[AMA] I'm a Security Adviser, 10 Years in The Industry, Security and Law Enforcement, Some Answers May Surprise You, Bust Myths

typhoonadventure on 06/03/2018 - 03:38
Last edited 06/03/2018 - 07:58 by 1 other user

Security adviser of just over 10 years.

Just over 10 years of what I do, various roles everything from personal protection, loss prevention, some degree of law enforcement and so on you'd be surprised what goes on in this industry.

Obviously I can't divulge any confidential information or break any NDA's but feel free to ask anything, if it's something i'm allowed to talk about happy to answer.

Before you get into it, not all security are failed cops.

I'm failed army get it right :)

But all jesting aside, ask me anything you like from any corner of the industry, or don't.

Introduce Yourself

closed Comments

  • [Deactivated] on 06/03/2018 - 04:12
    +2

    Have you protected anyone famous?

    • typhoonadventure on 06/03/2018 - 05:58
      +7

      Quite a few most of them i'm not allowed to comment on.

      I'm allowed to give vague descriptions, most of them i'm on nda's on and it's not professional to dish dirt on unlike a former bodyguard of kim k's.

      One that i'm allowed to dish on is a "me too".

      I'll try to frame this in a way that doesnt infringe on anything and presents some credibility.

      One agency i've been working with for quite some time has a mutual respect policy, you earn respect and courtesy by giving it, you don't give it, you don't deserve it, this has exhibited itself in all sorts of ways such as celebrities doing the wrong thing and expecting their team to cover it up all the way up to not even paying their bills which no doubt you would have seen a few times.

      One particular assignment before I made upper management we did a soundwave concert, now anyone who loved rock and metal bands can name a hundred to have played at these, I got to work with a bunch of my idols, had to remain professional but I can tell you right now many celebrities are absolutely top people, they were there, had a job to do and did it well, many of them would hang out with you and treat you like humans.

      Then you have the ones who don't, we had a certain person who requested personal protection and had recently had a major falling out with the person/band that made them famous, instead of reporting to a briefing, then being handed notes on how things would work expected to show up without passes to a multi band gig such as soundwave, and i'll paint a picture for you, arrived at a non staff gate, without any assistants, any minders or any personnel to identify them, with a person who was for all intensive purposes something that rhymed Tex Twerker, both of whom having track marks all over them, then reduced themselves to threatening everyone they came in contact with for their jobs.

      So we went to "recover them" and take over from their existing PPC's (personal protection consultant) to find they were not who they claimed to be, to phrase it politely they made such a scene acting like they are class A acts for the show which if they had been they would have had body guards on them at all time, most B grade acts had a minder with them, even c's. So as soon as making contact with them we sourced their minder, and were happy to get them to their stage.

      Instead of wanting to get to their gig they were more content with taking a less discrete route, made it their business to stop at public access areas despite us telling them it was not a good idea and nearly got into several fights with the age old infamous line of "Do you know who the **** I am ?" it's literally one of our most trodden out terms in the industry.

      So we figured best to hook them up with their manger, deal with the situation, get them on the stage, play the show get them out as we had to manage quite a few others, my boss at the time was a massive fan of the band they were from and instead asked me as a personal favor to stop doing ad hoc PPC for the day and look after him and asked me to arrange a meet and greet for him during the day.

      To put it frank, that was never going to happen, given the amount of narcotics in this persons system and the company they had brought, they were a trainwreck looking for a place to occur and we were in a position of mitigating the impending crash, as crazy as it sounds, this happens a lot especially at music festivals, this is why at a lot of these shows you will find certain acts never make the stage and their understudy or failing that a DJ shows up with no fanfare or announcement and plays.

      Well this one went something chronically different, so we looked after this guy for a bit and were able to contain him and keep himself out of his own way… until has manager finally appeared, who had a weird fixation with comparing this person to slash, now i've worked with certain people, let's just say in this case, a person previously mentioned might be notorious for their partying but even they were not that bad to work with compared to what we had so far.

