So what “safety” skills are required from the security guards in order to live up to the expectations of the public? Let’s do a simple risk assessment of an site such as a shopping mall to find out the answer to this question.
It does not take more than a few days stay in Dubai to realize that shopping malls are among the city’s major attractions and popular getaways from the blazing sun and the sweltering humidity. The city’s malls boast high concentration of people even on ordinary week days, not to mention weekends and special activity events when the density rises steeply increasing the risks of possible incidents.
At such places common problems are likely to be injuries such as fractured wrists, sprained ankles and cuts and bruises caused by slips and falls. In view of Dubai’s climate, there is also a possibility of higher incidence of heat injuries as well as medical conditions caused by the change from heat to freezing air-conditioned indoor facilities. The diverse population present in the malls also increases the probable occurrence of conditions such as asthma attacks and heart conditions. All these factors make basic first aid skills a prerequisite for the security personnel serving the malls. Often when an incident occurs the casualty will be on the floor and may require moving, so some manual handling and lifting skills are required to prevent injury to the security officer.
It is human nature to be unduly inquisitive in the event of an incident, so a crowd will often build up and incident management and crowd control skills will be needed.
Indoor facilities such as malls always pose a threat of a fire incident. Moreover, Dubai still allows smoking in public places thus increasing the fire hazard. In so densely populated places the simple first line fire fighting and site evacuation knowledge are more than necessary.
Getting complex? These are just the simple skills required to manage and contain the initial incident in the occurrence of some simple personal injuries. Now add the complications of high-rise buildings, often with limited vehicle access, high population densities and a real risk of overcrowding. Throw in cultural diversity with potential ethnic difficulties such as languages and religions and suddenly it becomes clear that even the minor incident needs the attention of a team trained with a much higher level of attention to safety measures and practices.
By default security staff should be the first to respond to an incident concerning the wellbeing of people. To prevent escalation of the incident and possible further injuries it is essential that the modern security officer has basic first aid, fire, manual handling and crowd management skills. These need to be current and effective which necessitates continuation training of the security staff. |