Thinking it Through

In this article I want to talk about something a lot of newer security guards / officers have a big problem with. That is the fact that a lot of newer officers / guards do not think through their actions. It is very important for a security guard / officer to think through what they are about to do and the impact that it could have, not only for them but the industry as a whole.

I know that when I first started working security that I would just react to a situation and not take a step back as a whole and look at it. As a security officer you must look at the whole situation and think of every possibility good or bad that could happen. For example: If you arrive at an apartment that is blasting loud music and has a party occurring in it then you will obviously want to talk to a tenant and get them to turn the music down and maybe start ending the party. If you walk up to the apartment and have an attitude and start yelling at the tenant to turn their music down because nobody can sleep around them. Then obviously the tenant is going to come back at you with an attitude and probably be backed up by however many people are in the apartment. Say you walk up to the apartment and have the tenant step outside to talk to you. Now you have eliminated the people that are inside of the apartment partying from the situation. If somebody who is not a tenant attempts to step outside then you can remind them politely that this will only take a minute and that you just need to speak to the tenant quickly. Ok with that situation taken out of the equation then you can work on talking to the tenant regarding the loud music. It's easier when you have someone by themselves to handle any situation (Granted that this will not always work but majority of the time it has worked for me). You have the tenant by themselves with the front door closed (Music still thumping away on the other side of the door). You then politely tell the tenant that their music is too loud and that it is at an unacceptable level. What the company I usually works for is to issue a warning for the loud music informing them that they have a time limit (usually 30 minutes) to take care of the loud music. Explaining to the tenant that if you have to return (not all security companies do this) you will have to issue a citation for the loud music and any other infractions that you notice upon your arrival.

The last step is to be very polite and thank the tenant for their time. It doesn't seem like much but the more polite you are then the more respectful that you will appear to the tenant and the less likely they are to be rude towards you. Granted again this doesn't always work and you will have to write citations or take further actions but the majority of the time this type of situation is easily handled.

With all of this being said it is a whole lot easier to not RUSH in to a situation that you can't handle.

Even after 7 years of experience in the security field I will usually handle a situation and then look at it and say to myself "how could I have handled that differently." Or I will contact another officer / manager and explain to them the situation that I just had and ask them if they think I handled it properly.

Basically do not over react to a situation and step back and see how it is easily / politely handled. Think it through before dealing with it. At one of the sites that I usually work at along with the local staff we will sometimes think about dealing with a problem for several hours before taking care of it. We do this to get a total feel for the situation and what type of activity is going on before we deal with it. Granted there will still be situations that come up that need to be dealt with immediately but you have to think it through to decide what you will be doing and how you will be doing it.

Best of luck in the security field and keeping local businesses / apartment complexes safe and free of problems.

Sarge