      This person was not in the same league as slash and wanted to treated as if he was, the public split he had with his former band, the leader of which WAS on the same level as slash, this person was not even allowed to play the hit songs from that band, songs that rhyme with living on a stair, giving something a bad name, songs along those lines…

      So the manger arrives and starts enabling them, they emerge from a transportable more energized, obviously having just inhibited a substance, and upon entering the VIP performance area were asked by another guard to show their pass, they just about had a meltdown abusing and laughing at the security and the liaison there over how they were putting their jobs in jeopardy by not knowing them, as they walked off we had to pull the manager off them who was abusing them again comparing the famous person to slash, so we manged to pull them off and keep them with the PPC client, got them on stage…. and they played a bloody terrible show, you could clearly see they were not performing up to a reasonable level and were smashed off their face on narcotics, the unauthorized junkie they had with them kept trying to wander on stage and to stop the situation getting worse not only did we have to allow them on but keep them off the stage.

      Performance ended and they suddenly crashed and crashed hard, and during a massive tirade they got fixed on the liaison and security guard on the way in to the stage area and started demanding that they would not perform the second part of their performance unless they were FIRED in front of them.

      I wish I was making this part up, the manger then not only demanded that they get fired, but demanded the right to do it them self. This put our company in an interesting position, if anyone here has worked at a music festival before, you are aware how many companies are involved, the stage protection was another firm, the liaisons were from an entertainment firm and were not even PAID. They were literally "interns" as a tax write off to get free staffers.

      So after radio messaging my boss, he messages me back telling me to ALLOW the manager to come out and dress the staff down and "fire" them on the way out, nothing will come to them, they have been told to expect it react, then then let this guy move on to the after party.

      As you can tell was not feeling comfortable about it, as we are walking out of there, the manager finds the liaison girl, she'd been absolutely lovely, he starts dressing her down something chronic to a point she starts crying, i'm trying to stay emotionless, but during this, wonderboy (last name sounds like a drink, has an action figure) abuses her and walks off with his floozy), security guard comes back hearing the commotion, and just about kicks the crap out of the manager for abusing the young lady, and to be honest he deserved it, so had to break that up. Finally get free to find lets call him Sambucca climbing the fence with his floozy and trying to run off to the city to get loaded on narcotics, had to radio my boss to not only tell him what had happened but that it appeared he was not going to get his meet and greet with the guy.

      A year later got to meet with the Main person from the band this guy was kicked out of, a band this guy gave his name, and the guy was an absolute gentleman, i'd made ops manager at this point, stuck one of my best girls on as his PPC and he gave her one of the best nights of her life, absolute gentlemen, I ended up being the state permier's PPC for the night and during the meet and greet for them he made it a point to come around to even the janitor in the room and give them a photo opportunity and a handshake and a smile, you really can't put a price on that kind of good nature.

      As for his former band mate… not too long after the gig he met another up and coming guitar player from that city and turned them from an aspiring young guitar play to the partner for his failed rock project and a drug addict, so yeah, that side of the industry is not pretty.

      As for further famous people… the good people generally don't stand out, they are just like you and me, it's generally the assholes who stand out, and the truly above and beyond, you generally have to separate your own interests form the situation, a definite standout would be sarah blasko, I can mention her due to how cool her management was, she did a surprise secret show in my city, my boss sent me in as a last minute ringer, I joked to her manager that a car I bought had her cd stuck in the player, she thought it was hilarious and came out and gave me a signed poster, truly a lovely person, had a cup of tea with me.

      The crew from Mad Max Fury road were amazing as well, we did their PPC at all the media events and they were even encouraging of us dressing up in "plain clothes" which meant dressing up as background characters and offering protection that way, so that was out of the ordinary and very fun, and for the record, John Howard, absolutely top guy, I had no idea we were guarding the crew during a PR event and when I ran into him I made the remark "Bob Jelly, they are doing more seachange" he laughed and made some hilarious remarks, even did the Bob Jelly character from it as a goof, could not recommend the guy more, he's very method actor, even mark sexton who's an artist who did the comic, absolutely top guy, I ran into him again at avcon and it wasnt just a one time thing he remembered me and wanted to catch up.

      You can find some truly remarkable people in the industry, but please do understand this stuff does make up a small part of what goes on, for every actor you do PPC for especially in my city, you had 100 politicians during election season and 1000 rich kids during summer going to the festivals who want to have more body guards then their gf's family to seem more important.

