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Dallas shooting by security guard brings up important
questions
By Walt Roberts
ASSIST Executive President
[email protected]
The shooting of a suspected burglar by an untrained, unlicensed employee acting as a security guard recently in a Dallas area business, points out a major flaw in the laws governing security officers in the State of Texas.
The shooting took place at the Toyota dealership in Lewisville Texas, just north of Dallas. When police arrived they found the body of a former employee outside the building. According to the medical examiner he had been shot twice in the back.
The Dallas Morning News reported that an employee of the company, who does not usually work as a security guard, but had been asked to do so that night, had claimed responsibility for the shooting.
ASSIST believes that every individual working as a security officer in the State of Texas should have a criminal background check, training and liability insurance. ASSIST members register ALL of their officers with the Private Security Bureau of the Texas Department of Public Safety. This registration mandates that they undergo both state and federal criminal background checks, training and are covered by liability insurance.
With the current threat of terrorism and increased violence our citizens now face, the Texas Legislature should be moving in the direction of closer scrutiny of individuals working in private security, but instead they have taken a giant step backwards.
During the past session of the Texas Legislature, a bill passed by State Representative Kino Flores, D-Mission and Senator Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, exempted an estimated 50 percent of the security guards in Texas from obtaining criminal background checks, maintaining liability insurance and meeting any of the states� training requirements.
By simply changing one word in state law, the bill now allows Texas companies to circumvent registration of their security personnel simply by taking them out of uniform.
Security guards wearing uniforms still have to register with the Texas Department of Public Safety. They must pass a state and national criminal background check, show proof of liability insurance, pass drug tests and undergo training.
The bill that exempted non-uniformed security officers took effect on September 1st, 2005. Since the bill went into effect many of the shopping malls and other businesses in Texas have taken their guards out of uniform and dressed them in blazers and slacks. The security officer may also have a walkie-talkie and the name of the business or mall on their blazer or name tag. When you see these nonlicensed security officers, it is obvious that they are working security, but under the new law, they could be known child molesters for all we know.
The law states that these non-uniformed security officers may not have criminal histories that would prohibit them from registering with DPS as a real security officer. But, the flaw in the law does not allow DPS investigators to find out if those officers are criminals or not. They must have probable cause to even ask those officers for a driver license.
Department of Public Safety investigators have recently arrested illegal aliens, sex offenders and other criminals working as security guards wearing uniforms. But the law does not grant DPS investigators the authority to regulate individuals working security that are not in uniform.
How many offenders are working as security officers without uniforms? Nobody knows. But every time an incident occurs where someone is hurt, robbed, killed or raped by an unlicensed, untrained security officer, with a criminal background, the headlines are bad for everyone in the security profession.
Contract security services providers in Texas are proud to be regulated by the Texas Department of Public Safety, Private Security Bureau. To protect the citizens of our state, ASSIST members follow the rules. We do it right! And we feel that everyone providing private security in Texas should be following the same rules.
I am a Security Guard Company Owner in the Dallas area and Legislative Chairman of the Associated Security Services and Investigators of the State of Texas. We are a professional trade association representing licensed security services contractors in Texas. We fought against the passage of HB 1393 because
we believe that all security guards in Texas should have criminal background checks, insurance and training.
During the current session of the Texas Legislature we need your help move Texas back in the right direction in the regulation of those charged with protecting the public.
Please contact your State Representative and State Senator and ask them for their help to resolve this unacceptable loop-hole in the law.
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