Overview

Have you ever asked yourself, "Why should my company spend money on risk and exposure assessments when we can always call the police to take care of our problems and, besides, we spend a lot of money on insurance every year?" This is a fair question that deserves an answer.

Companies spend millions of dollars each year on insurance so why should they worry about a terrorist blowing up an oil well or damaging a refinery. The insurance covers part of the loss, but your company must pay the deductible limit, which might be $10 20 million per event. Spending a little extra effort and money on assessing and correcting risks could result in big savings.

When considering police assistance, remember that the real job is to provide protection before or during a crime. The damage will be greater if we don't prepare before the attack. Police cannot be of assistance until a crime has been committed, so protection becomes a do-it-yourself proposition.

Knowing how and when protection and security is needed requires detailed assessments to identify weaknesses. Otherwise, money might be spent on security measures at facilities where they aren't required and fail to protect others that are in the high-risk category.

Risk Assessment Process

Risk evaluation is a highly refined science that can involve specialized technical expertise and regimented mathematical procedures. The reader requiring an in-depth knowledge of this science should refer to other texts.

In general, the assessment...