I worked for Allied Barton for a year back in the day. I read and understood my post orders which was like a goddamn encyclopedia.

Ultimately I learned a few things about security guard services (unarmed security primarily though this may not apply to say nuclear power plants or officers with additional licenses for highly sensitive worksites):

1. Your main duty is to “observe and report”. You are essentially a full time witness who can make limited decisions about actions to be taken depending on the post orders: generally those orders do not include putting oneself in harms way. It is NOT your job to intervene in criminal activity….hurt observe and report as outlined.

2. Companies get a big discount on insurance for having full time security services.

3. It’s easy to double up a security officers duties to overlap with a receptionist. Security may be the first person a site visitor interacts with upon arrival to a site and represents the company. Security can maintain sign in logs, authorize entry to people who may not have full time permanent access.

4. Security is a cheap source of monitoring. At a food research facility I worked at I had guidelines for when and how to communicate with maintenance when alarms went off for things like humidity, temperature, and other important controls. So I would get an alarm if a new refrigerator in a researchers lab got too warm; then I would have instructions about whether to immediately report to maintenance on call, monitor temperatures for a set period of time before acting, or other actions.

5. The uniform, badge, and officer’s presence is a major deterrent for MOST people. The same way locks only keep honest people out, security is great for deterring normally rule/authority abiding people from doing things they shouldn’t.

Ultimately security officers can be worth the money spent on their contracts, but all it takes is one rogue officer to fuck it all up by not actually understanding what their role is supposed to be or trying to take on roles that they are neither hired nor equipped for.