Securitas - Any comments?

[FireEMSPolice]

Does Securitas employ armed Security Officers? Nothing against the unarmed officers here but I have been doing it for long enough and in todays day and age, I would rather have a means of defense.

Any comments about Securitas in general?

[Security]

Yes, they employ armed security officers.

Source: http://www.securitasinc.com

If you are interested in applying for any of the following positions:


1. Security Officer
2. Security Supervisor
3. Energy Services Security Officer
4. Receptionist Officer
5. Fire Inspector
6. Armed Security Officer
7. Alarm Technician
8. Mobile/Patrol (STS) Officer
9. Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) Officer
10. Security Specialty Position
11. Site Coordinator/Supervisor
12. Usher

[Mr. Security]

For the most part, Securitas employs unarmed officers in the USA. They have armed officers at nuclear sites and government accounts.

They are your typical WBS company - some sites are great, others leave much to be desired.

[Maelstrom]

For the most part, Securitas employs unarmed officers in the USA. They have armed officers at nuclear sites and government accounts.

They are your typical WBS company - some sites are great, others leave much to be desired.

Well apparently they also have armed SOs at banks as well going by this incident account...



Robert Cotton, 2005 SECURITY OFFICER OF THE YEAR - HEROISM
This award recognizes one security officer who performs an act that demonstrates courage, professionalism and self-sacrifice to help protect people or property. This year’s recipient is Robert Cotton, Jr. from the Little Rock, AR branch of the South Central Region. Working for Securitas for the past 5 years, Cotton is a security officer at Regions Bank, where he was on duty in September when an armed robber entered the bank.

When the robber drew his gun and opened fire, officer Cotton remained calm and helped the five tellers and numerous customers get out of harm’s way prior to firing his weapon at the gunman. As the gunman retreated to the parking lot and got into his vehicle, Officer Cotton followed. After the gunman left the scene, Officer Cotton returned to the bank, secured the doors and made sure that the police and ambulance had been called. When the police arrived, Cotton was able to provide them with an excellent description of the gunman, his vehicle and the details of the attempted robbery. The day after the robbery, the gunman surrendered to authorities.

[Mr. Security]

Well apparently they also have armed SOs at banks as well going by this incident account...

I'm not surprised. They have armed officers, but most are unarmed.

[junkyarddog]

Does Securitas employ armed Security Officers? Nothing against the unarmed officers here but I have been doing it for long enough and in todays day and age, I would rather have a means of defense.

Pay is generally better as well (armed). As others have said, yes they employ armed S/O's.

Any comments about Securitas in general?

Allot of what is good or bad about working for a security company- beyond any universal policies- concerns branch management. If the management of a particular branch is good, it is reflected in the entire regional operation.

That said- five years ago Securitas appeared to me to be another Allied clone, while Wackenhut seemed to have the best pay, equipment, employees etc. The past few years though, Securitas seems to have gotten its act together- at least in my region. The S/O's look good, the pay is well above average, many armed sites etc. They have quite a few armed sites where I live and last week they had an ad for act235 cert (armed) with two years security experience, or act120 cert(aka police academy graduate), or a BA in criminal justice. The job starts at $12.00, with benefits.

[OccamsRazor]

Having worked for them as an armed officer, I'd say our branch management was, for the most part, exceptional. There was that one 'bad egg', but you get those everywhere. I know the unarmed WBS side of the house was run pretty well, but the wages sucked ($9.25-$13.00 hourly). They did, and probably still do, have a huge variety of sites, from warehouses to oil refineries, public transit to banks, etc. Our armed account was a GSA/DHS one, and Securitas was outbid at the end of the contract...I wish they hadn't been, but oh well.

[Hank1]

I have never worked for or interacted with Securitas personell.

Be Safe,

HaNK

[bigcollins25]

Securitas is alright...some sites are good, some are bad. My site is in a transition right now headed towards a good site.
My problems are:

1. VERY, VERY high turn over rate...we have floaters in and out, constantly.

2. I dont feel they hire quality people to represent the company (at our site). If we are lucky we might (maybe) get someone who knows a 3rd grade English and has a drivers license. If we are lucky.

Before when I worked for Allied, Securitas was know for providing warm body security. Thats mostly what I saw them doing too when I worked for allied...posting parking lots, loading docks and access control to small facilities.

Securitas can provide people in uniform, without any problem.

[Justice_Hound]

Former Armed Securitas Officer

Securitas had it's ups and downs. It was a paycheck. Some things I found was that there was never any scheduling or hourly rate guarantee. Even as a patrol supervisor I was subject to abrupt changes in post, going from $27 hourly posts (military access control, gold mine security, diamond transports) to $ 11 hr posts. I also had issues that even though I had senoirity and more experience I was acting as an FTO for new officers making more money than me.

When I was first armed they gave me a thirty year old six inch barrel .38 that probably hadn't been cleaned in 15 years. And exactly 6 rounds of ammo. That day I was 20 minutes late for my qualification because I refused to use the firearm until I had cleaned it. They also expected me to throw this revolver on my ordinary trouser belt.

So with my Branch Manager's and wife's permission I went out and bought a good uncle mikes belt, double rentention holster, and speed loaders.

Of course, three weeks later, with my luck, Securitas switched all of us over to Glock .40s.

Another issue I had that rubbed my wrong is that we weren't allowed a full kit. No oc, baton (even a pr-24 would have been fine), or taser. That went against all of my LE training and seemed to be asking for a lawsuit.

USE OF FORCE POLICY theoretically went from "hey you bad guy, stop that!" to BANG

What do you do eh?

