Every month, PrioCom puts a profession in the spotlight and explains how business and mission-critical communication contributes to the safety of employees and efficiency in business operations.

Security guard

A security guard is responsible for monitoring the safety within all kinds of organisations, from shops and entertainment venues to government institutions, events and airports.

Security officers can be divided into three groups: supervisors, object security officers and event security officers. The first group has a preventive role and supervises public areas. Object security officers guard a specific building or a specific person (often a VIP). We then speak of a personal guard or bodyguard. If object guards secure a building, they often partly function as a receptionist or porter. Event security officers ensure that music festivals, pop concerts, sports events and other festivities run smoothly.

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What does a security guard do?

Security officers mainly perform supervisory and monitoring tasks. Their duties depend on the organisation for which they work, but in general they can perform the following tasks:

• Carrying out preventive surveillance in an area (public or otherwise)
• Monitoring access and registering visitors
• (Preventive) search of visitors or staff
• Noticing deviant behaviour among visitors, staff or third parties
• Taking action in the case of undesirable behaviour (e.g. theft, vandalism or trespassing)
• Opening and locking building
• Making general, fire, surveillance and closing rounds
• Carrying out security checks in accordance with procedures
• Calling in reinforcements if necessary
• Calling in the emergency services in case of calamities or incidents
• Speaking to and/or directing the public or visitors
• Taking repressive action if necessary

Depending on your work environment, the colleagues you will have to deal with as a security officer may include receptionists, doormen, police officers, stewards, customs officers, politicians, conductors and attendants.

Where do security staff work?

Security officers can work for a security organisation that deploys them to secure various objects. They can also be employed internally by a company, in which case they always work at the same location.

Safe, reliable and efficient work

When we read the above, being able to communicate anytime and anywhere is an absolute basic requirement. This concerns both mutual communication and communication with a (central) control room. Of course PrioCom offers a mission-critical Push-to-Talk service that enables group and mutual communication on a protected part of the T-Mobile network where all information is encrypted.
But to work even safer and more efficiently you can think of many more things:

• Location determination: current insight into which security guard is where.
• Emergency call: in an emergency situation with one push on the red button you are directly connected with the (central) control room including the current position.
• Being able to share messages, photos and video images with the (central) control room and/or colleagues
• In case of mono surveillance, be able to use specific work-only options such as: man down alarm, periodic confirmations, etc.
• Reports on performed security rounds
• Integration possibilities of other applications
• Full control room application available
• Choice from different devices and accessories

Curious what this can mean for your organisation? These are just a few examples, so please click on our link to read the extensive version with the nine certainties of the PrioCom Compass.