, construction companies, private businesses, museums, railroads, property management companies can all benefit from this comprehensive approach.

Companies have been marking equipment, when possible, with property labels or have etched their equipment or recorded serial numbers.  Thieves countered by removing the labels and obliterating other markings.  Overt marking is still encouraged but covert marking adds another dimension.

The typical problem with covert marking is to train adequate numbers of law enforcement agencies on the covert systems so they know to contact BSSG to identify the ultimate owner even if the stolen property is moved to another state for fencing, which is a common practice.  BSSG is an agent of the company that developed the microdots and they have been training law enforcement on the microdots.  The special scent just adds another layer of potential detection.

Companies have been using fences, locks, alarms, guards and Closed Circuit Television systems to try and detect or deter thieves but if they are not used in a comprehensive, integrated manner they can be defeated.  BSSG's approach is to integrate all these approaches and then add the covert and overt marking of property as the final layer of protection.  The resulting Comprehensive Asset Protection Program (CAPP) is yet another indication of how BSSG approaches a problem.