Security Guard: “I feel I’ve found my place”

What makes a quality security guard? What skills and traits embody someone that you would want to entrust with your life or the lives of your family? Most fail to realize that so much more goes into the making of a true professional protection agent than just an intimidating look and a gun. There is certainly more to it than the minimum standards required for licensure.

In every state, the requirements to be licensed as a security guard fall short. In Texas, for example, you only need to complete a 48-hour class to be an armed security guard. To become a licensed Personal Protection Officer only requires an additional 16 hours of training, all of which is conducted in a classroom. In under two weeks, you can go from never having seen a gun to holding a State license saying that you are qualified to protect a client and everything that entails. Unfortunately, this training only serves as an introduction to a few broad topics without ever teaching, reinforcing, or testing real skills. I believe there are eight critical skills that every protection professional should possess.

This is certainly not a comprehensive list. There are many other useful skills and traits for protection officers, and you cannot put a value on real experience”

Many go through the basic State requirements. They talk the talk and look the part and may even have some minor success in the industry when everything goes right. But inevitably, in this industry, things will go wrong. When stress and fear set in, an agent will do what they are trained to do. If that training is absent or lacking, costly mistakes will be made and that is not acceptable.