[Black Caesar]

Never worked for Securitas here in Dallas, but I've seen them around for years. I have had 2 very minor negative run ins with their officers before.

------The 1st incident , Back in 2000 the College District's risk management folks decided that allowing its campus police to work off duty security job was a bit too much risk (Texas law makes peace officer's exempt from the Private Security act, but individual departments can deny the privilage at any time without cause), so for a few short months if we wanted to work security, we had to go get hired by a security company.

I wasn't seriously considering it, but one day I was leaving a TARGETS parking lot and their was a Securitas officer on a golf cart right next to my car. He seemed polite and said hi as I loaded my stuff in the car, so I decided to ask him about his company. He said "it's alright", so I ask him if they were hiring. He said "no we're not hiring right now" and drove off.

A day later I found myself in the same situation in a Walmart parking lot, and told the Securitas officer there that I asked anohter guy about employment and what he said. The officer at the Walmart knew the guy personally and told me "he tells lots of people that because he thinks the more people who get hired the bigger chance they'll move him off days, he's been in trouble a lot".

I'm glad I didn't need that job, but that just seemed mighty stupid to me.

-----The 2nd minor run in was at the Dallas county Jail. I was off duty but still in my Campus police uniform and met my wife there because she needed to pay a ticket so I was going to show her where to go (I used to work there as a Detention Officer a few years prior). We walk in and there is the check point manned by 2 Securitas officers. One older black female who was complaining loudly to her partner about her feet hurting before she went to go sit down, and a tall slender white male with hair sticking out of his baseball cap and (I'm not kididng here) maybe 2 teeth in his mouth as far as I can see.

We stand in line (I stayed with my wife in line) and my wife goes through the metal detector, when she does I start to go around, wallet in hand incase they want me to show additional ID. The tall guy stops me and asks who I work for. I tell him i work for the County College District police. he looks at his partner and she gets up and comes over and looks me up and down. She says" do you have any ID?". i already have my wallet (wallet badge and ID inside) in hand so I open it and hand it to her and she reads it and looks confused.

The she says "College?" I say yes, then she says "you can't come in here armed if you don't work this post, you'll have to take your gun back to your car". And blam, I straight in a WTF moment, like hell i'm gonna go leave my weapon in a car outside the freaking county jail and no way I'm walking outside the county jail in a police uniform with no weapon.

I tell her that she's mistaken, that I'm not intending to go into the jail areas, just the County clerk line right behind her and that even if I did try to go to the jail area the (In house) Dallas County Public Security guys would make me check my weapon before I went in, like they do for all cops.

She tells me I can't come in because I ain't a cop and only cops can carry up here.....

Good thing is, i've gotten all Zen like in my old age (I'd just turned 30 lol) so I tell her she is mistaken but it's here shop so I'm going to wait outside. I know I don't like it when people give me guff so I didn't give her none even though I'd have been in my rights to do so. She looks at me funny as I walk outside to wait for my wife. I see her pick up a phone and i figure she's caling the "man" on me .

A minute later a deputy sheriff arrives. Turns out he and I used to work together as DSOs in the West Tower back in the day, we recognized each other, and started to shoot the breeze. The he gets this weird look and says "did you tell that guard you were a cop?". i told him yea, but she dind't understand and it's no big deal, my wife will be out in a minute after paying her ticket.

He damn near marched me through the door and up to her and asked her why she wouldn't let me in. she had this animial caught in the headlights look and started stuttering. So i say "It's ok, when in doubt make the calll, she didn't know, she did right". My buddy was still pissed and still called the contract supervisor to come over, but I think everything turned out ok for her. She apologised as I went in and apologised again on the way out, and I told her supervisor I thought she did the right thing but maybe should have more training on specifics about who'se who. That was the end of that.

-----

2 very minor incidents with only 2 employees, that's all I got. But yea, they seem warm bodyish to me from what little I can see.

[Andy Taylor]

A friend of mine worked for them at two different branch offices. He said the first one was teriffic, and the second one left much to be desired.

[Andy Taylor]

Justice Hound
The firearm only rule may have been a contract stipulation. I know when I worked a federal contract we had that stupid rule because the FPS wanted it that way. The sad thing was FPS came down hard on an officer who started to draw her gun when a subject went to hit an infant with a chair. Before she could complete the draw the subject's sister intercepted him and wisked him away. FPS never told her what she should have done instead since they were the ones that wouldn't let her have any other weapons. I left shortly after that incident.

[Black Caesar]

Justice Hound
The firearm only rule may have been a contract stipulation. I know when I worked a federal contract we had that stupid rule because the FPS wanted it that way. The sad thing was FPS came down hard on an officer who started to draw her gun when a subject went to hit an infant with a chair. Before she could complete the draw the subject's sister intercepted him and wisked him away. FPS never told her what she should have done instead since they were the ones that wouldn't let her have any other weapons. I left shortly after that incident.

Wow that sucks. We had a great relationship with FPS, one of our S/Os even got hired by FPS and I never saw him again after he left for Glynco. Of coures this was 10 years ago.

He said FPS told him he'd come back to Dallas after training, I left a month after he did so I never saw how that worked out, my campus is across from the Federal Bldg though, can't say i've ever seen him on patrol but I don't know any current FPS guys except their Captain, and only met him in passing.

We had a couple hands on experiances with homeless folks and once with an irate guy visiting the IRS office (and who could blame him lol), FPS gave us no heat over that at all.

[FireEMSPolice]

What kind of pay do they offer their armed officers? Do you supply the firearm/ammo? I would rather carry my Sig and not a revolver.