Businesses all throughout the Austin, TX area hire security guards to maintain peace and safety in busy events areas, commercial spaces, and other public venues. Most business owners rely on private security to ensure the safety of their business from criminal activities like theft, assault, vandalism, and other deadly crimes. Hiring security guard services is an ideal way to ensure the safety of you, your staff, and visitors.
Table of Contents
- Here’s What Security Guards Can and Can’t Do
- They Can Protect Property
- They Can Make a Citizen’s Arrest
- They Can Use Reasonable Force
- They Can’t Can’t Use Unreasonable Force
Here’s What Security Guards Can and Can’t Do
When you hire a security team, they make sure that your visitors and clients can enjoy themselves at your businesses or in a crowded area without any fear. Plus, you don’t have to worry about any economic loss due to theft or other criminal activities.
What do they actually do though? Perhaps a better way to ask would be to say what can they do? While there are some slight variations according to individual area laws, in general, a security officers can do the following:
They Can Protect Property
One of the most common roles security guards carry out is the protection of property at a retail store or other such place of business. A guard there to keep both the location and personnel on-site safe. They can ask people to move and stop loitering, leave a premises, and even detain a person if they have probable cause to suspect that they are committing a crime
They Can Make a Citizen’s Arrest
While they are not police officers, a security guard does have the legal authority to arrest a person if a crime is witnessed. When they perform an arrest, the security guard is obliged to call the police as soon as is reasonably practical to do so. If the person arrested is carrying weapons, the guard is entitled to take it away.
They Can Use Reasonable Force
While carrying out their duties, a security guard may be required to use force against a person to ensure the safety of others and/or property. In such a case, it has to be reasonable and justified. Just like any other form of law enforcement, a guard would be expected to use other means, such as effective verbal communication, before resorting to violent force.
They Can’t Use Unreasonable Force
While they can arrest a citizen, they cannot use undue amounts of force while doing so. Security guards can only use physical force if the suspect is resisting or is trying to escape. Improper use of handcuffs, abusive language, and threatening the individual are prohibited. If it is found that the security guard acted with unreasonable force, legal actions may be taken against him or her.
With any additional questions about what our security guards can do to protect your place of businesses, reach out and ask us. We provide protection to people in the Austin, TX area and we’d be proud to say we provide it to you as well.