Did we inherit the "security" business?

One of the toughest things to do to make sense of civvy street is to understand their terminology. I refer here of course, to business terminology. A lot of my civvy street friends often ask what I am doing in the field of management and systems consulting. To which, my question is "Which field do you feel I should be in?"

The answer surprises me for in ninety nine percent of the time, they would recommend the "security" business - which, as I have come to understand, is the provisioning of uniformed "security guards" to enterprises. The logic is that since we have been "securing the borders" and "securing the country", it should be right! Right?

Wrong. Firstly, the army does not secure the borders. If there were borders, they would rightly be secured by border police, the coast guard, as well as customs and immigration folks. The army is never deployed to a border except under exceptional circumstances or when a war is declared. And its been many decades since the last war.

Secondly, though units are responsible for "their own" security (for good reason) whereever they may be located, how often do officers get involved in this routine? Here obviously, I am not talking about operational deployments. The unit's JCOs/NCOs are perfectly capable of determining the strength and disposition required for securing the unit area.

Thirdly, security guards in the civilian context are all unarmed, and provide rudimentary functions of protecting, guiding, observing, documenting, and reporting usually within the premises of the enterprise and without any legal powers.

Any incident involving trespass, theft, injury or fatality would necessarily entail liaison with and co-option of local law enforcement, just as it is applicable to any other citizen. In other words, a security guard is just a citizen in a costume with no locus standi.

On the face of it, the security business it is all fairly simple and straightforward - a job that can be done well by anyone with good sense. Some background in police or security services may be useful, but not necessary.

My recommendation is to leave running security firms to JCO's and NCO's, if they consider this a reasonable outlet for their creative energies.