Store security is a delicate matter.
Store security is a delicate matter
Store security is a delicate matter.
Citizens, when you go to the store, take your compulsory medical insurance policy with you.
Recently in St. Petersburg, 3 (three!) security guards beat up a customer — an elderly man — when they were detaining him, just because he accidentally dropped and broke a light bulb. What kind of zoo were they recruited from? A security guard must remain calm, even if someone spits in his face. Let's look at a situation that is unlikely to be played out in tactical and special training classes at training centers:
A private security company employee is guarding a luxury clothing department. A small, harmful guy (girl) comes up to him, spits in his face or even just on his clothes, and runs away. The enraged security guard rushes after him. Everyone is distracted: security guards, cashiers, sellers, customers. At least for 3-5 seconds, but they are distracted. And at this time, the hooligan's accomplice ruins expensive raincoats (jackets) — cuts them with a cutter in one motion or splashes them with paint from a can, which he immediately throws down. Then he joins the spectators and calmly leaves. There may be a third accomplice who will trip up the running security guard or trip himself on the road. The goal: to take revenge on the store owner for something or set some conditions for him.
We have the result:
1. The security guard, of course, caught the hooligan and punished him.
2. Even if the accomplices are identified and detained, they cannot be brought into the case — it is practically impossible to prove collusion.
3. The store suffered significant losses.
The main reason for such a disastrous result is a bully? No, a security guard who fell for someone else's work. The automatic reaction to the action is wrong.
All commentaries on the legislation in the field of private security, training and practical manuals on ensuring access control describe only cases of extreme necessity: when the use of weapons, special equipment and physical force is lawful. Studying the legislation in this context in training centers and independently, most security officers are inclined to act according to the scheme of extreme measures when on duty. These automatic schemes of action are not suitable for everyday, prosaic situations. The authors of manuals and teachers of training centers simply want to protect security guards from prison, suspecting that every second security guard is prone to lawlessness. Many people (including security officers) have a desire to distinguish themselves in front of their superiors, to get even for years of service in the army, where they were humiliated by sergeants and officers, to work off their childhood complexes — for those who had a difficult childhood. Security guards are not employees or the State Bureau of Investigation, which are initially aimed at harsh detention with the use of weapons and hand-to-hand combat techniques. Those who want to detain harshly, let them serve in the Special Purpose Special Forces or the State Security Bureau of the Special Forces. And those who do not serve there and work in security, should behave calmly and kindly.
You, the security guards, are young, healthy, armed, and have an organization behind you. What else does a security guard need to professionally, from a position of strength, extinguish emerging conflicts?
If a customer accidentally drops a product or even deliberately puts it in his pocket, there is no conflict yet, it is just beginning. And the further development of the situation is 90% dependent on the security guard. Security guards must be able to use the authority of the organization from a position of strength, be able to persuade, negotiate. Since a security guard works among people, he must be psychologically stable, sociable and even slightly phlegmatic. Customers are not hardened repeat offenders and terrorists — their actions do not threaten the life of the guard and the security of Russia.
All of the above directly applies to the employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs — there is no point in changing laws and titles until psychologists, lawyers, competent instructors in hand-to-hand combat (wrestlers first of all) begin to work with employees in a meaningful way.
And let's take one simple thing as an axiom: customers did not come to the store to intercept suspicious and hostile glances from security guards. They brought MONEY. The director of the private security company pays his employees' salaries from this money.
No matter what I write in this article and in the future, I am on your side in any case. But I am for professionalism. Many security guards need to be retrained or further trained. And it's time for the heads of private security companies to seriously address this problem so that customers are not kicked around at the checkout, as happened in St. Petersburg. There are probably hundreds of such wild cases across the country. People simply «don't air their dirty linen in public,» problems are «hushed up» on the spot by any means and methods.
Standard programs in training centers are weak — it is necessary to create your own additional programs that will take into account the specifics of the protected facilities, the basic level of training of trainees, the contingent of buyers and visitors, maybe even the region, etc. It is necessary to introduce additional classes on psychological stability, psychology of influencing people, “soft” detention of violators.
Sincerely, Oleg. Yekaterinburg.