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For want of a (well-paid) rent-a-cop, the kingdom was lost
By WDavidStephenson | May 31, 2007
Hmm: with last week’s NECN investigative piece about understaffing of the Federal Protective Service and this story, we seem trapped in a building protection meme — and not a good one, at that.
The news that underpaid private security guards are a weak link in anti-terrorism efforts brought back memories of two years ago, when I had the dubious privilege of teaching a course in private security management at UMass-Lowell.
We’ll leave aside for students of the dumbing-down of academia the question of whether such a “course” should be offered for academic credit (rest assured there will never be a course of that ilk at America’s Finest Liberal Arts College, where, my mum’s condition permitting, I’ll reune this weekend!), but teaching it was an eye-opening look at a dysfunctional industry with far too much of a role in our well-being.
Consider this: we’re trusting protection of buildings that are of critical importance to our national economy and infrastructure to men and women who are paid minimum wage, are poorly trained, don’t last long on the job (who can blame them), and, oh yeah, sometimes are packing heat (including some folks with criminal records). As I told my students, the private security industry is one critical incident away from a meltdown that would reveal how dysfunctional it is. Nothing has happened in the past two years to dissuade me from that argument — and this story might just be the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Among findings of the nationwide AP survey that don’t come as a surprise to moi:
- median salary is only $23,260, a reflection of the cut-throat competition in the industry that means the security firms are constantly cutting costs in order to compete.
- Alabama, Colorado, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, Kentucky, Wyoming and Idaho don’t even regulate the industry. Sleep tight, residents of those states.
- You can’t have everything: if you pay low wages, maybe you need to provide job opportunities to ex-cons: “96,000 of 1.3 million applicants, about 7.3 percent, were turned down — mostly, state officials said, for having criminal histories.” As the story points out, no one knows how many with itchy trigger fingers managed to slip through and still get hired, especially in those states with no regulation.
- the private security firms aren’t included in disaster simulations run by police and fire departments.
- in addition to military bases, private firms patrol “drinking water reservoirs; oil and gas refineries; ports; bus and rail commuter terminals; nuclear power plants; chemical plants; food supplies; hospitals; and communications networks.”
- Among other incidents where private security guards responded poorly or not at all was the infamous 2005 one where an envelope of white powder was mailed to Sec. Chertoff, and then supervisors of the private security firm “guarding” DHS carried it past Chertoff’s office and shook it outside the window — without evacuating the building.
When asked whether these guards are prepared to recognize and respond to a potential terror attack, “‘I would have to say no,’ said Joseph Ricci, executive director of the National Association of Security Companies.”
To their credit, some firms want stiffer regulation so they aren’t tarred with the same feather as the bottom feeders:
“‘Imagine an industry saying, ‘Please regulate me.’ It’s pretty unusual,’ said William Whitmore, chief executive and president of AlliedBarton.
“Company executives are worried about their industry’s reputation, and they don’t want to be caught hiring convicted felons to protect other Americans.
“‘Potentially you could have a small organization who might want to cut corners and, God forbid, you’re not sure who they’re hiring,’ said Robert Johnson, a vice president of Blackstone Valley Security in Cranston, Rhode Island.”
If I may make a suggestion, folks: learn from the chemical industry, which was also faced with industry-wide problems from the mom-and-pop firms at the bottom that didn’t offer as many safeguards. Their response was to create the Responsible Care program — and kick firms out of the industry group that didn’t meet those standards.
Meanwhile, this story and the NECN one illustrate that building protection is a major shortcoming in terrorism prevention, and only a major public-private partnership can help reduce it.
Technorati tags: homeland security DHS Department of Homeland Security War on Terror terrorism antiterrorism private security business continuity disaster planning
Topics: profitable corporate preparedness, policy and politics | |
