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The Private Security
Board
Your civilian oversight board makes sure government runs
fairly
By Mark L. Smith
Secretary, Texas Private Security Board
The photos [below] show your Private Security Board at work. This article explains how the board works for you and why you should guard the board�s existence.
The main purpose of the PSB and its members is to oversee the activities of the government bureaucracy and bureaucrats � newly named the Department of Public Safety Regulatory Services Division � who administer rules and regulations imposed by the legislature. To be sure, the bureaucracy is tasked with carrying out the law� but in what manner?
Most government employees have never run a private sector business. They establish policies and procedures often without awareness of our appreciation for cause and effect, cost/benefit or unintended consequences as they relate to private business. Here is where your board comes in to educate government about business.
The majority of the PSB is made up of citizens engaged in private business, including representatives of the private security industry. These are people that live day to day with and understand cause and effect, cost/benefit and unintended consequences. Board members bring a business perspective to the application of the various regulations that the division cannot. In this way, they are your voice.
Four times a year, the board meets publicly to discuss how rules are applied to the security guard, burglar alarm, private investigations and locksmith businesses in Texas. Between meetings, the board analyzes proposals and agenda items and the effects if they were to be put into practice.
In order to be successful in its oversight role, the PSB must be firm, but not adversarial. The division, contrary to the opinion of some citizens, does not have unlimited funds and resources. It is bound by budgetary constraints of the legislature and may be unable, rather than unwilling, to institute procedures that make perfect sense to private businesses. The board is sensitive to these constraints. However, the board monitors and guides the division to in turn be sensitive to what it takes to run a business, serve as a major employer of Texas residents, and adhere to sustainable cost/benefit business practices.
I guess you could say your PSB functions as wise parents, allowing its charges to think for themselves � meanwhile pointing out the problems and pitfalls of proposed actions to protect both the division and the industry from the negative consequences of ill-advised actions. If the wise parent sees one of its charges veering too far off the path, it steps in to turn things around.
Why have I chosen this time to tell you about the PSB? Over time, the power of the board has been diluted from an independent body with the power to hire and fire the executive director to a rulemaking body within the DPS and is no longer the �employer� of the executive director. In fact, there are forces within the bureaucracy today that would like to do away with the board altogether and be free to make their own rules without regard to the effects they have on businesses.
Don�t let that happen. The board � at the very least � serves as a buffer of common sense, understanding and guarding the balance between enforcing laws to protect Texas citizens and tempering the application of those laws so as not to harm Texas businesses. It is a delicate balance, and your board takes their jobs very seriously.
So in closing, I ask that you take the PSB and its continued existence very seriously, because we are your voice.
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