How to identify issues with Security companies.
The Security Industry is somewhat confusing to people not regularly involved. Most people do not know the laws that regulate the industry, or the law that regulates the power that Security Guards have. While both are interesting subjects one of the most important aspects of a Security company are the policies in which it acts.
During my involvement with the Security industry I have worked for several security companies. Most good, but several were very unethical. I have conducted interviews with guards of very large companies in which I have heard and seen all sorts of scams. Read on to see if any of this sounds familiar.
The biggest scams are those of licensure and insurance matters, however it does not stop at an administrative level. Many times the scams continue through the duration of the account.
Ghost Hitting as affectionately known by the industry is the practice in which a Security guard either by his own free will or under order of an unethical employer essentially defrauds the consumer by stating he provided a service that was not provided. This occurs when the officers are either too busy, or too lazy to patrol your property. Indications of ghost hitting would be an excessive and unrealistic number of patrols, or contradictory report indicators “Patrolled building 5503 at 04:15. No issues to report” when at 04:01 the Fire Department was on site for a fire in which the building burnt down.
Recently I heard an unconfirmed story of a certain security company who was ghost hitting in Santa Fe. A woman had a medical episode and passed out. The patrol officers who were supposed to be patrolling did not find this woman until 7 hours after she had passed out.
Billing Practices If the guard is on time every day and there has NEVER been an instance of a late guard or a guard that did not show up, quite honestly that is a suspicious practice. Everyone is a few minutes late once in a while and to say otherwise would imply that the guard stationed at your property has never lost track of time, got stuck in a traffic jam, forgot something in which he needed for duty and had to return home. In every company in which I have worked there have been issues of “no call no show” which means the officer scheduled for duty did not show up and did not call in to give notice. In many cases the officer can be replaced with another in a reasonable amount of time; however in some cases the post goes uncovered due to the lack of notice and lack of available officers or their unwillingness to come in on their days off. Are you being billed when no one is there? Are you being billed when the officer is late?
Monetary Sorting: While conducting patrol there will come a time when two calls come in at the same time. I believe this is an excellent way to judge the ethics of a potential firm. If two calls come in at near the same time (say the exact same time) how does the company decide which call to go to first?
It is the policy of several companies to respond quickest to the account that pays the most. It is our company policy to respond to calls in the same way that Police do-by priority. We respond to physical fights before we respond to loud music. If the call is the same at both (multiple) properties we respond to the place we are nearest first, most people deem this fair policy. Monetary sorting is bad for you in any case as if you are the highest paying account you will already have multiple officers on site. If you are on a patrol contract it is safe to say that the Security Company has more lucrative accounts than yours.
The trick to dealing with Security companies is simply to be very upfront about your expectations from the beginning. If there are problems with service immediately contact the company and demand correction. Security companies should offer a real solution to your issue or you should take your business elsewhere. Remember that all security companies hire from the same market and there will be problems with service that is not at question. What is at question is how the company will resolve these problems and attempt to prevent them from happening again.
