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A note on violence: When all you have is a hammer

This one could be a short musing on violence and its use as a problem solving tool in the security industry. Have you ever heard the phrase ‘when all you have is a hammer every problem looks like a nail’? Its something I’ve often related to the security industry and something which my younger self was often guilty of. Its not a complaint about the use of violence or physical skills but it is a cautionary message about over reliance on physical skills. I had a completely different idea for this weeks article but a conversation with an old friend this week put this thought into my head I was taken to thinking about my younger days as I started off in this industry. At that time I thought I was the best thing since sliced bread. I was probably a little over confident and definitely a lot more hot headed than I would now ever like to admit. I grew up with experience and harsh lessons but not without making a lot of mistakes and that is what I want to talk about here. My musing is on violence and the advantages and disadvantages of having a large skill set in that area in the security industry.

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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 recruitment and selection

‘Staff wanted- Must have PSA licence and a heartbeat’.

Seems like a pretty standard job advertisement for the security industry. How many times have you seen this or words similar to this advertised on social media? It’s one thing filling a position and another thing entirely to fill it with the correct person. In this article I want to talk about recruitment and selection. The article won’t be for everybody but it may help supervisors , managers and people aspiring to be both. In turn it helps those on the front-line. Those whose biggest issue is working with below par staff and dealing with constant turnover.

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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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