HARS - High value information Alert and Reporting System

HARS - Straight Talk (the SCRIPT)

This is MY STRAIGHT TALK video about HARS, an information acquisition, processing, and distribution system designed to meet specific functional objectives. It is intended to be informative, and includes my observations and opinions, without the niceties, about government, contractor, and civilian efforts to GET THE BAD GUY. In short, I believe that the results of these efforts have been pathetic, and from an ROI or effectiveness perspective – the results have been dismal.

I see a tremendous amount of money (a scarce resource) being spent in the millions and millions of dollars with little return. How is this possible? Surely someone must be accountable – sadly the answer appears to be NO, at least not that I can determine. Yet all of the many programs sound great and are acclaimed as a “major effort” and many “heroes” are produced…, as long as we don’t consider the results. I assert that most of this is nepotism and CYA. There is an old adage: Before you can solve a problem, you must know you have a problem. Two short examples:

The Homeland Security program of “See Something – Say Something”, a national program, was implemented by the New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority to the tune of hundreds of thousands dollars. Result? A series of POSTERS WERE PRODUCTED… HUH? Yes, posters. And proof of the success of this program was that over 100 requests came in, both Nationally and Internationally, to use the posters. It was a proven success, but…. How many Bad Guys or threats were identified? ZIPPO – to my knowledge. I ask that anyone who knows differently to contact me so I can update my information, and I will apologize in advance for any mistakes on my part. Yet…, I hasten to note, this was a program directed at the public and for this, I sincerely applaud Homeland Security and the NY-MTA.

Another quick example: The multi-department, multi-agency program to create and install, around 80-or-so, FUSION CENTERS at local and state levels. This was a multi-million dollar program designed to provide sophisticated information sharing AFTER an event. OK, what was the score? Ahhhhhh, another ZIPPO, as far as I know. Again, I invite those who know differently to correct me. Even if there was an isolated “success”, was it worth the millions of dollars the program cost? But, what is the cost of a life? OR, might we have gotten more for our money with another program. Of course, you can see where I’m going with this, because I give you credit for the intellect to understand the significance of my message. And….. of course, I maintain, and totally believe, that HARS could have been implemented at a tremendously lesser-cost and would have been far more successful.

I will make the following statement. HARS is ready for implementation on a number of specific, standalone, functional objectives and I am totally confident of two things. One, that it would be mission-successful for specific functional and operational objectives, AND two, at the same time, it would generate revenue – NOW! The power and beauty of HARS is that standalone implementations can later be integrated into a larger, homogenous system because HARS is scalable and is an open system.

I will give you two examples where HARS is ready for implementation, NOW:
First example: HARS information display monitors could be placed in prisons and the information displayed culled and tailored to the individual demographics of the prison population. This concept of providing information to prisoners to help catch the Bad Guys is PROVEN to be successful. I refer you to the “Good Side of Bad” topic addressed below.
Second example (in two parts): HARS at International airport terminals. A HARS information display monitor could be placed at the portal for passengers exiting the gate area and entering into the general public area, where waiting people are scanning the faces of arriving passengers, looking for the persons they are there to meet. All these people see the images of wanted persons, or persons of interest, on the display monitor, while at the same time, they are scanning the faces of all arriving passengers. Rather simple concept in my opinion, and a simple implementation of HARS with a specific functional objective. OH, and Part II? Every immigration officer could have a HARS information display terminal at his work position, where the HARS Playlist is tailored to display specific information with the highest operational priorities, at that specific location. Again, another simple implementation of HARS. This topic is covered in more detail in the VitaStar Solutions PowerPoint presentation, which is available for those with a serious interest. Please… please – these two examples are NOT mainstream HARS operations, but merely a minor example of possible implementations using the HARS infrastructure, or a subset of it. To learn more, please visit the “How it Works” in the panel on your right.

GOOD GRIEF! I wanted to make STRAIGHT TALK brief, but I have a lot of pent-up frustration. I am a warrior and we are not doing well with this battle on Terrorism and the BAD GUYS. Many of our current efforts are sorrowfully ineffective. Yes, yes, I know we have had a lot of successes – I read the news about NSA, CIA and other agencies and the number of threats which have been discovered and neutralized, at least that is what I read. I don’t mean to demean these successes for they are a critical weapon in the WAR. However, they aren't the only weapon. I hasten to note that HARS is NOT in conflict or competition with the programs of these agencies. Rather, it is a powerful, complimentary system, which has the obvious potential to produce a sum result greater than its parts – or is this only obvious to me?

One of the biggest weapons we have as a nation is the American Citizen -- our Public. The Power of the Public is responsible for more tips and leads that result in arrests than any other source. The Public is a powerful weapon, yet shamefully, it is mostly ignored. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the U.S. Public is hungry to be involved, yet they don’t know HOW or WHAT to do. With HARS, we tap into this sleeping giant of a warrior, to bring that enthusiasm and commitment into the battle, not to mention millions of their eyes. EVERY, and I mean EVERY, company I have talked to about HARS is extremely receptive to join in the battle with their resources. What do I mean? I am talking about the HARS extended network, where the “Effective Infrastructure” is leveraged and multiplied in magnitude by having other company’s networks, cooperate with the HARS-owned network to produce a network of combined resources. Wow…... This website is not intended to explain every detail of the High value information Alert and Reporting System, but it is hoped to provide a glimpse of the future and what is possible. AND, business people; one of the great attributes of HARS is that while being a weapon for good, it also can generate revenue, and thus, because of a positive-reinforcing condition, it will grow and grow and grow. AND, as it grows it becomes more effective. AND, as it becomes more effective, it becomes a better revenue generator. Instead of spending large amounts of money creating new ways to send the same information back and forth, and back and forth again; and perpetually standing by to share more information when it becomes available, perhaps some investment should be made on generating MORE, ORIGINAL and RELEVANT information of specific value and bring the Human Element into the equation. Again, as I previously mentioned, more information on this aspect of HARS is available in our PowerPoint presentation.

It may not be obvious for some, for the obvious is not obvious until it becomes obvious, but the missing ingredient in the WAR is the U.S. Public. The Public is the Human Element, which can be a powerful weapon in this WAR. Yet very strangely, there are few efforts to capitalize on this sleeping giant of a weapon. Give the Public a weapon – give them HARS.

A last brief comment on HARS. While one of its essential concepts is to enlist the Power of the Public, another is to use Predictive Analytics in processing information. Many police departments are now using analytics, but in a very simplistic manner. The analytics considers all the historical data on crimes that have been committed and the geographical locations of the crimes. This is used as a tool to determine where to assign the police officers, so their visible presence will act as a deterrent, and they will also be better positioned to respond to a crime when it is committed. Please enjoy the related police video on your left. HARS uses Predictive Analytics, but more specifically, it also uses Predictive Behavioral Analytics to predict where a known criminal might be located or might be likely to go. In turn, this is factor in the HARS algorithm which creates an individualized Playlist for each information display monitor or information display program using another media. This is the HARS “Sniper Rifle approach”, as opposed to the “Shotgun approach”.

Can VitaStar Solutions do this on its own? Of course not, and for this reason we are open to discuss the way-forward with other warriors.

Please note that you have permission to use the script of this video without any restriction. Also, browse the other information on this website to get a better understanding of the High value information Alert and Reporting System -- HARS.