THERE IS ALWAYS A BETTER WAY

By Joel Jesus Supan, Philippines

SECURITY GUARDING AS A PROFESSION

Attributes of a Profession
Earlier in my career as a Security Practitioner, I have come across a published article that
articulated the differences between a profession and an occupation. It was not the differences
between the two which stuck to my mind. What stuck to my mind was how the author had
articulated the attributes of a profession.
These attributes are as follows:
1). Profession is a highly specialized field of undertaking;
2) It requires intensive education and training;
3) It requires continuing education;
4) It is self-regulated;
5) Its is autonomous; and,
6) It has social relevance.
All these are attributable to Security Guarding. In letters, the traditional minds that say the
only profession are those of doctors, lawyers, engineer, teachers, architect, etc. may be right, but the
“spirit” of a profession is way above mere letters.
At present many are still uneducated on why Security Guarding is considered a Profession.
Even for those who say it is, the attributes that make it a profession have not been aptly articulated.
Security Guarding is a highly specialized undertaking. There is no other work that is similar
to it.
To be a Security Guard, one has to undergo intensive and extensive specialized security
education and training which no academic school presently teaches.
Security Guarding requires continuing education and further specialization due to the
varying conditions and security requirements of the different facilities its practitioners serve. Security
Guarding is regulated as it is being governed by Republic Act 5487 which is the Private
Security Law. The Security Guards need to be licensed to exercise their profession and their
management and operation are supervised by the Philippine National Police.
Security Guarding is autonomous as its practitioners stand duty by themselves in their
respective Areas of Responsibility for which they get due consideration. Security Guarding requires
the performance of its practitioners of specific functions routinely and non-routinely, while using
judgment, knowledge and skill acquired from their training.
A guard must continuously develop, sustain in himself and practice the virtues of
trustworthiness, loyalty, helpfulness, friendliness, courtesy, kindness, obedience, cheerfulness,
prudence, thrift, courage, personal cleanliness and hygiene, reverence, patience and health.
 Security Guarding has social relevance as the practitioners deliver one of the most essential
needs of enterprises and the communities in protecting their resources. A good testament to this is
that the guards on record out number the combined strength of the police and the military, 5 to 1.
Imagine what would happen to enterprises and communities if there were no guards.
Most people think that the security profession starts and ends with the Guard. What they
perhaps do not know is that being a guard is equivalent to the internship of a doctor or a cadetship
of an engineer. The Security Guard, should he continue with his education, could obtain his Security
Officer’s License or he can opt to specialize in other fields like being a Private Detective, Personal
Protection Officer, a Canine Handler or be a Licensed Security Consultant. Facility Administrator,
Security Investigator, Risk Officer, Safety Officer, Insurance Risk Officer, X-ray Operator, CCTV
Operation Specialist, etc.

Will the Real Security Educator Please Stand Up?

With my long practice of Security, I have observed then and now, that one of the
impediments for the full recognition of Security Guarding as a Profession is the industry itself. To
start with, the coverage of the training of Guards is grossly inadequate.
The Program of Instructions being implemented by the training schools cover mostly the
provisions of the security regulations on licensing requirements, General Orders, uniform, conduct,
first aid, laws on arrest search and seizure, strikes and lockouts, public relations, unarmed defense,
gun safety and how to shoot.
However, nowhere in the training of student guards include the fundamentals of security
that should cover their client’s objectives and interests, their client’s resources that the guard need to
protect, all the risks that threaten these resources, their client security requirements and the basic
functions of the guards, why they need to be performed and how they are to be performed.
These basic functions that a guard must know why they are necessary and how they are to be
performed and documented are as 1)Patrolling, 2) Recoding , 3) Reporting, 4) Access Control,
5) Visitor Control, 6) Incoming Material Control, 7) Outgoing Material Control, 8) Key Control,
9) Vehicle Parking Control, 10) Vehicle Parking Control, 11) Pedestrian Control. 12) Hazard
Control, 13) Peace and Order Maintenance, 14) Safety Maintenance, 15) Regulation Enforcement,
16) Wastage Control, 17) Correspondence Control, 18) Public Assistance 19) Information
Gathering, 20) Escorting, 21) Reacting to Emergencies, 22) Investigation and 23) Turn Over of
Duties.
These do not include specialized functions such as CCTV Monitoring, Bomb Detection
Equipment Handling, K9 Handling, Frisking etc.
In most cases, licensed guards are not taught on the relevance and requisites of their duties.
They are not taught on the relevance of and how to record the compliances of their various
functions.
This condition prevails because the prescribed Program of Instructions does not cover these
functions. The seeming reality is that the instructors themselves do not know them by heart. A wise
man once said, “One cannot teach what he does not know. One cannot share what he does not
have.” The security training sector’s only reason for that is that the training will be costly for
everyone to be viable if the training program were any longer than that.
What Security Guard Service Providers Do
The next impediment are the employers of the guards who despite the agreement among
themselves to regulate the rates, resort to cut-throat competition that distorts the agreed just and
reasonable rate for the employers to viably operate and allow them and the guard space and
resource for an honest to goodness training.
Moreover, these same agencies themselves do not know the basic functions of the guards. In
the course of my advocacy for professionalism, I have been providing special remedial instructions
for guards. One item in these instructions is a Guard Functions Competency Test. Of the thousands
of guards, officers and security managers who took the test first time for the past 20 years, no one
passed. I deem that it is not their fault. I deem that this is attributed to the shortcoming of the
industry that for so long has existed in the bondage of traditional security guarding where guns and
brawn are the prevailing mindset and mode.
In most cases though, after 24 hours of intensive exchange of ideas, 30% of the examinees
get perfect score and no examinee gets a positive test rating that is below 90%. This just proved that
guards can be trained on more complex security work.

Then there were the Clients and their Security Managers

The other impediments are the clients themselves and the supposedly security (Managers)
professionals who represent them. It is these clients who drive down the cost of security and make
it unreasonable and leave the guard employer no choice other than accept the unreasonable contract
rate.
This condition can again be attributed to lack of knowledge of the fundamentals of security
by the client who believe that savings in the cost of security supports the objective of their
organization. This condition can also be attributed to the Security Managers who cannot educate
their bosses (for having very limited education on security themselves) that security has to be more
than just having “cheap” security guards.
As stated before, a profession requires intensive and extensive training. As much as the
security practitioners like me assert that Security Guarding is a Profession, it cannot truly be such in
spirit, if all the proponents and the stake holders did not see the wisdom that the only constant is
change and that there is always a better way of doing security.
Those dynamic security guards who have come to accept this need for change, educated
themselves, embraced security as a way of life and as an advocacy and made themselves relevant to
society are reaping the rewards of success in their chosen field. They are the real testaments that
Security Guarding is indeed a Profession.
-oOo-