When talking about the concept and execution of private security it is important that we acknowledge there are times when an unarmed security officer is better than an armed security officer. Logically this makes just as much sense as saying, “Some projects are better left to a hammer than a screwdriver.” Unarmed and armed security officers are tools available to help protect your business, assets, and employees.
Neither security officer is better than the other, but rather there are situations for which one is better than the other. Choosing whether you require an armed or unarmed officer is the same as choosing between the hammer and screwdriver; you need to determine if you have a nail or a screw.
Unarmed security officers are the perfect layer of protection for many businesses and communities. There are many factors in play, but the first thing to consider is what you’re protecting. If you are securing a warehouse which only contains assets and not employees then an unarmed security officer (or several) could be the right fit. Their presence as uniformed personnel is an immediate active deterrent for crime.
Also, should someone attempt to breach the warehouse they are more than capable to observe and report. In reality, when lives are not at stake, observing and reporting often is the best course of action. Assets can be insured, replaced, or recovered. However, the same can’t be said for a life. This logic is why many big-box stores forgo loss prevention beyond security cameras, because the inventory is worth less than their employees.
That being said, we at AEGIS Security & Investigations are not in any way saying your inventory is not valuable and should not be protected, we are simply advocating for using the right tool to do so.
We offer a wide array of loss prevention strategies, which do involve unarmed security officers to ensure the safety of your assets and possessions. We design and implement a strategy to reduce and mitigate your revenue and inventory shrink. We do this by implementing solid defensible legal strategies, tactics, and technology to turn your problems into solutions.
AEGIS unarmed officers are continuously training on the newest and most effective methods of protecting and securing businesses, communities, and events and tuning how they approach each task or detail with a customized approach. Also, we use top of the line equipment to make sure our officers (your tools) have the appropriate tools they need to execute the task at hand. In many cases a gun is not the necessary tool and we acknowledge that fact.
Another key factor to consider is who you are protecting yourself against. If your concern is mainly unruly clients throwing a fit or neighborhood kids spray painting your property then an unarmed security officer is the more appropriate choice. Again, these are low threat situations which can either be deterred by the mere presence of a uniformed security officer or can be observed and reported to the authorities as opposed to responding to these situations with potentially deadly force and the hindsight analysis and liability associated with it.
Better yet these situations can be prevented, stopped in progress, and diffused entirely through non-lethal means and without the threat of lethal force. The important thing isn’t whether your security officer has a gun, it’s whether he is equipped with the proper training to de-escalate an already low threat situation into a no threat situation. At AEGIS our unarmed officers have that training as part of their guard card, onboarding, and refresher programs.
The final basic factor to consider is the response necessary to eliminate the threat at hand. Some low-frequency, high-impact, high-risk, high-threat situations require one (if not many) armed officers to be on-site. However, many businesses and communities are not targets for such acts and thus do not need that level of security. Should the unforeseen worst case scenario occur, police can always be called and they will respond in force and numbers.
In the interim a team of highly trained, unarmed security professionals can effectively protect and secure the business, its assets, its employees, and its clients or the community and its residents. They are the right tool in many situations. The hammer to the nail.
