Private security guards need better training – Crime Chief

AMID the drama involving a government minister and personnel from a private security firm over the weekend, Crime Chief Assistant Commissioner of Police Paul Williams has issued a call for better training to be conducted for members of private security firms.
The issue became public on Monday when Minister within the Ministry of Natural Resources, Simona Broomes, alleged that a security guard had pulled a gun on her and her driver after they sought parking space at the Massy Supermarket parking lot on the East Bank of Demerara to access the New Thriving Chinese Restaurant Sunday evening.

However, a video which subsequently surfaced shows the minister exiting her vehicle and tossing two no parking signs to the ground, so that her driver could park. The minister said that she had identified herself, but the security guards who were on duty disregarded her. “It is within your own judgment and sense that if you see a certain vehicle within a certain standard and class right there and then it speaks out to somebody, even if you want to rate the person as for whatever it is, whether the person is drug lord whether the person is a minister, whether the person is a businessman; whether the person is a gold miner or whatever it is, from the time you see a vehicle of certain standard it is supposed to arouse your attention and alertness, rather than from a normal vehicle, ” Williams said.

He said that what he finds is that security companies in this country employ people at the lower levels who work at stores, malls and premises who should receive more training than they have in order to deal with their responsibilities in terms of dealing with the members of the public and carrying firearms. Following the incident on Sunday night involving the two sides, the police detained the security guards for 16 hours and the weapon was briefly seized. The minister also came in for some very harsh criticisms on social media over the development, given her account of what had happened as against what a video which was captured by a CCTV camera revealed.

By dawn on Tuesday night, Minister of Health Volda Lawrence reached out to one of the security guards and apologised for the development and his 16-hour detention. The crime chief was adamant that the security guard erred. “The minister came out and even if the minister came out and maybe she was a little thing, you know, maybe a little upset or whatever the case, from the time she would have identified herself as a minister, he as a security guard his tone ought to have changed and said excuse me., sorry I did not know you were a minister, but however these are the instructions or this is not allowed, but not where he was being gesticulating and pointing up and so on” Williams stated. He continued: “You can’t want to be irate and saying you don’t respect no minister who you be and so on; we got to respect people in authority, that is a must we have to respect people in authority you maintain your cool and you do the right thing and definitely whatever is wrong or where it has to show it will show. But I am not in support in terms of the behaviour of the security guard that is my position.”

The assistant commissioner of police questioned whether the actions of the security guard would have been the same had it been a diplomat in the vehicle on the night in question. “It could have been somebody else of higher standing or stature in this country in that vehicle. If was a U.S. diplomat or a diplomat from any other country who would have gone there in that vehicle, yes you may not know who is in the vehicle, but the person looked at the sign and move it…” He called on private security personnel to be more reasonable and urged better training for them to deal with members of the public.