Security and the Security Officer!
Tuesday, June 16, 2009 0:41
The Hospital Visit
Last week, I went to the hospital to visit a friend. After parking in the hospital parking lot, I had to take the shuttle bus over to the hospital’s main entrance. When I arrived at the main entrance, I saw two security officers standing on the other side of the entrance talking to each other. As I observed them, they really never seemed to notice us or the shuttle bus which appears to arrive quite frequently. Anyway, after visiting my friend for over an hour, I stood at the main entrance waiting my turn to get on the returning shuttle bus when I noticed the security officers again. This time there were three instead of two, and they were standing basically in the same spot where I had originally noticed them upon arriving over an hour ago. This got me thinking about how a lot of businesses hire contract security officers to provide security for them. Are they really getting what they pay for?
Purpose of Security Officers
In my opinion, security officers should supplement security measures you put in place to protect your business, not security measures supplementing the security officers you use. I hope you see the difference. In most cases I have seen, security officers are the primary security measure with other physical or technical security measures providing secondary protection. As you can see from the above story, security officers are not always where they need or should be to provide the primary security for a business. Basically, security officers should not be your primary long-term security solution but rather be used in conjunction with physical and technical security measures. There will always be a need and a place for the human element in security, but people should be utilized to interpret a security alarm or situation and respond appropriately to a security issue. As I noted in a recent article, having an adequate response is the third security principle that must be followed or used to adequately protect your business. Adequate response is usually always provided by the human element of security.
The first and primary purpose of security officers is to observe and/or inspect the facilities of the business. They are also used to escort visitors or employees on business property; for example, escorting employees to their car when getting off work during the night. Thirdly, security officers are usually used to respond to a security issue that is occurring or has occurred at the business. This can include preventing or apprehending shoplifters. These three roles should be a business’ main focus when hiring security officers.
Most small and medium-sized businesses I have dealt with have hired contract security officers instead of hiring and training full-time employees as security officers. The cost factor has a lot to do with this for most businesses. Some businesses also hire off-duty police officers to provide security at their business. There are advantages and disadvantages of both, but it can be a rather complicated issue.
In the above story, you can see that having security officers standing around in one place together did not allow them to adequately fulfill their observation and inspection role nor could they adequately fulfill the role of a responder. They could still be called to escort because this is not usually a critical role. If it took them a few extra minutes to get to the escort, in most cases, it would not cause an issue. How can you handle such situations when you can not be around to observe them? One of the ways is to require roving, walking or mobile patrols so they are not in any one place to long or just standing around with each other. At least if they are moving, they are interacting with customers and employees. Also, if possible, try and rotate security duties so officers are not doing the same thing every time they are on duty. Build in as much variety as possible to reduce boredom.
I would love to hear about how you have utilized security officers in your business. Have you found them valuable? What problems have you had with security officers, and how have you handled any issues that have come up? Leave a comment and share your experience with the rest of the readers.
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