SECURITY GUARDS

Guard companies provide front-desk attendants to control access, as well as rovers on a regular patrol.  Some large communities have an entire team of officers, with multiple guards on staff at any given moment.

Arms and the Man

Should they be armed or unarmed? At the vast majority of communities the guards and front desk staff are unarmed.  Would you really want a moderately trained, armed civilian making $12.00 an hour roaming around your property?  Unless you're going all out and hiring serious security personnel, having armed guards is not recommended and probably creates more trouble than the possible protection an armed officer would provide.  An armed guard could accidentally shoot a resident or an owner, or their gun could discharge or even be accessed by a child on the property.

So assuming that you are in the majority of communities that hire unarmed guards, you can't expect those guards to be true first responders when a crime is being committed. It's extremely dangerous for the guard, and not fair to put them in that type of position.  Instead, the guard is really there to be an extra set of eyes, with very specific instructions about how to handle emergencies, whether they be crimes, fires, floods or health emergencies. But they're not really "guards" in the way that you would think of the people who protect banks and jewelry stores.

None of this is to suggest that security is unneeded, but rather that board members and owners should rethink what you are looking for in your security staff, and to create realistic expectations of the results you can expect.

Access to Grind

First, front desk staff should really be viewed as greeters, hospitality employees, who provide a limited but useful amount of access control but not crime prevention. They present a friendly face for visitors, can scare away casual criminals by checking identification and make sure that owners know when they are receiving a guest.  They record information so that, if something bad should happen in the community, the police can have some record of possible suspects. 

But they don't prevent crime. They work hand-in-hand with solid and strict access policies and a well-designed camera system to help deter and identify unwanted visitors.  They're great at providing that function, but poor at providing the type of "security" that some people believe they are buying.

A roaming guard can be effective in helping to deter crime a bit if they're visible enough, but more often than not a single guard is left to patrol a large property alone, and they rarely hit all corners more than once every hour or so. That leaves plenty of time for a wrongdoer to find an opening into the property. Again, a quality security and camera system goes a long way to helping to shore up access control in most properties and provide the guards with advance notice of breaches in security.

Holding Out for a Hero? Don't

Even more important, perhaps, is that roving guards in condominiums and cooperative apartment buildings are usually the first line of defense against disasters, such as fires and floods. The first person to notice water dripping from a hallway ceiling is often the security personnel, and they will generally be the staff members responding to fire alarms and check other security concerns. 

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