SIR - As a one-time participant in - and now an interested if detached observer of - the security guarding sector, I have no vested interest to protect, no axes to grind and no hidden agendas to pursue. However, I do have some fundamental questions to ask, and several opinions which I'd like to share with the readers of Security Management Today.

Am I alone in finding the name ‘door supervisor' pretentious and ridiculous, and the whole concept of a ‘licensed door supervisor' patently absurd?

What became of the ‘bouncers', ‘muscles', ‘minders' and ‘heavies'? The name may have changed, but the required physical characteristics and personality traits have not.

Isn't it the case that the Security Industry Authority came into being to counter a threat that was - and remains - more imagined than real? Surely its instigation by the Government represented a massive over-reaction? A monumental sledgehammer to crack a barely discernible nut?

To my mind, the guarding sector ‘problem' is not - and never was - about calculated criminal intrusion. Rather, it concerns the sector's dependence upon (and, in some cases, its ruthless exploitation of) the unfortunate and the desperate for whom becoming a security officer is the last resort job option.

The broad media and public perception of guarding is one of bored, reluctant people doing nothing in particular for long periods of time for little reward and even less regard and, therefore, sacrificing their self-esteem. No small boy has ever been known to say: "When I grow up I want to be a security officer".

Returning home after a 14-hour absence and a 12-hour shift, no security officer has ever stood in the doorway in his or her ill-fitting uniform, meagre pay slip in hand, and stated: "One day, son, all of this will be yours."

For my money, it is hugely debatable whether the SIA's regulatory regime - in its present costly and cumbersome form - will help or hinder the industry in finding its own salvation. Let's wait and see, shall we?

John King Security Consultant Bromley

Source

SMT