Freedom of Information and Personal Confidentiality in Spatial COVID-19 Data

We draw attention to how, in the name of protecting the confidentiality of personal data, national statistical agencies have limited public access to spatial data on COVID-19. We also draw attention to large disparities in the way that access has been limited. In doing so, we distinguish between absolute confidentiality in which the probability of detection is 1, relative confidentiality where this probability is less than 1, and collective confidentiality, which refers to the probability of detection of at least one person. In spatial data, the probability of personal detection is less than 1, and the probability of collective detection varies directly with this probability and COVID-19 morbidity. Statistical agencies have been concerned with relative and collective confidentiality, which they implement using the techniques of truncation, where spatial data are not made public for zones with small populations, and censoring, where exact data are not made public for zones where morbidity is small. Granular spatial data are essential for epidemiological research into COVID-19. We argue that in their reluctance to make these data available to the public, data security officers (DSO) have unreasonably prioritized data protection over freedom of information. We also argue that by attaching importance to relative and collective confidentiality, they have over-indulged in data truncation and censoring. We highlight the need for legislation concerning relative and collective confidentiality, and regulation of DSO practices regarding data truncation and censoring.

A Contactless Visitor Access Monitoring System

This project presents a contactless visitor access monitoring in small premises which implemented deep learning model in face recognition, develop the graphical user interface (GUI) for new visitor registration and visitor identification. Five stages of monitoring process are designed in the contactless visitor access monitoring (CVAM) GUI, the first step is to give instructions to the admin user regarding the monitoring process, the second step is to perform face recognition, the third step is to scan the body temperature, the fourth step is to perform mask detection on the visitor, and the final stage is to record visitor access time. Another visitor registration (VisReg) GUI is designed to register new visitors into the system. In VisReg, admin user is required to pre-process face images with MTCNN technique and generate new classifier with a ResNet pre-trained model. The contactless visitor access monitoring process is demonstrated. The face recognition gives an accuracy of 82%, while the mask detection gives an accuracy of 95% when tested with the validation dataset. It can be concluded that the visitor monitoring process can be carried out in a contactless way to eliminate the close contact between the security officers, receptionist, and visitors.

Penciptaan Iklim Komunikasi Organisasi (Tinjuan Peran Kepala Dinas Kearsipan dan Perpustakaan Kota Jambi)

This study aims to determine the steps taken by the head of the department in creating a conducive communication climate in the Jambi City Archives and Library Office and to describe the supporting and inhibiting factors. Using qualitative methods with the type of case study research. The research subjects were the head of the department, the head of the field, employees, cleaning service and security officers. Data collection techniques are interviews. Data analysis techniques are data reduction, data presentation, and drawing conclusions. The results showed that: (1) the steps taken by the head of the service in creating a communication climate when viewed from the dimensions of the communication climate such as support, decision-making participation, trust, openness and candor and the achievement of high performance resulted that the communication climate there was already running conducive overall. However, there are still employees who do not carry out the work given. (2) The supporting factors are the support and motivation of the head of service towards subordinates and preparing the facilities and infrastructure needed in the work. The leaders also monitor and ask about the obstacles they face. The inhibiting factor is the unbalanced number of employees with supervision so that there is often a misunderstanding of perceptions between leaders and employees as well as between employees in the delivery and implementation of tasks, there are employees who do work that is not in accordance with their main duties and responsibilities, and there are also employees who are always reluctant to their leaders and fellow workers which makes communication difficult.

Repatriating FTFs from Syria: Learning from the Western Balkans

Four countries in the Western Balkan region (Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, and Montenegro) are in the top ten countries with the most foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs) per capita. The political will to repatriate FTFs remains strong, at least in the Western Balkans, despite delays in 2020 due to COVID-19. In other parts of the world, especially high-income countries, political will to repatriate is considerably lower. COVID-19 has further constrained nations in their efforts to repatriate law-abiding citizens, which is less controversial than FTF families. Based on discussions with government officials and security officers in the Western Balkans as well as international experts and donors, this policy note provides operational recommendations to move forward with repatriation, rehabilitation, and reintegration of returnees building on lessons from repatriations in Albania, Kosovo, and North Macedonia. It urges governments globally to double down on repatriation efforts and to call on experience from governments in the Balkans to bring back their FTFs now. The recommendations in this policy note are relevant to any country where political will to repatriate FTFs can be generated.

