How effective is security guarding?

The study, currently being undertaken by Perpetuity Research and Consultancy International (PRCI), is addressing such questions as: "What do security officers do?", "What benefits do they bring?", "What conditions are necessary for security officers to be truly effective?" and: "How will the changes that are taking place impact on the role of security officers in the years ahead?"

There has been so little research into the role of the security officer. They're an easy group to criticise, and are rarely praised, but very little is really known about what they do and the benefits they generate for end user organisations.

We're looking to find out by eliciting and incorporating the views of retailers, security companies and a range of other experts. This will be the very first in-depth study of security officers and their role, and as such the findings are potentially of enormous significance for us all.

The study is ongoing and co-ordinated by the British Retail Consortium. Running through until next February, one of its major aims is to identify Best Practice in the role of security guarding.

Sponsors include Reliance Security Services, Capitol Security, Nitelite, Securiplan, Securicor Security, OCS Security Services, Total Security, Homebase, Argos, Comet and Boots.

We look forward to publicising the results in SMT early next year.