SAN FRANCISCO – Fire fighters and paramedics are exposing a ‘weak link’ in the city’s ability to provide quality emergency response – high turnover and inadequate training among private security officers. Turnover is between 100-300% among private security officers -- driven by low wages, lack of affordable health care and inadequate training.
“With such high turnover, private security officers are not receiving adequate training to interact with the city’s fire, police, and emergency response teams to work together to provide quality public safety that San Francisco deserves,” said John Hanley, President SF Fire Fighters Union.
More than 90% of security officers report they have not received adequate training on interacting with city emergency response teams. More than 75% of the city’s private security officers report that they do not feel they have adequate training to do their jobs. More than 70% of private security officers receive less than one hour of training in emergency response. Security officers are seeking better training on anti-terrorism, CPR, building evacuation and crowd control among other critical issues.
“We want to professionalize the private security industry so we can be equal partners in public safety,” said Matt Roberts, a security officer who protects a high-rise in downtown San Francisco. “Right now the training consists of watching a generic video. There’s not enough practical, hands on training about fire escape routes and building specific training so that we can keep the tenants and the people of the city safe.”
Private security officers are the first responders to incidents from medical emergencies to natural disasters and terrorist threats at high-rise commercial office buildings owned by Morgan Stanley, Hines, Shorenstein and others, as well as ports, government buildings, public transportation, universities, banks and other critical buildings within the city’s infrastructure.
SFFD Paramedic Jeany Duncan said “when I’m rolling up to a building the first thing I look for is the security guard waiting in front so we can quickly get to the patient.” Duncan, a paramedic for nearly 20 years also added, “In dealing with emergencies, training and experience are everything. When you have poorly trained and inexperienced security because of high turnover due to unlivable wages and poor health plans, then there is really no security, or flimsy at best.”
Security officers in the Bay Area earn about $23,500 a year, well under half the measure of self-sufficiency standard of $53,412 set by the Economic Policy Institute for a family of four in San Francisco. A security officer would have to work more than 100 hours each week just to meet the cost of housing, food, transportation, health care, child care, pay taxes and meet other basic necessities. Most security officers are offered health care plans they simply cannot afford while the building operating engineers, janitors, window washers and parking attendants in the buildings that the security officers protect have family health care through their full-time employment.
“The city’s real estate giants have an historic opportunity right now during contract negotiations to raise standards for private security officers and in doing so, improve public safety for everyone in San Francisco and the East Bay,” said Matt Pope, Service Employees International Union Local 24/7, representing more than 4,000 security officers in San Francisco, Alameda and Contra Costa counties who have been working without a contract for more than two months.
“Face it, a security officer can assist a police officer in making an arrest at one of these buildings, the criminal goes to jail and ends up getting better health care than the security officer,” said Gary Delagnes, President SF Police Officers Association. “The building owners need to fulfill their responsibility to their security workers by making sure these jobs are good jobs with adequate wages and health care. That’s the first step in improving our overall ability to better protect and serve San Francisco.”
“Security officers need better training on how to interact with our fire fighters that respond to calls in these high-rises every day,” said Hanley. “But any efforts to provide better training are going to be a waste of time and money until we address the issues that are driving high turnover. We need to stop the revolving door of security officers by making sure they get higher wages, better benefits and respect.”