      • [Deactivated] on 06/03/2018 - 06:35
        +83

        TL;DR

        • Clear on 06/03/2018 - 07:04
          +9

          Don't do drugs kids.

        • ThithLord on 06/03/2018 - 09:00
          +12

          "All intensive purposes" - lmao.

          That's all you need to know.

        • Godric on 06/03/2018 - 10:25
          +3

          Cliff Notes

        • abb on 06/03/2018 - 11:52
          +20

          Richie Sambora (ex Bon Jovi) showed up at the public gate of Soundwave high (and claiming to be someone else?) with a junkie/hooker.

          I think.

          OP's writing is bloody hard to follow.

        • Scrooge McDuck on 06/03/2018 - 12:27
          +5

          @Clear:

          Don't do drugs kids.

          I liked the part where OP transcribed one thought at a time.

        • Scrooge McDuck on 06/03/2018 - 12:29

          @abb:

          Richie Sambora…

          I think.

          OP's writing is bloody hard to follow.

          Agreed and agreed.

        • Scrooge McDuck on 06/03/2018 - 13:46
          +32

          OP feels justified in exposing the behaviour of this particular client due to their disrespect for security staff.

          The client is Richie Sambora, who failed to follow security procedures by arriving at a public gate to Soundwave. He was accompanied by a prostitue and they were both presumably affected by heroin intoxication. Sambora was recalcitrant towards security staff and playing up his status as a performing artist.

          OP's boss was partial to Bon Jovi and so assigned OP to mind Sambora with the aim of facilitating a meeting between the two. Sambora became agitated at being unrecognised by security staff and demanded that they be dismissed. OP's boss pandered to this demand by permitting the staff to be superficially dismissed, only to have Sambora abscond from the planned meeting presumably to procure illicit drugs.

          OP later met Jon Bon Jovi while working as the minder for the State Premier. Jon Bon Jovi was a humble gentlemen.

        • Zondor on 07/03/2018 - 16:02

          @Scrooge McDuck: I wonder if this was before or after he was with Orianthi

        • marquise on 07/03/2018 - 23:11
          +6

          I love Soundwave's accent and how little cassette tapes fly out of his chest.

        • idonotknowwhy on 08/03/2018 - 11:10
          +1

          @Scrooge McDuck: Thanks for that. Could you summarize all the walls of text as they're built here? I've run out of siege weapons :(

        • Scrooge McDuck on 08/03/2018 - 11:15
          +1

          @idonotknowwhy:

          I could, but I'd rather snuggle with Bae.

        • Ti-au on 08/03/2018 - 22:38
          +1

          @marquise: The puma was the best. I also liked the Transformers Constructicons.

          Transformers are much better than Richie Sambora who I have never heard of before (hence his line "do you know who I am?" would not of worked because after telling me who he was I still would not of known who he was).

        • iseenya on 09/03/2018 - 10:18

          @Zondor:
          I think he covers that towards the end.

        • slipperypete on 09/03/2018 - 11:29

          @ThithLord:

          Until about 3 months ago I thought that was what it meant.

          I'm not the brightest spark but I am uni educated.

          Knocking someone because they get a phrase wrong is condescending and shows poor judgmental skills.

      • EightImmortals on 06/03/2018 - 09:08

        Cheers. :)

        • typhoonadventure on 06/03/2018 - 18:30

          Despite certain information not being disallowed it's still prudent to dance around certain situations and topics. Given the nature of our work, you will find that a lot of the time unless giving direct evidence in court, it's just not cricket to mention someone directly by name, especially in a negative light.

          Positive most of the time is perfectly fine depending on NDA's and privacy requirements permitting.

      • EyyBanane on 08/03/2018 - 06:53

        OP needs to use more full stops. Note that nearly every paragraph is single sentence with 10-20 commas.

  • haboutnnah on 06/03/2018 - 05:31
    +1

    are you actually good at your job
    and you should totally host one at resdit/r/shoplifting the people there are a little special

    • typhoonadventure on 06/03/2018 - 06:22
      +7

      i'm not a big talker up of my skills, the owners of two of the companies I consult for claim I am, and at this point in my life its hard to go a couple of weeks without job offers, so I guess take that for what you will, i'm happy with where I am at the moment.

