Liability Insurance for Armed Security Officers

[NRM_Oz]

Anyone who conducts training or consulting services MUST have additional insurance as you are certifying someone as competent to perform these duties or to have attended your training course. I always applied DOUBLE the minimum insurance as I know of a wedding photographer who had some lights that were hit by a child and burnt the kid and as a result his $2M insurance was about 40% less than it should have been.

[Tennsix]

Proper training in your locale's use of force, arrest, and other laws that may effect your job duties in my opinion far more useful that a personal liability insurance.

Anyone got any views on this?

I'm a police academy instructor and a FTO and I carry extra insurance. My policy helps cover me in a civil or criminal suit. Today's society is law suit happy and an officer can go broke defending him/her self against an asinine law suit. You can do everything by the book and still get sued.

[bpdblue]

This is a great posting.

If anyone does have an answer, I would like to see it also, and if you could include the actual terms of the insurance (what is covered, levels of coverage, like for liability, ect., and cost of insurance) along with the insurance company's name, would be great.

Insurance for everyone in this business, including unarmed personnel, up through as highly armed as you can go, is something everyone should consider.

And I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but anyone who thinks they live in a state that does not allow security to be sued, or has some governing angel protecting all their actions from criminal or civil prosecution, is, putting it mildly, absolutely NUTS. You do something that gets someone hurt, even if you were not breaking the law, And you better have a good lawyer, and if you lose, I hope you have insurance to help pay some of the loss your going to suffer.

[msofin]

I have a Professional Liability policy through the NRA, it covers me during any classes that I teach as well as when I work. it is about 300 bucks a year for 5 million in coverage.
I don't really advertize the fact that I have a policy to my employer or my students.

I will look into the NRA, prob should become a member too. The reason why I was asking: When I first cam on board with AlliedBarton, our district trainer strongly encourages armed officers to have their own liability insurance. It wasn't due to a lack of insurance coverage by the company, it was the cya unwritten rule. Basically, if you are (the company) sued for excessive force (and the company hasn't found you at fault) and lose and orderd to pay 6 million. If the company insurance will only pay 4 million, the other 2 million will be sought after from you. It is more or less as a back up.

[craig333]

It might not be a bad idea. Remember that company that chased a thief code 3 down the highway? You going to trust that employer to actually have a good policy thats paid up to date? The fact they'll lose their license for not having coverage isn't going to help me much if I'm sued.

Yea...

I was surprised by that law, seeing how understanding Texas is of firearms and such. The same law applies to private citizens in the event of a CCW holder involved in a shooting. Seems kind of foolish to me.

[Justice_Hound]

way different

You can still get sued for use of force, even if it is well-documented and you follow procedure to the letter. In a civil suit, you may not fare so well, especially if the complainant can find money or an advocacy group. You can kiss your paycheck good-bye..and probably your career and a few months of quality family time. In Texas, we can even have our licenses revoked and weapons confiscated AND BE PLACED UNDER ARREST for using our firearms in the course of duty. From my old SGT with experience in this "If you think you aren't under arrest when that officer says 'we need to talk to you', try and say 'nah, i'll come by later.'"

Wow, Im glad that I dont live in Texas. In Alaska, our laws are very liberal in order to account for our vast state. When it takes a State Trooper 6 hours to respond to some crimes, citizens are placed in the position of acting on thier own. Up here, law enforcement outside of the major communities is for those situations that normal ordinary citizens can't handle (high risk felonies/ active shooter incidents). Hell, in places along the west coast people don't ever call the police, they call the village pastor or a community elder to deal with minor crimes. In any event as Alaskans we are held to the standard of reasonableness. In all of my years working as a public servant or private security officer I have never seen a use of force case in Alaska against a private person.

not really

Proper training in your locale's use of force, arrest, and other laws that may effect your job duties in my opinion far more useful that a personal liability insurance.

Anyone got any views on this?

You can still get sued for use of force, even if it is well-documented and you follow procedure to the letter. In a civil suit, you may not fare so well, especially if the complainant can find money or an advocacy group. You can kiss your paycheck good-bye..and probably your career and a few months of quality family time. In Texas, we can even have our licenses revoked and weapons confiscated AND BE PLACED UNDER ARREST for using our firearms in the course of duty. From my old SGT with experience in this "If you think you aren't under arrest when that officer says 'we need to talk to you', try and say 'nah, i'll come by later.'"

[Justice_Hound]

For the armed S.O.'s out there:

Do you have your own Liabilty Insurance?

If so, what company is it purchased through?

Proper training in your locale's use of force, arrest, and other laws that may effect your job duties in my opinion far more useful that a personal liability insurance.

Anyone got any views on this?

[Lawson]

Some umbrella policies will cover work as an Armed SO, some will not. I recently got new auto insurance, they tried to sell me an umbrella policy, but I was told it wouldnt cover my LE and security duties so I turned it down.

[N. A. Corbier]

I've heard of this before, for use of force and firearms usage. Basically, this is done because the employer's insurer is going to protect them. Not you. This is your insurance, its there for you.

[LiveNlearn]

I have a Professional Liability policy through the NRA, it covers me during any classes that I teach as well as when I work. it is about 300 bucks a year for 5 million in coverage.
I don't really advertize the fact that I have a policy to my employer or my students.

[SecTrainer]

Maybe something like this would be covered if you had an umbrella policy as part of your home insurance coverage.

Not hardly.

[Plugger]

Maybe something like this would be covered if you had an umbrella policy as part of your home insurance coverage.

[davis002]

I have never heard of an individual security officer carrying their own liability insurance... that's the responsibility of the employer.