Sharpening the Axe: Identifying and Closing Gaps Within the Training Space of the South African Private Security Industry

The ever-present threat of crime in South Africa continues to drive the rise and demand for Private Security Industry (PSI) services amongst various governmental institutions, businesses and citizens to ensure their safety. This rise for the Private Security Services (PSS) persistently presents new challenges to the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (PSiRA) such as poor security training standards and deployment of untrained security officers attached to the Private Security Companies (PSCs), which negatively impacts the professionalism of the security industry. This study was guided by this objective: Identifying and closing the gaps within South African training space of PSI. This qualitative study was guided by the exploratory research design. The judgemental sampling technique was adopted to sample 40 participants confined to Gauteng (GP), Kwa-Zulu Natal (KZN) and Western Cape (WC) Provinces. The selected relevant stakeholders were attached to the South African Police Service (SAPS), Department of Labour (DoLl), Department of Home Affairs (DoH), National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the legal fraternity) and the PSI Directors and security officers to form part of the Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and hybrid semi-structured interviews. The findings highlighted that the majority of the participants agreed that the private security industry training space is affected by security service providers letting PSiRA down by not training at, but rather engaging in, criminal activity through selling and people buying PSiRA security certificates. Some of the challenges mentioned include; poor training standards, non-compliance to legislated training standards, unqualified security training facilitators and outdated security Grades, misuse of security equipment leading to serious injuries and death, corruption in the industry, some of it being perpetrated by PSiRA inspectors, the very people who are supposed to keep the industry in check. This study recommends that, in order to overcome the challenges in the security training space, PSiRA needs to do away with the outdated security Grades by developing a new policy framework which will enable the creation of a new security-training curriculum and revise the training methods to suit the ever-changing security industry.

Do values reflect what is important? Exploring the nexus between work values, work engagement and job burnout

Purpose Work values are a representation of people’s priorities as they reflect what is pertinent for them and what they want to accomplish. In light of this, the purpose of this study is to understand the priorities given to work values (extrinsic and intrinsic) by employees and also to explore whether these work values vary with the levels of work engagement and job burnout. Design/methodology/approach The study was based on the survey responses of 386 officers working in Indian manufacturing organisations engaged in different areas. Findings The findings reveal that security officers give much priority to extrinsic work values than intrinsic work values (IWVs). Moreover, IWVs vary with different levels of work engagement along with job burnout. The security officers belonging to the engaged group differ significantly with those belonging to the job burnout group in terms of IWVs. Moreover, work values also have a negative correlation with job burnout and a positive correlation with work engagement. Originality/value This study explores the variation in work values of security officers working in Indian manufacturing organisations with changes in levels of job burnout and work engagement, which is a novel contribution in the field. The findings also advocate that it is crucial for human resource managers, supervisors and key people in organisations to find out employees showing early signs of job burnout (exhaustion or disengagement) or early stages of strain and frustration as the priorities of work values of the employees are affected by these parameters. Such identified employees should be provided with required managerial support and necessary work resources immediately.

AWARENESS OF FEMALE TOURISTS ON ASPECTS OF SAFETY AND SECURITY THREATS WHILE ON VACATION IN KOTA KINABALU

The issue of tourist safety and security is not new, but studies on the awareness of female tourists on aspects of safety and security threats are still lacking and limited. Therefore, this article aims to (i) identify the types and factors of security threats that concern female tourists when traveling in a city and (ii) to examine their awareness of the safety aspects when traveling in the city. In the context of this study, the location chosen is the city of Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. This study uses quantitative approach through distribution of questionnaires. To this end, 93 respondents were selected randomly from those involved in women's tourism in this city. The findings showed respondents were concerned about the threat of being threatened or robbed, followed by the threat of abduction and rape. Subsequently, there were two main factors that posed a threat to female tourists when travelling in the city, namely location factors and congestion of tourist areas. For situations that secure safety when traveling in the city, the mean score of ‘very high’ is when there is a presence of security officers or police on duty in tourist areas. Meanwhile, the situation that recorded a ‘low’ mean score was when walking in the tourist hotspot at night. For the aspect of female tourists’ awareness of the safety aspects when travelling, the mean score for ‘very high’ is on the statement 'I am more concerned with safety when travelling in a new place'. They also scared when approached by a beggar while on vacation in Kota Kinabalu. In summary, the findings of this study are important and relevant to the stakeholders who are directly involved in enhancing the safety features of the city which will ultimately increase the confidence of tourists especially women to travel with a sense of safety while enjoying Kota Kinabalu city.