CALIFORNIA FIGHTS FOR GUARD TRAINING AND BACKGROUND CHECKS

Sep 1, 2005 12:00 PM

More than three-quarters of California's buildings, power facilities and other vital structures are in private hands, watched over by security guards. There are about 200,000 contract guards and about 300,000 in-house officers. California legislators are again trying to fix the problem of a lack of training and background information on many of these uniformed security officers.

“There's people working in the business who shouldn't be working in the business because they're felons,” Terry Wingert of the Advanced Security Institute, a California private-security school, told ANG Newspapers.

In-house security officers are not registered with the state so they do not undergo government background checks and training. This year, a lawmaker expects to close the loophole, but only after softening provisions that would have made businesses put their guards through the training that is mandatory for contract officers from security firms.

State-licensed, contract security guards, who vastly outnumber law enforcement officers and believe their image has improved with better training, even began receiving anti-terrorism instruction last month as part of their initial 40-hour course.

But it is unclear whether in-house officers, working directly for shopping malls and other businesses, will undergo even the initial eight hours that include the counter-terrorism training. State regulators say they will provide the terrorism and arrest-powers curriculum free, in hopes businesses seize the opportunity.

The bill would still require in-house guards to be registered with the state and undergo extensive criminal background checks.

“Our No. 1 concern, in addition to terrorism and security threats at the mall or the store, is that you could have a lost kid running into the arms of Chester the Molester — a convicted offender,” says Tom Kise, a spokesman for the state's Maldonado district.

The California Association of Licensed Security Agencies, Guards and Associates, which is sponsoring the bill, dropped the training mandate, partly out of concern it would lead to a veto by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

“It's vital for the security industry in California and across the nation to have a heightened awareness of terrorist activity in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks,” says Charlene Zettel, director of the state's Department of Consumer Affairs, which oversees the private-security industry.

“In many cases, the demands of Homeland security have stretched law enforcement agencies very thin,” Zettel continues. “Our hope is to provide an optimally trained, (private) work force that can quickly and effectively meet the challenges of suspicious activity at homes and businesses, parking lots, ports, shopping malls and other facilities, wherever Californians gather.”

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