DANGEROUS TIMES FOR PRIVATE SECURITY

Nine security officers suffered severe traumatic injuries, gunshot wounds and in four cases death, during a forty-eight hour period this week-end in America.

Among those killed was a 49 year old unarmed loss prevention agent employed by

Wal-Mart who had made a shoplifting apprehension in Margate Florida late Friday evening.

The shoplifter, who had concealed a few t-shirts, refused to be escorted back to the security office and without warning pulled a handgun and shot the security agent at point blank range.

The security agent had no chance to escape or to fight for his life.

Of the other three security officers killed, one was shot multiple times at a nightclub; another stabbed to death at a club in Detroit and a forth shot in the head and killed on the way to work at a college in Jackson Mississippi. Police believe that the attack may have been a revenge killing.

Two other security officers, including a hotel security officer in Seattle who tried to stop an armed robber and an apartment security officer who intervened in a domestic violence incident were shot but expected to recover.

Another security officer in Greensboro North Carolina went to investigate a suspicious vehicle at a bus depot and was run down by a drug dealer and had several fingers severed when he was hit by the fleeing vehicle and tossed over its hood, crushing his hand and snagging several fingers.

Two other security officers also have been attacked and injured while on duty and suffered serious injuries.

Wal-Mart like almost all retailers provides no training, little to no training on any self-defense aspects of the job and does not allow security personnel to carry any weapons of any type even though statistical data is available that shows that there are more organized gangs involved in store thefts than ever, some associated with street gangs and even the Mexican mob and that armed confrontations between shoplifters and security is on the rise. What's also a proven fact is that many shoplifters stopped by security agents are already wanted felons, some for very serious offenses while others have weapons and contraband on them and many have a prior arrest record and do not want to face any prison time.

Retail security has long been a very dangerous job and when you consider that more than 1 million shoplifters are apprehended every year by loss prevention and mall security officers and of those, over thirty five percent offer some level of resistance, and that number continues to climb yearly, it would seem prudent that retail management would better train and equip the men and women on the front-line of asset protection.

But they don't and never have.

Retail security agents do not have a choice whether they want to confront a shoplifter or not, it's part of their harden job description and a requirement regardless of the lack of training, defensive tools or back-up.

Security officers, many unarmed and working with minimal training, few tools and even no means of communication to call for assistance continue to face the dangers of being on the front-line while protecting life and property but who's protecting them?

Not the law, not their employer and definitely not the government.

Armed confrontations, assaults, serious injuries and a dramatic rise in security officer deaths are making the news headlines across the country everyday and yet no one is standing up for the more than three million security officers facing these dangers.

Between September 2011 and September 2012, 129 security officers were killed in the US. Sixty eight of those officers were shot to death.

The security industry today is increasingly dangerous and we must provide the training and tools to the people doing the job

I urge every security company owner, legislative member and government official to take a hard look at these numbers, seek out the truth about the changing roles of private security today and act immediately in the best interest of these men and women before more of them loose their lives.

Rick McCann

Founder-CEO

Private Officer International

2217 Matthews Township Pkwy

Charlotte NC 28105

rickm@privateofficer.com