Mark VanBeest Senior Vice President of Safety & Security and External Affairs

Mark VanBeest is relative newcomer to ACC, bringing with him more than four decades of experience in the military, law enforcement, retail loss prevention and global security and hospitality safety culture. It wasn't long before VanBeest realized the student housing business is different.

"I'm used to working in a transactional environment," he notes. "All my prior work environments involved short-term interactions, but with student housing, our residents are with us for a longer-term stay and many things happen to them personally during that time. So there's a greater feeling of ownership and responsibility in ensuring both our residents' security and the safety of our company team members."

The first endeavor VanBeest undertook in his new position as ACC Senior Vice President of Safety & Security and External Affairs was to begin building a safety culture among corporate team members and on-site property staff of "preparation without paranoia."

"Being prepared without being paranoid is the sweet spot," explains VanBeest. "It's like developing muscle memory - continually examining your situation in terms of safety before an issue arises. It's important to consider the possibilities of what could happen and have the mindset that if something should happen, you've already thought about what your response would be - to turn it into a habit every time you enter a new environment." "Direct lines of communication are essential in a crisis," VanBeest states. "We want to be able to respond rapidly, connect with law enforcement, universities and other stakeholders, and collect and disseminate crucial information - especially with our on-site property folks - as quickly as possible. Being as direct and transparent as we possibly can be is also vital. Whenever companies go into self-protection mode and begin toeing the company line, it typically backfires. If there is a crisis or negative incident, transparency is critically important." But VanBeest stresses that a key component of his work is helping our team members learn to identify and mollify potential issues well before they turn into crises. "It starts with identifying potential problems - usually people who need to be engaged with, who need to be heard," elaborates VanBeest. "When normal engagement isn't enough and someone is clearly upset, then we go to the tools of working through de-escalation. If nothing you're doing is working and someone continues to escalate, you learn how to manage what's in front of you, create distance, make sure the door is behind you so you can escape an escalating situation. And then, should things turn violent, we teach our team members the actual run-hide-fight, so they can take appropriate action to protect themselves and others."

Another element of VanBeest's proactive approach to protection is the creation of an online portal so ACC properties can enter incident reports for all sorts of happenings. His team can then track incidents and study trends, like when and where incidents are higher than average, in order to keep all stakeholders informed and brainstorming what should be done to abate negative incidents and reduce their recurrence.

"We're even examining ways to use artificial intelligence for active camera monitoring," VanBeest concludes. "All our properties already have cameras, but they're passively recording, so that if something should happen, we can check the recording. AI can monitor the cameras in real time, so if, for example, someone was walking across campus and pulls out a gun, the AI could identify the weapon and immediately notify on-site security or local police. It could recognize physical altercations or unexpected crowding - all kinds of stuff that would help us not only conserve guard forces, but also diminish incidents before they inflame."