Thoughts by Peter Harrison, MD at FGH Security, Chair at The City Security Council: Manchester Region, Vice Chair at the UK Crowd Management Association (UKCMA) on where Frontline Security Officers are in 2024.

On the 24th of July, with the date 24/7 chosen to symbolise the ‘round-the-clock’ nature of a security operatives’ working hours, our industry celebrated International Security Officers Day – #ISOD2024 for those who use social media.

Led by the City Security Council, celebrations took place involving hundreds of security officers in both Manchester and London.   

An important day, it was an opportunity to thank our hardworking teams and to raise awareness about the demanding work they do.

The industry has suffered from negative stereotypes in the past and many of these persist, but we are starting to turn a corner in 2024. 

The SIA’s 20^th Birthday 

On Monday 22^nd July, I was with the SIA (Security Industry Authority) celebrating their 20^th birthday at the House of Lords. 

Unfortunately, I am old enough and have been in the industry long enough, to remember what life was like before the SIA. I would like to share some of my subjective experiences as a newcomer to the industry: 

• Security guards were not licensed at all. If you were lucky enough to work for a great company, then you got some good training. I worked in retail security in Salford for a major high street name and received absolutely no training or induction. The store manager passed me a radio (that had no one on the end of it) and said: “if the alarm goes off, stop them.”  The rest I had to figure out for myself. 

• I worked across several different geographical areas: In Manchester I did three evenings at college, then got a council badge. Preston was a one-day training course. Bolton needed neither training nor license. 

To summarise, any training I recall receiving as a security guard was essentially “stop the thief” and any training I received as a door supervisor was essentially “stop the fight”. There was a focus on being ‘reactive to the environment’ as opposed to ‘proactive in the environment.’ 

When you are in the mix and working hard in our industry, it can sometimes feel like quite slow progress, but, when you zoom out and look where we were just two decades ago, you can see the enormous leaps forward that have been made. 

The modern security officer  

The SIA has been proactive in introducing new training requirements as the needs of the industry have changed.

Two of the most significant changes were mandatory physical intervention and more recently, first aid training. 

If we were to look at impact, I would estimate the addition of the first aid is the greater one. 

Despite improvements in practice, there continue to be accounts of security personnel involved in injuries and deaths of the public due to incorrect restraint techniques, although occurrences are falling. 

The impact of first aid training is no doubt proving more significant; our country now has several hundred thousand additional first aiders.   

Anecdotally, I have first-hand experience from our own workforce. 

We account for a mere 1% or so of the UK market and I can recall multiple occasions where lives have been saved by our team’s first aid skills just in the past year. 

I wonder how many lives have already been saved and will continue to be saved through this training? 

Additional training modules have also included Counter Terrorism – something that was not really on the security training agenda twenty years ago.

We will never know how many terrorist acts have been prevented through good deterrence by a security officer, or how many have been detected by calls from security officers to the counter terrorism hotline.

However, having a few hundred thousand individuals trained up in basic CT awareness must be a positive thing. 

More to go at…the new SIA refresher training 

It was great to hear that although SIA ‘top-up’ training will soon be finished, the SIA is replacing it with ‘refresher’ training.

So far it looks like this will require a refresh of the emergency first aid certificate, additional physical intervention and the addition of ‘Spiking Awareness.’

The latter is very pertinent; a recent report suggested that 10% of females and 5% of males claim to have been spiked at some point in their lives. 

It is good to see the review process continues. 

Are there still skills gaps? Can the SIA training to do even more? 

One option for me would include more Mental Health Awareness.

The benefits could include teaching security operatives to be more empathetic, with a better understanding of human behaviours and psychology.

There would be three main groups of beneficiaries: themselves, their teammates, and then the public.

Although it is still taboo for many to talk about mental health, the chances are that everyone reading this, will have experiences around mental health – either directly themselves, or a close family member. 

I would like to see basic crowd management knowledge introduced. 

Door Supervision training, originally designed with the nighttime economy in mind, does not really address crowd management beyond how to manage queues and use count the customers. 

There are still avoidable crowd management incidents too frequently across the UK. 

Organisations like The Square Metre set the standard for Level 5 Crowd Safety Management courses, but unfortunately it is not compulsory and there is little education mandated by the SIA on this subject. 

What would I like the SIA to be doing? 

It is sometimes easy for us to get bogged down with the negatives in our industry, and the SIA do so much, with the powers they have, under the PSIA (Private Security Industry Act) 2001.

If I could change things: firstly, I would mandate business licensing, as many other countries do.

Secondly, I would mandate training for managers and directors as part of their license programme.  

The rising prevalence of private security 

I have been out to do a little experiment today. 

Just after lunch, at 14:30, I walked East from Marble Arch to Oxford Circus and then down to Piccadilly Circus.

A total distance of about 1.3 miles.

I counted a total of 64 security officers on my walk, standing in front of shops but also some of our Street Patrol team members too. 

They were not all obvious, so I only counted those who were. 

I know there are a lot more than that, inside of stores, but to go inside every store would have taken all day.

Then there are those who were on a break, the hidden control room operators, and all those working in the immediate vicinity of these busy streets. 

At the same time, I kept my eye out for members of the Metropolitan Police Service.

I saw two officers who were driving in a vehicle on Regent St.  

There are now approximately 430,000 SIA Licence holders in the UK, compared to about 170,000 police officers. 

Our industry clearly has a role to play in deterring crime and protecting the public. 

As I heard a customer recently point out to a Chief Inspector during an SPS negotiation recently “I can get three SIA for the price of one PC and my event will be safer” To which the senior police officer agreed.  

SIA as a replacement to Police? 

Do I feel that well trained SIA operatives can replace the Police? No. Not at all.

Less powers, less training, less resources.

Can private security do more to complement the police and safer communities though? Yes. Are we stronger as a unit, working together, sharing intelligence, tactics, and support? 

Yes – 100%. The barriers to change? No doubt the security industry is still being held back by those who refuse to change, and the lack of legislation. 

This article was originally published in the August Edition of Security Journal UK. To read your FREE digital edition, click here.