Security Equipment and Weapons

It has been my experiences over the years that I have found security officers, both contract security officers and proprietary security officers, that carry equipment that you, or their employer, have not authorized (e.g. ammo, mace, batons, handcuffs and so on).

Unauthorized Armed Security Officer

As an example, when doing a project with a medical center, I found that an off-duty police officer working as a hospital security officer, was armed with a firearm even though it was not allowed per hospital policy.

At another company, I found a contract security officer carrying three (3) loaded ammunition magazines on his duty belt, along with pepper foam, handcuffs, and a collapsible baton. The client he was working for did not allow anything more than a radio. Now although there was no firearm visible on the security officer, you can probably assume that since he had the ammunition on him, he likely had a firearm concealed on his person.

Not only do you need to authorize what weapons and equipment that the security officers will carry on duty, you also need to monitor the use of that equipment to ensure that its use is within policy, yours, and/or the contractor’s policies.

Misuse of Security Weapons

Case in point, a very large employer on the west coast had authorized their security officers to carry Tasers. While that is not unusual, it was found that no one was monitoring the use, and ultimately misuse, of those devices.

In fact, the security officers bragged about having Tasers parties while off-duty, where they would drink alcohol and shoot each other with the Tasers. When management was asked how often they audit the use of the Tasers, they said never, “it cannot be done”. What is very important here is the fact that Tasers can be audited at any time if the management was conducting their due diligence.

Audit the Security Equipment

According to the manufacture, the electronic records of their devices can, and should be, downloaded and audited on a regular basis. It is a rather easy process to download the records from the devices onto a computer and print out the reports. The reports will show the date and time the device was turned on, and when it was fired and for what duration of time. The devices can also be equipped with a camera to record audio and video each time the device is turned on.

In the case mentioned above, the supervisors and management had never done so, even though their devices were capable of being audited and downloaded. You must wonder how many times that any of the devices improperly used on each other, or others, and how much liability that that organization had due to the misuse of the devices.