Another provider in Alaska, Security Services Northwest, Inc. (SSNW), was founded in 1977 and is headquartered in Sequim, Washington. Services for customers along the West Coast include armed and unarmed security officers, patrols, and maritime security.

SSNW also provides canine services. “This is a great force multiplier,” says President and CEO Joe D’Amico. “Instead of hiring four or five officers, a company can hire an officer and a dog.” He notes that there is a three-month lead time on this service, as training is required at a higher level.

In Alaska, SSNW provides services to the legislative building in Anchorage, Nordstrom Rack, and numerous retail locations. “We also do a lot of temporary work; for example, when a building collapsed last winter with loss of life, we provided security to maintain the integrity of the site,” says D’Amico. “We recently did a funeral for a family up near Wasilla, and we provided security at the Tanana Valley State Fair in Fairbanks and the World Eskimo-Indian Olympics.”

During the COVID-19 lockdown, the company was especially busy securing whole floors of hotel rooms to make sure that fishing crews remained in quarantine. “The crews were not allowed to commingle, and they had to stay in their rooms,” says D’Amico. “We had never imagined doing something like that in a security capacity; we felt like hall monitors.”

It was an especially trying time because at the beginning of the pandemic, no one knew quite what to expect, according to D’Amico. “It took some brave officers to work in quarantine areas in Seattle and Alaska, which we did over multiple years,” he says.

While the pandemic may be waning, unfortunately danger remains. Part of SSNW’s temporary work includes preventing workplace violence.

“A company might have had a bad termination, and the person made a threat. Or a person gets upset when their unemployment benefits are denied, or there’s a family issue at a child welfare agency,” says D’Amico. “Unfortunately, over the forty-plus years I’ve been doing this, I’ve noticed that things have gotten much more hostile within the workplace and government agencies.”

While some businesses may have their own security—for example, retail stores that employ loss prevention staff—there are numerous reasons to work with outside security firms.

“Once we provide an officer, it goes against us and our general liability policy if something happens,” says D’Amico. “Especially if you are employing armed security, you need to make sure that they have the training and expertise to be there so that you are covered in a lawsuit.”

He adds that high turnover makes recruitment a burden. “Some companies spend six months training a person, and then they leave, and they have to hire someone new and start all over. It’s a lot easier to just pick up the phone and say that you need an officer on-site in the next two hours,” D’Amico says.

For those worried about the cost of on-premise security, remote monitoring could also be an option. “It costs less to have one person watching twenty properties remotely than it does to have one officer working on site,” says D’Amico. “We’re trying to use technology to mitigate the cost of security.”

Questions a business should ask before employing a security vendor include their length of time in business, places worked, and liability coverage.

“While the state may only require $300,000 to $500,000 in liability coverage (depending on if you’re hiring armed or unarmed officers), you would want $1 million to $5 million in coverage,” says D’Amico. “If a company doesn’t have at least $1 million in liability, you shouldn’t employ them. This separates the men from the boys.”

He adds that prospective clients should ask for at least three references, a copy of the company’s Alaska security control license, and a cover sheet showing policy limits.

“You should also see if you can talk to someone immediately because that’s an indication of the level of service you may get from the provider,” he says. “We have a 24-hour command center owned and operated by us so that when calls come in for service, they are transferred immediately to my cell or the vice-president’s cell. A lot of times, security needs are time sensitive.”

While many companies put off hiring security until something bad happens, D’Amico says it’s better to be proactive than reactive. He suggests doing simple preventative measures like improving lighting and fencing and networking with neighbors to stay aware of anything suspicious.

“Even if you think you can’t afford to hire a full-time firm, you can hire someone to come out eight hours a week randomly just to have a presence,” he says. “In many cases, you don’t have to have security eight hours a night, seven days a week.”

Bourne adds that clients should always ask about officer training, as well as what type of support is provided by the company: “Do they have solid processes to find, interview, and train new employees? And can they readily support your operation, or is it a rotating door every other week?”

She notes that a company’s leadership is important, as is the chain of command.

“There’s a stigma in the industry that security is just a body at the gate, and some companies don’t understand the value of having the right person in place,” says Bourne. “If you’re only looking for a low-cost provider that pays a low wage and makes no investment in training, leadership, and skills, then you’ll get what you pay for.”

On a global scale, manned guarding remains the most dominant segment of private security services, with 40 percent of the market (or an estimated 20 million people employed worldwide) carrying weapons, according to Gitnux Market Data. Roughly 60 percent of security officer positions are unarmed.

That’s only the private sector; police forces are a different animal, yet police draw from a similar talent pool with the added perk of training academies. Private security can tap into that career track, however.

“When we hire, we try to find people who have either military experience or law enforcement experience, such as reserve police officers, Coast Guard officers or Army veterans, or someone who has had at least five years of previous security experience, and we build on that,” says D’Amico.

Each state has their own mandated security training requirements that include background checks and a specified amount of training, though some security companies go above and beyond. SSNW started its own academy as a pilot program two years ago, which provides training in use of force, “verbal judo,” and more.

“We believe that this program is helping us to produce higher quality officers, and we’re planning to use this same model in other states,” says D’Amico.

DUS, because of its clientele, is very selective in its hiring process.

“We made a decision when envisioning the future of DUS that we would serve critical infrastructure—industrial complexes, aerospace, ports, et cetera—and that requires that we hire people with good judgement and greater experience,” says Bourne. “People must come to the table with certain skills.”

DUS’ rigorous recruitment process includes background checks, behavioral assessments, and in-person interviews, and every employee goes through a six-month orientation period to determine if they are the right fit for the team and can do the job safely and effectively. The company also invests in ongoing training that includes tactical firearms, de-escalation scenarios, techniques of arrest, and more. The entire workforce also goes through an annual refresher course.

In addition, DUS provides leadership training, not just for managers but for those up-and-coming in the field. “We want to provide our people with the opportunity to get leadership training and customer service training, so that they can interact with clients and the public, as well as whatever job-specific training is required by the industries in which they work,” says Bourne.

She notes that the company’s handpicked leaders are not all in the company’s headquarters but also serve as front-line supervisors in the field, working with both teams and clients. “When we’re hired to provide security at a business, we also assign a relationships manager as the account manager who works with the client through the entire life of the contract. They are dedicated specifically to oversee that relationship and make sure that services are delivered properly,” Bourne says.

Private security personnel are more than watchful eyes; they manage human behavior. As Bourne puts it, “We place our people strategically with the right accounts; we make sure that their skill sets match what the client needs.”