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Security Operative basics: Setting the standard

Short rant crossed with a basic message this week. Is it just me or have standards dropped in the security industry in the last few years. I’m not talking about the standard of person entering the industry or standards of work conditions. I’m talking about the standards of how we look, act and behave while on duty. Maybe its just me turning into an old grouch but I’ve definitely noticed a decline. I could be wrong but I’ve definitely noticed an increase in not shaving, not ironing, wearing runners with uniforms and all of the other small irritating things that drive me crazy. Has this now become acceptable in the industry? Whats caused it? Or am I completely wrong and turning into a grumpy old man? This is not for the experienced professionals who show up to work every day like they should. Its for the new people who see these things happening and think its ok. Its for the people who want to know how to look and act professionally and its for the supervisors who have let this slip into their teams without them noticing.it.

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Criminal Law in Ireland: An overview for security operatives

Following on from last weeks article on civil law and liabilty I’m going to do a series of articles on areas of Irish law and how it affects the role of the security operative. In this industry knowledge is power and blindly following the instruction of a supervisor or SOP when it comes to matters of law is not good enough. To apply legal principles at work we must have an underlying understanding much deeper than the law we are applying. In this article I’m going to take a look at the fundamentals of criminal law. The defining criteria for an act to be a crime and the various classifications of crime and their meaning to the security operative. This is not going to delve into specific parts of criminal (I’ll do that later) but it is an overview of the basic principles of criminal law and how it differs from civil law.
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Duty of Care, Negligence and Liability in the Security industry

Duty of care

This week I’m going to go all legal and talk about duty of care. These 3 words on which a significant amount of business in the security industry are based. The words are used over and over in operations records, assignment instructions and legal issues around the security industry but how much does the average security operative know about what these words mean. In this article I want to look at duty of care from a civil law perspective.

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Security operative questions answered: March 2018

I said last week that I had gotten a number of question that I felt was best answered in a public forum. These are the questions I have received both before and since I made that announcement. Everything from safety boots to guard dogs and a few more in between. As always I advise you not just to take my answers at face value. I give you my answers based on my experience and research and you should do the same. Take my answers and use them as the basis to research your own. As always I’m open to your feedback and to any ideas you may have on any of these subjects.

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Principles of Effective Security

Last week I printed a photo online of my ‘ 5 Principles of Effective Security’. It received a huge amount of feedback online and in private (including the few who spotted my grammar mistakes in the text). I printed it following a conversation with a fellow security professional where I was talking about principle based training. I mentioned my 5 principles and he liked them. Then I realised that despite using these principles as the basis for most of my training and operational work for many years I had never talked about them on this page. In this article I’m going to do just that. I’ll talk about my top  5 principles (and one extra one) and why I believe in principle based training.

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