The Good, Bad, and ugly: Identifying Security companies

[Anderson1976]

After reading some of these posts all I can say is OMG did I get lucky.

I got into security by accident but now that I’m here it is a steady job at a reasonable rate (The Company I work for has the city contract so they pay us about 50% above scale) after 3 years with the company I got promoted to an entry level management position so I get to work Monday to Friday 8 to 4.

The site I work on is less than 10 miles (14 K) from my house and the city considers it a remote site so I’m often there alone. (IOW I don’t have to deal with actual customers).

I can't imagine doing security under some of the condidtions you guys describe

If you got there without dealing with some of the horrible sites, hours, and co-workers then you are really blessed and that's great. One thing i could say about some of the sites i worked (that i despised) was i did learn a lot of valuable lessons. It made me more appreciative to be where i'm at and when i get frustrated at work i can always remind myself "you could be walking around a grocery store for $8.25/hour with no purpose". Security is a field that is like no other, you never know what you will run into. One night not long ago i was filling in on a road patrol job and i heard one of our officers radio over to dispatch that they had warned an Allied Barton security guard to leave a property and they wouldn't, so they called the metro police on them. I laughed to myself because i thought was bizarre. Come to find out, Allied Barton was following around our road patrol officers and trying to find out what sites they were at so they could undercut us and steal our accounts. Ah, the wonderful world of security lol.

[SecureTN]

road patrol officers ??

[Anderson1976]

road patrol officers ??

Security companies use different names for the division that drives around and performs business checks at night. I've heard them called "roving patrol", "metro drivers", and our particular company calls them road patrol. Each shift we have a South, North, East, West officer patrolling each part of the city. They radio dispatch after driving by each location and some of the properties require a physical interior check and door pulls.

[SecureTN]

Thank you. I haven't seen that before... Learn something new every day!

[PolarDeer]

Security companies use different names for the division that drives around and performs business checks at night. I've heard them called "roving patrol", "metro drivers", and our particular company calls them road patrol. Each shift we have a South, North, East, West officer patrolling each part of the city. They radio dispatch after driving by each location and some of the properties require a physical interior check and door pulls.

Finnish Securitas has Mobile Patrol (drives around and checks businesses at night), 24Patrol (drives around and checks businesses during opening hours) and City Patrol (walks around and checks businesses during opening hours), it's somewhat confusing due to all the marketing terms.

[Jaeger]

I've been thinking about City Patrol in all honesty if this job goes belly-up at some point in the future.. and if I'd have to return to the private security sector again in the first place.

I would figure that since City Patrol is mostly you on foot for the duration of the entire shift, then you don't have time to sit on our back and develop a nasty habit of sitting around. It is also an excellent way to keep your weight in check, but walking/running around for the entire shift must be a killer to your legs.

I don't know too much about City Patrol, but if I ever decide to start working for Securitas then it is something I might willingly try, at least for awhile.

[PolarDeer]

It is also an excellent way to keep your weight in check, but walking/running around for the entire shift must be a killer to your legs.

Haven't done that but a share of those retail locations where the client wants "visible monitoring" in varying amounts, as well as the occasional event gig where you basically stand or walk around the area all the time, and you get used to it after a while. Good shoes/boots are a necessity, though.

By the way, after complaining about the site which I mentioned earlier my service manager called today and actually said that the supervisors would actually prefer me working entirely in retail and crowd control accounts, but shift planning is screwing things up. I was inclined to believe him given the problems at our shift planning with them posting certain people into accounts where they're not wanted by supervisors/clients and similar mishaps happening on a regular basis.