Closer collaboration needed between private security industry and the state security force

Sep 01, 2011 Letters

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Dear Editor,
The growth of the private security industry is generally perceived as a twentieth – century phenomenon and is of critical importance to the maintenance of national security. As such, Guyanese security practitioners should be closely following regional and other important world events, as and when they unfold, with as much enthusiasm as their foreign counterparts. For these developments will, no doubt, play a significant role in reshaping Guyana’s external and domestic security landscape.
The private security industry for its part as de facto first responders, will be expected to take up the slack, through increased vigilance and the provision of private law enforcement services, in the likely event of any change in the local security equilibrium; which could test the sincerity and commitment of the government and public security structure to embrace the concept of public private partnerships -the guiding philosophy of the homeland security concept.
While there is no proper framework for the smooth execution of these additional responsibilities by the private security industry or between the two entities, a more fundamental problem could be the reduced capacity of the state’s public safety apparatus to lead out; therefore, the prolonged and conspicuous human resource void experienced by the Guyana police force will come into sharp focus.
Although the security industry has the financial and human resources to be a force multiplier should the necessity arise, it currently lacks the tactical skills to respond appropriately to elevated security challenges, even within its own circumscribed proprietary enclave; these same conditions  provided fertile grounds for the terrorist bombings in India.
Of significant importance is the fact, that even  now, the  private security industry does not possess sufficient firearms, and as a consequence, enough  trained security officers to adequately meet the mounting requests for armed services in times of relative calm, which  can only get worse in times of high emergency alert.
This has resulted in the industry cooperating with the already hard pressed Guyana Police Force for the supply of armed personnel, most of whom are deployed to security companies as extra duties, after working their usual shifts and beyond. It should occasion no surprise when these officers who often  constitute no more than a mere  presence, are seen slumbering and sleeping even in the public’s view during armed escorts and the provision of other time sensitive security duties, which require  the attention of  fully alert  personnel.
Research has shown that the hiring out of armed police officers seldom benefits the police force as some corrupt commanders soon learn how
to use the process to their own advantage. In some countries, this practice is born out of necessity to reduce the costs associated with the provision of law enforcement services, but as research has shown in the case of Nigeria and Moldova it seldom works.
While it serves one purpose, and a good one too, to control the use of arms and ammunition by the private security industry, it is worth remembering that its workforce is between two and four times that of the combined state security force, which continues to decrease due to budgetary constraints and other factors, while that of the security industry continues to increase worldwide.
The governments of the Philippines, India, Uganda and Kenya are just about four recent examples of countries  which  were forced to  review their existing firearms and weapons training  policy relative to their respective security industries.
In some cases, offering to upgrade, rather hastily I might add, the amount and caliber of weapons used by the private security industry, usually as a kneejerk response to some perceived threat to national security, and independent of the security industry’s involvement in it.
According to key findings contained in the Small Arms Survey 2011, based upon a review of seventy countries, the survey estimates that the formal private security sector employs between 19.5 and 25.5 million people worldwide.
The report points out that in some countries, the 20 million mark represents a doubling or tripling of the number of private security workers over the past 10-20 years.
Still, despite the rapid growth of the sector, private security personnel hold far fewer firearms than do state security forces.
The survey found that the private security industry hold no more than four million fire arms, compared to some twenty six million held by law enforcement and two hundred million held by armed forces.
There is little point then, in maintaining a status quo where the state security force has all the fire arms but little personnel to use them, a condition which is unlikely to change any time soon; while the private security industry has all the man power but without the necessary arms and the relevant training to respond appropriately, if and when called upon to do so in the foreseeable future, which in Guyana’s context, ‘is always within the bounds of possibility’.
The American Society for Industrial Security (ASIS) the lead body for security practitioners in the USA, the British Security Industry Association (BSIA) the Kenyan Security Industry Association (KSIA) and the Central Association of Private Security Industry (India) have all highlighted the benefits which could accrue from a closer collaboration between the private security industry and the state security force.
Clairmont  Featherstone

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