Intro to Security Chapter 2

Standards

• General appearance • Age • Licenses needed • Physical condition • Educational levels • Reporting skills • Background • Language ability are certainly worth listing

Scope of Work

• Locations • Hours of coverage • Patrol checkpoints • Duties

Protection of Life and Property

• Man-made - Robbery - Rape - Theft - Pilferage - Fraud - Embezzlement - Terrorism • Natural - Fire - Tornado - Flood - Earthquake • building collapse • equipment failure • Accidents • safety hazards

Basic Trends

• Officer services are still in demand despite the growth in the use of technology • Security staffs increased approx. 10% following 9/11 and have now stabilized • Standards for security training have not changed and may not change over the next few years. • The field will continue to attract better qualified personnel- 63% of the security managers now have at least a 4 year degree • Attempts by the federal government to regulate the field will continue. ASIS was instrumental in getting legislation passed that allows for NCIC background checks for security personnel • The trend to disarm security personnel has been suspended following 9/11

Wages

• Tremendously important • Quality of personnel is often directly related to the wage level • Minimum wage to be paid to security employees - $10/hour to $22.50/hour in 2005 - turnover rate of some guard services is 200 percent annually, fringe benefits become very important in retaining quality personnel

Security Services

• Employed more than 1.2 million officers in 2005 • Approximately 107,000 companies doing an estimated $51 billion in business • Primary Services - guard forces - Patrols - consulting services - investigative services - alarm response - armored car delivery and courier services

Hybrid Systems Explained

• A good hybrid security operation consists of four components - An engaged corporate liaison - Consistent contract management support - Periodic reviews - Accurate quality measurements

Private Security and Public Law Enforcement

• A law enforcement officer might in some circumstances be assigned to protect a threatened individual - community-oriented • A private bodyguard frequently is hired to perform the same protective function - client-oriented

What Is Private Security?

• Definition - Private police and private security forces and security personnel are used generically in this report to include all types of private organizations and individuals providing all of security-related services, including investigation, guard, patrol, lie detection, alarm, and armored transportation

Introduction

• Early 19th and 20th century - public police operated only on a local basis - had neither the resources nor the authority to extend their investigations or pursuit of criminals beyond the sharply circumscribed boundaries in which they performed their duties • Later 20th century - public agencies began to assume a more significant role in the investigation of crime

Deciding on a Contract Security Firm

• A variety of issues must be considered when a company or organization decides to hire a contract security firm - 1. The scope of the work - 2. Personnel selection procedures - 3. Training programs - 4. Supervision - 5. Wages - 6. Benefits - 7. Operating procedures - 8. Contractor data - 9. Terms and conditions

Hybrid Systems

• Although contract and proprietary security operations will be around for many years, the future rests in "outsourcing" some of the security operations while maintaining proprietary control over security management

Security Functions

• Building and perimeter protection, by means of barriers, fences, walls, and gates; protected openings; lighting; and surveillance (security officers) • Intrusion and access control, by means of door and window security, locks and keys, security containers (files, safes, and vaults), visitor and employee identification programs, package controls, parking security and traffic controls, inspections, and security posts and patrols • Alarm and surveillance systems • Fire prevention and control, including evacuation and fire response programs, extinguishing systems, and alarm systems • Emergency and disaster planning • Protection of intellectual property/data • Prevention of theft and pilferage by means of personnel screening, background investigations, procedural controls, and polygraph and PSE (psychological stress evaluator) investigations • Accident prevention and safety • Enforcement of occupational crime- or loss-related rules, regulations, and policies • Prevention of Workplace Violence

The Debate

• Contract vs. Proprietary • Advantages of Contract Services - Cost • Contract guards are less expensive than is a proprietary unit - Administration • Hiring contract guards solves the administrative problems of scheduling and substituting manpower when someone is sick or terminates employment - Staffing • In-house forces rarely have the flexibility in laying staffing - Unions • guards are not likely to go out on strike, are less apt to sympathize with or support striking employees - Impartiality • more consistently impartial performance of duty - Expertise • A different view from a competitive supplier trying to create goodwill with a client can always be illuminating • The Debate (Cont.) • Contract vs. Proprietary - Advantages of Proprietary Guards • Quality of Personnel - employees have been more carefully screened and show a lower rate of turnover • Control - managers feel that they have a much greater degree of control over personnel when they are directly on the firm's payroll • Loyalty - In-house guards are reported to develop a keener sense of loyalty • Prestige - Many managers simply prefer to have their own people on the job

