Powers of a Security Guard Archives - security Guards Bristol

Powers of a Security Guard

December 14 2018

How to Keep Your Home Safe from Burglars during the Holidays

snobmonkey Blog Burglars during the Holidays, Neighbourhood Watch, Powers of a Security Guard, Security Guard, Security Guards Bristol 0

The most wonderful time of the year is coming up: Christmas. With all the decorations, shopping, several parties and lots of fun coming up with this holiday season, people tend to forget to secure their homes due to this busy time. But there’s no need to worry! We listed several tips for you to stay safe and secure during this holiday season.

Don’t post about your travel plans

If you’re planning to go traveling for this holiday season, make sure to not post about your travel plans on the internet. We suggest you post about it when you’re home again. When you post about your plans to travel, burglars will know when you’re away – so you’ll basically invite them to break into your home. So, save yourself the trouble and post about your lovely vacation when you’re back in your home again.

Inform a neighbour you can trust

Make sure you’re informing at least one neighbour when you’re going out of town this holiday season. You can ask them to keep an eye on your home and to report any suspicious activity. You could also ask your neighbour to keep your walks cleared of snow and to pick up your newspapers and another kind of mail while you’re out of town. Make sure your house looks inhabited. This way, you’ll scare burglars off from trying to break into your house.

Hide Christmas packages

You want to hide your gifts from your children, but you should also make sure that the gifts are hidden from potential burglars. Of course, pretty wrapped gifts under a decorated Christmas tree looks nice, but it’s also an invitation for burglars! So try to keep your Christmas tree, with the gifts underneath, away from windows. When you aren’t home, it’s even easier for a burglar to break through a window and to grab all the gifts. Also, don’t forget to take care of gifts that you haven’t received yet! Thieves are also on the lookout for deliveries or other unattended packages

Watch your Christmas lights!

Research has shown that December is the deadliest month for electrical fires. Before you’re hanging the lights in the house or in the tree, make sure to inspect the strands to make sure there aren’t any frayed cords or cracked lamps! When there is a cracked lamp or a frayed cord, make sure you’re replacing the lamp and throw the crowd away when there is a frayed crowd. This way, you’ll prevent your house from catching fire.

If you would like more information about our security guards and more information about our services, please contact us on:

Tel: 0117 982 9979

Fax: 0117 909409

Email: info@securityguardsbristol.com

December 10 2016

Duties and Powers of a Security Guard in Keynsham, Bristol

snobmonkey Blog Powers of a Security Guard 0

In today’s extremely litigious climate, people are increasingly aware of their legal rights and are ready to take someone to court to ensure their rights are respected. As a security guard, understanding your rights and responsibilities is especially important as your day-to-day work can and will involve situations where you will have to exercise force and restraint. Knowing what you can and can’t legally do is very important to doing your job well, and is also important so that you protect yourself from any sort of legal trouble.

Suspicion

As a Keynsham security guard, you are entitled to detain someone whom you believe to be shoplifting, as long as you have reasonable grounds for your suspicion. You are even allowed to use ‘reasonable’ force to do so. However, if it turns out that the person in question really was not shoplifting, and you detained them, they may be able to claim that the detainment was assault or otherwise file a lawsuit.

For this reason, it is a good idea to be as sure as possible that someone is shoplifting before detaining them:

Has the person in question taken something from the store and hidden it on their person?
Is the person in question attempting to leave the store without paying?
Have you maintained visual contact with the person since the item was hidden?

If you can answer yes to the above questions, you should feel reasonably confident that it is legally permissible to detain them.

Detainment

When detaining someone for theft, it is best to use as little force (preferably none) as possible. It will only make your case stronger and prevent them from filing any charges against you or your employer. Simply explain to them who you are and what is happening. Contact the police immediately, and wait with the person until the authorities arrive. There is no need to confine someone to a makeshift holding cell, locked room or somewhere similar.

Force

Force is a tricky subject as it is something of a legal grey area. A good rule of thumb is the less force, the better. Technically, as a Keynsham security guard, you have no more legal power than any member of the public does. Your right to detain someone is based on your belief that the person has committed a crime. You need to have some kind of proof in order to justify any force used. Simply put, the less force you use, the easier things will be for you.