1. 11/18/2013
Current and Emerging Trends in the
Private Security Industry: The need for
Continuing Education and Training of
the Security Professional
Carter F. Smith, JD, PhD
carterfsmith@gmail.com 615-656-3505
http://www.linkedin.com/in/carterfsmith
http://apsu.academia.edu/CarterSmith/Papers
What trends
are important
to you?
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2. 11/18/2013
Overview
• History
• Challenges
• Perceptions
• Professionalization
• Education (or not)
• Future
History
• Through WW II, private security seen as
unsavory, ill-trained thugs hired to break strikes,
suppress labor, and spy on one another.
• Police viewed private security companies as
dangerous and unauthorized intrusion into
government role.
• Following WW II, more tolerant attitude
developed
– private security more often seen as necessary
supplement to overburdened public police. 4
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History
• Late 1960s -- early 1970s - security burden
was shifted (back) to private sector.
• Public law-enforcement grew 42 percent.
• Security Guard employment grew 6 percent.
• Investigative employment grew 19 percent.
• Contract security almost doubled.
• Population grew only 12 percent.
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(recent) History
• Mid 1970s, crime rates rose.
– Before end of 1976 1 of 4 Americans was victim
• Americans were paying more for private security
services than federal, state, and local governments
paid for criminal justice system.
• Security field has received increased attention in the
past decade or so since the events 9 / 11
• Some Communities have recently received attention
for augmenting their public security with private
– necessary supplement to overburdened public
police . . .
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It’s important for you because
• Private security has long eclipsed
public security (police) as the
primary resource for individual and
property protection, with over 1
million people employed
–Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2012
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Challenges
• Entry-level security professionals
– Receive lower pay
– Required to have only high school diploma
• As field increases, so will ranks of
supervisors.
– pay commensurate with their experience
and education
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5. 11/18/2013
Challenges
•What do you see?
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Perceptions
• Respondents were students in
three offerings of an upperdivision course in criminal justice
entitled Security Administration
at a large, public university in
southeast U.S.
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Perceptions
• Non-CJ majors and CJ minors agreed more strongly
than CJ majors that
– course increased respect for security field
– course was more interesting than others
• Female participants agreed more strongly than
males that respect for security field increased.
• Participants with no prior interest in CJ agreed
more that knowledge of private security had
increased.
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7. 11/18/2013
Perceptions
If you have not considered working
in the security field . . . Why?
• When I heard the
• I already have a job
word security, I
in Law Enforcement
always thought of a
lined up.
mall cop.
• My goal has been
• I would like to work
Federal Law
as a Lawyer instead.
Enforcement.
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Perceptions
• Security officers aren’t as powerful as police officers.
• I want to have more control, action and responsibility.
• I wouldn’t be opposed to it in some business aspect such
as management or marketing.
• My career goal was always on the more pro-active side of
law enforcement.
• I always thought that security guards had to be buff guys
who are able to be complete assholes to people.
• I don’t know if I am physically fit enough to respond
necessarily to a situation.
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Perceptions
• Security officers aren’t as powerful as police officers.
• I want to have more control, action and responsibility.
• I wouldn’t be opposed to it in some business aspect such
as management or marketing.
• My career goal was always on the more pro-active side of
law enforcement.
• I always thought that security guards had to be buff guys
who are able to be complete assholes to people.
• I don’t know if I am physically fit enough to respond
necessarily to a situation.
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It’s important for you because
• Respondents may be your future
clients, colleagues, or
competitors.
• Responses may be indicative of
community perceptions.
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•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Professionalization
Skills flow from body of theory.
Common body of knowledge, freely communicated.
Unique service based on learned techniques.
Extensive training, minimum qualifications, licensing
certification.
Code of ethics guiding client relations and contact with
others.
Emphasis on service to mankind rather than individual gain.
A professional organization which establishes policy, regulates
actions, and exercises responsibility.
Requires advanced training, mental rather than manual work.
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Professionalization - four criteria:
• Qualification - establish, promote, and enforce
unambiguous qualification criteria.
• Academic studies -- achieve widespread academic
acceptance and promotion of advanced security-related
studies.
• Business skills -- managers must develop business-related
skills so they can earn respect within the corporation.
• Corporate Recognition -- managers must be able to get
security's message across to develop an understanding
and appreciation of security in executive boardrooms.
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Professionalization
• Public's perception is what matters
–attitude of society as a whole
–general opinion of corporate
leadership.
• Consumers decide when security has
become a profession.
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It’s important for you because
• Determination of professionalism based on
experience with professionals.
• Criteria set clear guidelines, but gauge is
public and client perception.
• Knowing how to be perceived as
professional is only part of it.
• Critical that all members of the profession
contribute to advancement and regard in
community.
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Education
13 identified security knowledge categories
in academic security realm, including:
• Criminology
• Business contingency
management
• Facility management
• Fire and life safety
• Industrial security
• Information and
computer security
•
•
•
•
Investigations
Physical security
Security Principles
Security risk
management
• Security law
• Security management
• Security technology
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Education (acceptance)
• Progress achieving widespread academic acceptance
due to involvement by professional organizations.
• ASIS International collaborates with faculty and security
directors to identify security education needs.
• CJ departments have added security courses
– many schools have their own security departments
• Yet to be corresponding substantive response from
business schools to incorporate security curriculum.
– Similarity to public security and law enforcement allows for its
incorporation into most criminal justice programs if not its
own department.
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Education
2012 security concerns of Fortune 1000 companies
1. Cyber and Communications Security
2. Workplace Violence
3. Business Continuity Planning
4. Employee Selection/Screening
5. Property Crime moved
6. General Employee Theft
7. Crisis Management and Response
8. Unethical Business Conduct
9. Litigation
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10. Identity Theft
It’s important for you because
• Changes in focus to higher-tech
workplace and advanced criminal
methods require innovation and critical
thinking skills.
• Higher education is necessity for
advancement with security technology
and leadership demands on today’s
security professionals.
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Future
• increased threat from social media,
especially social engineering
• more challenges with background
checks to weed out problems
• increased need for education
• training sessions on professionalism for
younger/newer hires
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Future
• even more going mobile, challenges both
physical and digital
• tech and networked devices plus crowdsourced attacks -- physical and digital
• security for hire? a-la-carte security
services? free-lance security solutions?
• decreased government spending in criminal
justice sector
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Future
• Crisis and Emergency Management.
–from forces of nature or human action
or inaction.
–increasingly responsibility of security
professional
–requires coordination with different
set of agencies and providers
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Recommendations
• Implement guerilla, all-hands
marketing strategy
• Engage in CJ and other curriculum
development
• Offer to visit courses and events
• Offer internships
• Sponsor academic competitions
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15. 11/18/2013
References
• Smith, C.F. and Choo, T. (2013).
Revisiting Security Administration in
the classroom: A decade later.
Security Journal. (25 March 2013;
doi: 10.1057/sj.2013.7).
• Smith, C.F. et al. Security Today.
(textbook – forthcoming)
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Current and Emerging Trends in the
Private Security Industry: The need for
Continuing Education and Training of
the Security Professional
Carter F. Smith, JD, PhD
carterfsmith@gmail.com 615-656-3505
http://www.linkedin.com/in/carterfsmith
http://apsu.academia.edu/CarterSmith/Papers
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