Support

• Contractor is obligated to provide a responsive and interested manager • Manager must be able to - juggle personnel - provide adequate training - satisfy customers - still return a profit for the guard company

Guard Service's Training Procedures

• Patrol techniques • First aid • Liability and powers • Fire fighting • Public relations • Report writing

Reviews

• Periodic review is essential • Officers assigned to the contract should continue to meet the expectations set forth in the contract • Company should periodically audit the contractor's records for compliance

Evolution Of Public Law Enforcement

• Private agencies shifted their emphases away from investigation and toward crime prevention • Led to an increasing use of guard services to protect property and to maintain order - guard forces are by far the predominant element in private security

Contract Versus Proprietary Services

• Proprietary security operations - those that are "in-house" or controlled entirely by the company establishing security for its operations • Contract security services - those operations provided by a professional security company which contracts its services to a company

Accusations

• Public police have often accused the private sector of: - mishandling cases - breaking the law to make cases - being poorly trained - generally being composed of those who could not meet the standards for police officers • The private security sector often views the public sector as - being self-centered - arrogant

Effectiveness of Private Security

• Recommendations: - 1. Upgrading private security. State-wide regulatory statutes are needed for background checks, training, codes of ethics, and licensing. - 2. Increasing police knowledge of private security. - 3. Expanding interaction. Joint task forces are needed, and both groups should share investigative information and specialized equipment. - 4. Experimenting with the transfer of police functions.

Summary

• Security/loss prevention functions have a common goal • Security services protect both private and public places • Enforcement protects both public and private property • Law enforcement agencies are charged with the protection of government interests, representing the people • People concerned with security, whether federal government agencies, state law enforcement organizations, local law enforcement or private security, will need to learn to work together in order to focus resources needed to successfully combat threats created by the potential of terrorist attacks

Guard Services Today

• Still in demand today despite the growth in the use of technology • People and companies turn to guards because psychologically they feel that technology or hardware may not be enough

Incidentally

• The employment of 150,000 police officers as private security personnel during their off-duty hours has also caused much criticism • Complementary Roles • Police departments and private security agencies are beginning to work together at times unknowingly • The federal government has over 10,000 contract security guards patrolling federal offices and buildings • Police departments have turned to private agencies to protect courts, city buildings, airports, and museums

Improving Relations

• The formation of joint private- and public-sector task forces to study response to terrorism, major crime issues and recommend strategies is crucial • Data files from both sectors should be more freely exchanged • Joint seminars on terrorism and business crime have been developed to help the two areas better understand their respective roles

Misconception

• The private security sector is primarily concerned with crime prevention and deterrence rather than with investigation and apprehension • Actually: - store detectives in many major cities make more arrests each year than do local police officers - certain types of crime are no longer investigated by local police departments, but have instead become the job of private security personnel • credit card fraud • single bogus checks • some thefts

Private Security

• Those self-employed individuals and privately funded business entities and organizations providing security-related services to specific clientele for a fee, for the individual or entity that retains or employs them, or for themselves, in order to protect their persons, private property, or interests from varied hazards.

Police Powers

• Vast majority of private security personnel have no police powers - Power of arrest • Contact between public and private agencies 1. Lack of mutual respect 2. Lack of communication 3. Lack of law enforcement knowledge of private security 4. Perceived competition 5. Lack of standards for private security personnel 6. Perceived corruption of police 7. Jurisdictional conflict, especially when private problems (that is, corporate theft, arson) are involved 8. Confusion of identity and the issues flowing from it such as arming and training of private police 9. Mutual image and communications problems 10. Provision of services in borderline or overlapping areas of responsibility and interest (that is, provision of security during strikes, traffic control, shared use of municipal and private firefighting personnel) 11. Moonlighting policies for public police and issues stemming from these policies 12. Difference in legal powers, which can lead to concerns about abuse of power, and so on (that is, police officers working off duty may now be private citizens subject to rules of citizen's arrest) 13. False alarm rates (police resent responding to false alarms), which in some communities are over 90 percent