      What im not happy with is how corrupt our industry is, some of you may be aware or not aware that in the 2000's the industry was heavily regulated due to the amount of involvement by organized crime in it.

      In my city alone, bikies ran a lot of it including companies holding exclusive defence force contracts, it always struck me as weird that before I got in the industry and after it the airforce base north of me has it's entire security force run by a company that pretty much were bikies.

      I've developed a reputation and infamy in my team as being "Teflon" it's a term thats emerged due to alleged criminals such as the famous ones in kings cross where authorities for a long time have tried to make **** stick to them and it doesnt, the term teflon in this industry can be taken in two ways, as either a dodgey person who's escaped penalty for their actions, or someone who won't let others stick anything to them.

      I'd like to think im on the side that does not let other stick things on them, i've left companies before due to poor effort, legal compliance or straight up illegal activity, as well as attempted blackmail. I've had a situation where during an international basketball competition I was in control of an even where several international teams were at one venue we were guarding were staying at, as luck would have it the US team consisted of one person I worked with at woolworths (you couldn't make this stuff up) and he was a top guy, he warned us his team mates were going to get absolutely loose, so we handled things accordingly, one of the people in his squad got so heated after a drinking session he wanted to fight an entire team of security guards and while backing them up we all got assaulted and dealt with the situation in accordance to reasonable force laws.

      I've seen enough guards in the industry do the wrong thing, a good way to measure the security industry is association, your typical psychos who get in to the industry to hurt people who should be psych tested and debadged, and my favorite, people who like to call themselves bouncers.

      Speak to most people in the security industry, we hate that term, it conjures up a very negative image of a large meathead with no thought and a penchant for power and violence, the company I was working for at the time recently had a guy like this promoted to ops who had no clue what they were doing.

      Abused and reprimanded me for NOT kicking the crap out of the basketball team, their exact words were "They're werent any camreas in that hallway, should have beat the shit out of them and had some fun". This lead to a debate and not long after I left the company, these guys were carrying on like (profanity) but they didn't deserve to have power abused against them and did not deserve a savage beating, they were drunk so we had them outmatched and dealt with, and anyone in the security industry worth their grain in salt can deal with a volatile situation most of the time without violence and even if there is no other option, only minimal force is required to fit the situation.

      As for shop lifting… i've done my time with loss prevention.

      Here is the shock for you… most places do not and are not allowed to care about it.

      The saddest part of it is it makes people feel like they have a right or even a righteousness about stealing.

      The sad fact is shrinkage really does affect bottomlines, your kid not getting enough hours at woolies, the price or your razorblades going up, automated checkouts, it's all due to theft.

      Stores will use any excuse to screw you over at the checkout, they won't hire extra security to prevent it, they've kind of accepted that apart from token moves shrinkage is an accepted fact of life, given how many criminals know laws back to front and i'm being careful how I word this because I don't want to inspire anyone, a lot of stores have not only given up the battle to anyone who is not brazen enough, they will have people actively TRYING to be caught.

      You will next to never see security arresting people, the penalty for false imprisonment / deprivation of liberty is complete crap.

      Criminals do have more rights that victims and if they know how to use them properly its dangerous and stores know this.

      They would rather scare you into not stealing, let the milkyway get stolen then risk some overzealous staff member or mallcop perform a citizens arrest, because not only are there sick people around who pretend to steal hoping to get false arrest / DOL'd they can also steal to a point and have a criminal lawyer who is versed in their level of crapulance that they will not only have them caught red handed and let off but suing the store within 48 hours for god knows what.

      We've had to let off young girls stealing $1000 of cosmetics because they were banking on and got the frontend manager to aprehend them, and despite them going nowhere near them and simply blocking an exit and waited for us to arrive (we count as professional witnesses for the cops) they've then claimed a male manager has touched them to prevent their exit, so all of a sudden we've gone from an open and shut case with a manager blocking the exist which in itself can stupidly be argued as deprivation of liberty despite them having a backpack loaded with stolen goods to a sexual assault case where they claim the sex crazed family man touched them in their no-no place.

      A long criminal history at this point also gets ignored in court, next thing you know the staff member is fired and the felon walks. Another day at the office, you bust them again next week stealing pens they had the money to buy at a newsagent.

