I once attended a graduation party for one of my wife’s students. The young graduate was an adept hostess and, in an effort to ensure that people felt comfortable with one another, she began introducing everyone. At one point she introduced me to a woman who was about my age, and jokingly said, “You'd better watch out. Mr. Watson is in the security business.” Inwardly I cringed, knowing what would come next…. Just as I thought, the woman immediately launched into an animated story about how the Security Officer at her place of employment had stopped her because she forgot her badge. Since this type of thing happens to me often, I knew the drill; I politely listened and then made my escape when another person was introduced.
Although the woman seemed nice and was probably just trying to relate to someone she'd just met, I found this and similar experiences rather exasperating. After all, the lady had no idea what type of security business I was in. For all she knew, I owned a gun shop. Besides, did she really think that someone in the security business would be sympathetic to her plight? If so, she was mistaken. My sarcastic nature wanted to say something like, “Oh, that dastardly company! I can’t believe that make you wear a badge, of all things. How terrible, how utterly terrible!”, but I’m not that good of an actor. I’m sorry, but being required to wear an item that weighs less than an ounce doesn’t seem like such a heavy burden to me.
A similar incident happened when I was asked to coordinate security for a children’s event at my church. It was the first time the event had a security staff, so I wanted to make sure we would set the right tone. One lady, who I normally get along with quite well, dismissively said to me, “I don’t even know why we need security!”. Once again, my sense of diplomacy won out. Instead of asking whether she had read a newspaper in the last ten years, I simply tore out a page from the post orders and handed it to her. The page discussed how children are a gift from God and how the church had a moral, ethical and legal responsibility to take reasonable steps to protect them. It then went on to explain how pedophiles often show up at children’s events.
Our Choices Impact Others
I could cite literally dozens of other examples. When it comes to security matters, otherwise nice and intelligent people frequently make uninformed comments. I’ve come to realize that people aren’t trying to be mean or obnoxious when they say such things. They really don’t consider that bad things happen to someone, somewhere every day.
Since most of the people we run into haven’t experienced a critical incident, they dismiss the possibility of it occurring. After all, we tend to filter data through our own experience.
Indeed, after 17 years as a security professional, I have increasingly come to see that my role has a great deal more to do with teaching and sales than I had previously realized. If you regularly read this blog, you probably already have a security mindset. If so, then I encourage you to educate others. Something you say just may save their life. If you haven’t been reading this blog for awhile then I encourage you to do so and to look at other sources of information on personal security. If approached from a rational process, security can be integrated into your daily life without impacting the quality of your life.
By: SA Watson
