The days of indiscriminate hiring of people to work as private security officers are to end, chairman of the Barbados-based Caribbean Association of Security Professionals Oral Reid has said.
Reid said his organization is waiting on Government to implement the new regulation which would require all private security to be properly trained.
Reid, a retired senior police officer, told Barbados TODAY the new measures would also pave the way for all private security employees to carry firearms.
“Private security officers will reach that stage when we would have every private security officer trained. As a matter of fact, not only trained but selected on the basis of set criteria,” he revealed.
The CASP head said his association has already discussed the pending regulations extensively among its members and with the Ministry of Defence and Security.
He told Barbados TODAY: “We strongly believe they ought to be a set prerequisite for enlistment for private security. We have had the opportunity to discuss this at the highest level; we are awaiting the implementation of that request where only persons who are trained to a maximum of 60 hours and have been successful and shown themselves to be competent, should first be hired as private security officers.
“The second thing is, if you are talking about carrying firearms, then those individuals would have had to be trained before they are issued with firearms.”
He contended that his organization is not retreating from its stance because it supports upholding professional standards.
“And we are not going to be drawn into to just say, well, because you are a security officer and because you are working at a financial institution, by virtue of that you must carry a firearm. There has to be a protocol…a protocol which has to be administered by individuals at the macro level of the security organizations in Barbados and there has to be an agreement. But there must be training,” the security expert declared.
He told Barbados TODAY that at this stage, CASP will continue to work closely with the police, whose responsibility it is to respond to calls for assistance from private security.
Reid emphasized that this is where training is important, where the police should be summoned once a private security officer observes the potential for an incident to escalate or get out of hand.
“And that is our position at this time. We believe that with training, we could get there. But it has to be structured in incremental steps towards that position at this time,” Reid said.
“We have had an opportunity to discuss this with the Ministry of Defence and Security and we discussed this among a number of other matters of concern. For example, there is no clear-cut policy with regard to the private security being identified as an essential service.”
He praised the Attorney General’s Office for including private security on the list of essential services during the COVID-19 pandemic and curfew.
He said: “There are times when we have hurricane conditions in Barbados, when there is bad weather and when there are announcements that would speak to all of the other agencies that fall directly under the Ministry of Defence and Security, under the Attorney General or under the Minister of Home Affairs. We hear of police, defence force, nurses…but seldom is there a clear-cut position regarding private security personnel.
“I want to make it clear that on this occasion, security officers were included in the list. This has not been the case [before]. As a result, we have had a meeting with the Ministry of Defence with a view to being included in that group.”
There are about 5,000 private security personnel in Barbados, said Reid, some of whom have to be transported in their own vehicles at great risks during a lockdown, rainy weather or natural disasters.
He argued that this is so because these officers have not been recognized as essential service providers.
“But on this occasion, the Ministry of the Attorney General’s Office has sought to give permission to security companies. And we want to move from being uncertain to be certain as we move around the length and breadth of Barbados to transport security officers. This is an issue we have sought to have resolved,” the security official told Barbados TODAY.
Reid also said he is heartened by Government’s response to his organization’s proposals and suggested that recognition as an essential service during the current lockdown can be seen as part of the acceptance.
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb
