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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
Time: 8:21 pm
Time: 8:21 pm
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1 results foundAuthor: Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy Title: Undertrained, Underpaid, and Unprepared: How L.A.’s Commercial Office Building Owners Are Failing Security Officers and Compromising Public Safety Summary: Since the tragic events of 9/11, and the more recent devastation of Hurricane Katrina, terrorism and emergency preparedness have been major issues for American cities. In Los Angeles, the U.S. Bank Tower downtown remains a top terrorist target, and the ever-present threat of a major earthquake underlines the need for an effective and well-prepared emergency response network. In Los Angeles’ commercial office buildings, hundreds of thousands of people work and visit every day. More than 10,000 private security officers in these buildings are on the front lines in an emergency, frequently making important decisions before police, fire, or any other emergency personnel arrive. Their responsibilities are varied and often critical — including securing entrances, leading tenants to safety during high-rise evacuations, monitoring activity inside and outside of the building, and coordinating with the city’s emergency personnel. Yet despite these essential duties, private security officers are undertrained, underpaid and unprepared —putting the safety and security of tenants and the general public at unnecessary risk. This report, based on an original LAANE survey of security officers in commercial office buildings and other research, reaches the following conclusions: High turnover rates among security officers lead to understaffing and a lack of experienced and trained personnel. Due to fierce competition and cost cutting among security contractors, security officers typically receive low wages and few benefits. As a result, security contractors have difficulty attracting and retaining employees, leading to high rates of employee turnover. • At the U.S. Bank Tower, the annual turnover rate is 60 percent. At least 10 of the recently hired officers in the building had not received any training on terrorism prevention at the time of this study. • In the other high-rise office buildings surveyed, turnover rates range from 90 percent to 243 percent annually. In the same buildings, turnover among janitors — who earn higher wages and receive free family health benefits — is 5 percent or lower. • Twenty-seven buildings—75 percent of the buildings surveyed—have security positions that are unfilled or filled by temporary “rovers” who are often unfamiliar with the buildings they are working in. • Officers report that building entry points are unguarded and security procedures are not performed. Training for officers is minimal, leaving them unprepared for emergencies and threatening public safety Lack of training, combined with high turnover rates, leads to an ill-equipped and largely inexperienced security workforce. This hampers efforts to coordinate with police, fire, and emergency personnel and leaves Los Angeles ill-prepared in the event of a crisis. • Security officers report that security contractors fail to provide the minimum hours of training required by state law. • Officers report that if they do receive training, it consists largely of open book tests and on-the-job training, rather than formal, classroom-based training that measures comprehension of the subject matter. • Under state law, training on emergency procedures—such as evacuation routes, CPR, and first aid—is optional, and training on counter-terrorism is minimal. These requirements are inadequate for office buildings housing hundreds of thousands of tenants and visitors in a major metropolitan area like Los Angeles. BOMA’s training program offers little substance and no accountability. Instead of working cooperatively with the city to make comprehensive improvements to security, the Building Owners and Managers Association of Greater L.A. (BOMA) has introduced its own training program, the Accredited Security Organization (ASO) program. • Officers report they have been given pins to wear that say “BOMA Security Accredited Training” without receiving any additional training. • Training components that are vital for the improvement of building safety such as “arrest, search and seizure,” “bomb/terrorist threats,” “emergency preparedness,” and “evacuation procedures” are merely electives—offering no guarantee that Los Angeles officers will undergo training in these critical areas. • The required training outlined in the ASO program is extremely vague, including “coaching,” “on-the-job-training,” and “informal supervisor-based training.” The report includes a number of recommendations to address the problems. Details: Los Angeles: Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, 2006. 28p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 1, 2011 at: http://www.laane.org/downloads/UntertrainedStudy.pdf Year: 2006 Country: United States URL: http://www.laane.org/downloads/UntertrainedStudy.pdf Shelf Number: 121211 Keywords: Commercial BuildingsPrivate SecuritySecurity Guards |