      • [Deactivated] on 06/03/2018 - 06:41
        +80

        i'm not a big talker

        I'm thinking that according to your first two answers that you are. +1 for effort

        • Scrooge McDuck on 06/03/2018 - 12:48

          Perhaps he meant that he's not a big writer. It certainly seems that way.

      • haboutnnah on 06/03/2018 - 21:06
        +1

        We've had to let off young girls stealing $1000 of cosmetics because they were banking on and got the frontend manager to aprehend them, and despite them going nowhere near them and simply blocking an exit and waited for us to arrive (we count as professional witnesses for the cops) they've then claimed a male manager has touched them to prevent their exit, so all of a sudden we've gone from an open and shut case with a manager blocking the exist which in itself can stupidly be argued as deprivation of liberty despite them having a backpack loaded with stolen goods to a sexual assault case where they claim the sex crazed family man touched them in their no-no place.

        wtf

      • [Deactivated] on 08/03/2018 - 13:04

        TO be fair, Bikies are OzBargain's dispute resolution service of choice, the Air Force agrees. They know damn well they are bikies, it's no accident - when you've got a country to secure you go for the best

    • kipps on 06/03/2018 - 08:03
      +1

      No wonder why the bricks and mortar stores are so damn expensive when /r/shoplifting seems to tell you how to do it. Ridiculous.

      • scrimshaw on 06/03/2018 - 11:47

        😲 I can't believe Reddit let a subreddit like that exist.

        • abb on 06/03/2018 - 12:08
          +4

          You must be new to Reddit. There are (or have been) much worse.

        • unelectric on 07/03/2018 - 23:25
          +1

          Until the media reports on it expect those subreddits to stay open.

        • Kangal on 08/03/2018 - 18:30

          @phosphoresce:
          I don't see what the fuss is all about… it's the internet, it would be like going to the ocean and saying whatever you like.

          And the amount of amateur things and BS you see on Reddit means it's not the best source of information.

          I mean you can Google and find out how to shoplift from all over the internet… you can't target Reddit only, that's discrimination, you would have to block all those websites and potentially all open forums, ending free-speech.

        • unelectric on 08/03/2018 - 19:03

          @Kangal: As other commenter noted, learning how to shoplift is the least of reddit's subreddit issue. There's one that houses pictures of dead kids.

        • Kangal on 08/03/2018 - 19:26
          +1

          @phosphoresce:

          Yeah, see that's where I draw my line. In fact, slightly earlier at dead people.
          Dead animals could be bad if its something like a freshly tortured dead German Shepherd corpse hanging off a vertical spike/impalement done for saddistic entertainment purposes… but a squished cockroach is fine with me.

          I don't know why, but its an impossible task to ask people to be civil, even on this website.
          So policing something like reddit is always going to be a frustrating endeavour where you'd probably see threads get banned like "how to annoy neighbours" but other threads will get a free-pass like "how to poison my coworker".

          Case in point, Google's terrible copyright infarction system on YouTube.

  • [Deactivated] on 06/03/2018 - 06:35
    +5

    How many people have you bashed, shot, etc?

    • typhoonadventure on 06/03/2018 - 18:17
      +2

      None.

      • Kangal on 08/03/2018 - 18:31
        +1

        /endthread

        • typhoonadventure on 08/03/2018 - 18:35

          It's not the purpose of our job, and it's something that is to be avoided at all costs.

          A big myth about this sector is certain roles in it require trained fighters and that the job role consists of fighting.

          It's just a myth. Our goal is to provide and encourage safety.

          The 1% of times there is an unavoidable incident, as boring as it sounds, we want to end it as quickly as possible with minimal damage to anyone involved.

          But our biggest function is to try to prevent it from reaching that point.

      • gimli on 08/03/2018 - 19:30

        Not sure which clowns are negging you…

        • typhoonadventure on 08/03/2018 - 20:09

          It goes to show a standard of treatment most security staffers have to go through.

          Trust me you can be stabilizing a casualty with an ambulance on the way while their bf that gave them the narcotics that made them collapse is kicking you the ribs, with an entire crowd around you looking on as your backup is trying to non-violently restrain the bf kicking you, and you will still have people criticizing you and claiming your partner brutalized the bf. Comes with the territory, you get used to it.

