Monday, December 15, 2014

Armed Guards lack training and oversight by Milan Hamilton

 They carry a gun, often wear a badge and might look like police officers. But armed security guards, on patrol at all hours throughout the United States, have lax training standards and haphazard oversight. While a manicurist in California must complete 400 hours of training to be licensed, an armed guard gets authorized after 54 hours, including just 14 hours of firearms training. In 15 states, no firearms training is required at all. And incidents involving armed guards -- perhaps accidents or caused by ignorance -- can be deadly. In Nevada, a guard fired his gun into the air outside a rowdy teen dance. When the bullet came down, it struck and killed a teenage bystander. And in Colorado, which has no statewide training requirements, an armed guard at a high school agreed to drive a student home. When he handed the student his gun to put away, it went off, firing a bullet through the student's leg. The backgrounds of those allowed to work in armed security are also varied. The CNN/CIR investigation found armed guards with criminal records for domestic violence, drug and alcohol offenses and even revealed former law enforcement officers with serious disciplinary problems who found new careers in security.
Yet they come under little scrutiny until something goes wrong.

This is a little disheartening because we can't even trust the people we are suppose to trust. This is also interesting to hear after knowing of all the events in Ferguson and about Ferguson. It makes you wonder how fair the whole incident really was. This can also relate to the injustices that happened during the civil rights movement because if the officers weren't even trained, how can we know that people are receiving fair treatment?

http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/09/us/armed-guards-investigation/index.html?c=justice&page=5

1 comment:

  1. This is something you don't hear much about. Private Security Forces should be held to the same standard as Government Law Enforcement Officials. Good article.

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