It is difficult to believe with my current working lifestyle of working for 8 hours a day, that I was once working a security guard. I have to stress that the job was temporary whilst I was studying, but none-the-less it was a real job, in many real situations.
Perhaps the crowning glory, for me, was being on duty during the Labour Party Conference in Brighton in 2006. It was not enough for the Labour lot to need the police force to protect them, they also needed private force of security guard specialists to give extra help. Most of the current policies on security have been in place since 1984 and the IRA bombing of the Grand Hotel. Obviously this caused massive damage inside the hotel, and almost wiped out the prime minister of the day and most of her cabinet. Political landscapes change, terrorist organisations come and go, but once a policy is in place, it often takes a further catastrophe to change it again.
Security guards work alongside the police force, who find it hard not to look down upon their ‘inferiors’ from the private sector. It is ironic that many of the private security specialist were themselves once on the police force.
The day I had at the Party conference was one that will take some beating, and stay in my mind for ever. For some reason I thought that my duties would involve asking people not to drop litter, or moving on people who were not allowed to leave their cars nearby. Usually there is a small number of people who drive to the conference entrance, just to ask the officials where they might be able to park their vehicles! It takes quite a bit of driving to successfully negotiate the concrete barriers specially erected for the conference, but there are the few that succeed.
Almost immediately prior to the conference, a large noisy crowd began to make it presence known. I was informed that they were a professional bunch, determined to make their feeling known about the debate on foxhunting that was soon to begin. The thoughts that were going through my mind as I was being sworn at and spat upon, was that I would like to get a large quantity of security fencing and surround the lot of them!
Tags: concrete barriers, security fencing, Security guards, security screens