Darren and Beth's Bio
Darren and Beth Laur live in Victoria British Columbia Canada with their son Brandon. Darren is currently a serving Staff Sergeant with the Victoria City Police Department, with over 27 years of law enforcement experience, and is an internationally recognized safety expert, award winning published author and highly sought after international speaker, who specializes in the area of personal safety and self protection both on-line and off-line. To date, Darren and Beth have presented their Internet and Social Media Safety programs to over 113,000 Jr and Sr secondary students, and to thousands of teachers and parents throughout British Columbia and the United States, and both are a trusted and respected safety resource to businesses, government, schools, school districts and Law Enforcement in North America.
Recently, working with others in his police department, Darren helped launch the very successful use of Social Media (Twitter) for the purpose of police call response during the 2012 Canada Day celebrations in Victoria; a first use of its kind in North American policing. Presently Darren is working towards his certification as a Forensic Open Source/Social Media Investigator, and is hoping to have this designation by the summer of 2013.
Darren is also a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist and Neuro Linguistic Psychology (NLP) practitioner, who integrates these studies and disciplines into all PPS programs and presentations. When Darren is not working or presenting, he loves to spend time reading, getting involved in web design, playing on his Mac and travelling Vancouver Island in the family truck and RV with Beth.
In 1993, both Darren and Beth started their company, Personal Protection Systems Inc., and both have presented internationally to thousands of men, women, and children as well as to schools, businesses, law enforcement agencies and Federal/Provincial Ministries. Darren and Beth like to say that "Personal Protection Systems is a for profit company, striving to do well, by doing good for others". Darren and Beth have written over 170 internationally published articles and four books on the topics of personal safety, one of those books, "Total Awareness A Woman's Safety Book", won a major award. In May 2013 Darren, Beth and Brandon also won the prestigious Social Media "Derek K Miller" Award, which recognized their unique work in the area of Internet and Social Media Safety both in Canada and the United States.
Darren, Beth and Brandon have been featured in numerous radio and television broadcasts, publications and media articles as experts on the topics of personal safety, workplace violence prevention, child safety and social media/Internet safety. Beth oversees and runs the company, while Darren and Brandon facilitate all company programs, or as Beth jokingly says, "She's the brains behind the company, Darren and Brandon are the presentation brawn."
Brandon Laur's Bio
Brandon Laur has been working with his father Darren for the past eight years teaching security and safety awareness. Although young, many are surprised by Brandon's unique understanding of the internet, and the realties of digital content. Brandon observes the impact of how new technologies being produced every day are used by those who intend on circumventing weaknesses overlooked in order to con unaware users out of their money and identity. Brandon strives to spread his knowledge to the world in hopes of changing the standard mindless utilization of the technology to protect those who are unaware of how to protect themselves. Brandon's real world experience as a teen with Social Media and the Internet, has played a major role in the development of all of our Internet and Social Media safety programs.
