The Common Security Guard – Surplus To Requirements?

A security guard or a security officer is a privately employed individual who is paid to protect people, property or assets. For the majority of people, security guards will conjure up a mental image of overweight and balding men, out of breath as they slap-slap-slap after a shoplifting youth. In a society where even the police don’t garner any respect, you have to ask yourself the question – are security guards surplus to requirements?

Security guards are sometimes heralded by the name ‘Watchmen’ which conjures up mysterious and poetic characters like in the graphic novels of the same name, but often the reality can be somewhat different. However, the basic manifesto of security guards is to detect, deter, observe and report. Not exactly an inspiring maxim, but close enough.

What Do Security Guards Do Anyway?

So as stated before, security guards protect people, property and assets. Once you get right down to it, security guards can have quite a variety of different duties – it’s quite surprising how many facets ‘security’ can be broken down to. Security guards can be hired to prevent:-

-theft

-fire
-vandalism
-health and safety violations
-sabotage
-terrorism
-employee misconduct

Some of the common duties that security guards can be expected to perform are key holding, CCTV monitoring, mobile patrolling, static guarding and access control;

Key Holding
Security guards respond to alarms at your business, saving you time and energy and risk.

CCTV Monitoring
Security guards can monitor CCTV systems, responding to suspicious activity or threats.

Mobile Patrolling
Security guards patrol your business area in a vehicle, making random patrols in order to catch any suspicious activities or intruders unawares.

Static Guarding
Security guards stand watch at your business, acting as a deterrent to criminals.

Access Control
By using either electronic, biometric or manual security systems, security guards can monitor and control access to businesses or institutions.

A Word Or Two About Training

Due to the Private Security Industry Act 2001, all security guards in the UK now have to have a licence given by the Security Industry Authority (SIA), which also trains up security guards. Licences have to be displayed in most cases and tests and CRB checks have to be passed in order to gain a licence.

Do Security Guards Do Any Good?

This is a difficult question to answer. As was said in the first paragraph, with police officers (a step up the ladder from security guards most people believe) being afforded no respect in today’s society, how can we believe that security guards could garner enough respect to do their jobs when they have less powers than the police?

But believe it or not, security guards are still useful and still needed. With the progressive roll-out of technology based security systems such as biometrics, alarms and CCTV, security guards will maybe become surplus eventually. But at the moment, security guards are still needed to keep watch over technology systems, to provide that link between computer and authorities.

With duties such as key holding, security guards take on the risk and take on the time and effort of checking out false alarms, a job that someone needs to do.

In retail security, mobile patrolling and static security guarding, security guards act as a deterrent more than an active crusader. Criminals are still wary of performing nefarious deeds in front of an audience and with things such as fire, having a security guard around can save you quite a lot of money.

So despite the fact that there seems to be a running trend of companies trying to get away with providing as little training as they can for security guards (unlike www.churchill-security.co.uk), despite a society that fosters a lack of respect for all authority figures and despite the rise of technology, it seems to me that security guards are in fact, required.