As a result, strengthening and extending the partnership with private security providers is key if the fight against crime is to be effective, he said.
Introducing a panel discussion at police headquarters yesterday, attended by representatives of over 100 private security firms as well as from top tourist resorts and the Chamber of Commerce, the commissioner asserted the need for a “clear line of communication and sharing of intelligence”.
“Even under the most favourable circumstances the ability of police to prevent crime is limited,” he said.
Ideally, officers in private security firms can help provide vital intelligence to the police based on their own experience of dealing with criminal activity.
In return, the police will “make available the tools of national law enforcement” to private security officers -who are often “the first to encounter danger,” Mr Farquharson said.
Supporting the commissioner’s statements, Basil Dean, Atlantis senior vice president in charge of security, asked, “If criminals of the world can communicate and collaborate in an effort to destroy the world, why can’t we in law enforcement pool our resources to fight them?”.
In an interview with The Tribune, retired police officer and head of security at the Abaco Beach Resort, Lloyd Deveaux, agreed that the police “can’t do it on their own”.
“We see things and at times when the police wouldn’t see it because they’re not even there. So we need to have that interaction, that relationship with police so that the police are be able to get better assistance,” he said.
Mr Farquharson expressed a desire to “lock arms” with experienced people such as Mr Deveaux.
However, members of the panel – primarily from within the private security sector – also expressed the concern that a measure of doubt necessarily hangs over the private security profession, as there is no standardised criteria that all security officers must be tested against or any particular training they must undertake.
Representing the tourism industry, Frank Comito, vice president of the Tourism Visitor and Safety Board, said he is concerned that some security officers were not qualified to an extent that would make them capable of facilitating police investigations.
[BahamasB2B Editor’s Note: ﾠNot to mention that a vast majority of private security officers are corrupt and rotten to the core.]
In the past, said Mr Comito, it has been noted that reports made by security officers in criminal investigations were “so lacking in critical information that they meant nothing.”
Suggestions were made that a certain level of training should be necessary for prospective officers – in report writing, and basic legislation, among other things. Mr Rodgers – head of the private firm Maximum Security – agreed, saying that there need to be “standards for the sector” if officers are to be effective at all. “This is very very badly needed. If things are not documented, not written properly, it creates a problem and the bad guys walks away,” he pointed out.
Paul Thompson, former assistant commissioner of police and current head of Paul Thompson and Associates – a private investigation firm – agreed with these recommendations.
“I would like to see training for security officers done by police, or some qualified organisation,” said Mr Thompson.
While it is common for most security firms to do a “background check” on prospective employees’ criminal history – as well as an assessment of physical fitness, or, in some cases, for drug use, the former assistant commissioner stressed that training should be provided before men start work.
By ALISON LOWE, The Tribune