  • theHMASfriendship on 06/03/2018 - 06:42
    +10

    I'd like to advise you that I don't have anything to ask.

    • freakatronic on 08/03/2018 - 13:43
      +1

      Duly noted with thanks.

  • John Kimble on 06/03/2018 - 06:55
    +4

    What myths can you bust?

  • Godric on 06/03/2018 - 08:18
    +1

    Have you worked with pegaxs irl?

    • pegaxs on 06/03/2018 - 10:51
      +3

      Yeah, I want to know this as well… :D

    • typhoonadventure on 06/03/2018 - 18:18
      -1

      ?

  • oscargamer on 06/03/2018 - 09:05

    How much did you earn last financial year?

    • typhoonadventure on 06/03/2018 - 18:51
      -6

      Can't comment on that sorry.

      • oscargamer on 06/03/2018 - 19:25
        +11

        why not?

        i earned about 93k, before tax

        you really seem to have an ego the size of a small planet

        the reason for my question was to see if you would reply

        i deal with you 'security' people on a daily basis

        wannabe cops

        failed, wannabe cops

        all talk, no trousers

        • typhoonadventure on 06/03/2018 - 21:17
          +5

          It's kind of coming across the other way mate, most of the time those accusing security of those things are stereotyping all of us based on personal experience and not fact.

          Members of the industry have to pass background checks and live their lives differently to continue to hold their licenses, and those that specialize even more so, many have not even applied for the police force.

          If you have some evidence that backs up your claims please by all means present it, but this is kind of why we decided to have a bit of a chat on this post, given the owner of one of the companies I consult with wished to know current public opinion no holds barred.

          I'd love some more details on your views of the security industry, how they came to be if you don't mind.

        • Mokr on 08/03/2018 - 09:58
          +3

          @typhoonadventure:

          Security gaurds aren't even subject to drug test and alcohol tests. Train drivers have more stringent checks. I get the feeling you just like to talk and bluff a bit.

        • typhoonadventure on 08/03/2018 - 10:50

          @mokr: We actually are.

          The most common thing for liquor licensing or police to do when doing an onsite test the first thing to occur is usually an alcohol test.

          During any incident where there is a police investigation it is also the first thing to occur. I don't know what your experience is with this but it's also been standard practice in my state for quite a while and it does nab people.

      • BestofOZB on 07/03/2018 - 19:08
        +12

        Why do AMA if you can't answer that!

        • typhoonadventure on 08/03/2018 - 10:48
          -1

          because i've signed off on strict agreements over it. As stated earlier, I had to get permission for this ama, that is one item i'm not allowed to talk about.

        • sam91 on 09/03/2018 - 16:31
          -1

          @typhoonadventure:

          mate its just your salary, you aren't reveling nuclear codes ffs.

  • good grape on 06/03/2018 - 09:37

    What is the most ridiculous thing you've seen on the job?

    • typhoonadventure on 06/03/2018 - 18:19

      That is a hard one to answer, would you say in a comedic haha that's a funny story kind of thing, or just really messed up?

      • EightImmortals on 06/03/2018 - 18:54
        +1

        Do the messed up one first.

        • typhoonadventure on 06/03/2018 - 20:01
          +1

          There are lots, and as you may have gathered from above comments, i'm more of a report writer and a lot of the time for public disclosure we still have to change how things are disclosed to the public, IE, make something seem less worse than it was, or prevent people from reading things into situations.

          Also attempt to write in a way to keep it interesting as a lot of the time, I read situations back in report writing format, which i've been told to the public is not very interesting so apologies if it's a bit hard to follow sometimes as I realized while writing another comment I may have to explain some procedures.

          Australia day this year, two blood related males starting a fight, harassing people, followed by one heavily inflicting a headwound on the other, police called, both ordered out of the area by police, only to return later, one solicit for narcotics, the other male then returning, and instead of fighting, they ended up having sexual intercourse in a public access park, could have gone my entire life without having to see that.

          Drugs are bad…

        • EightImmortals on 07/03/2018 - 07:12

          @typhoonadventure: Actually I think it's people that are bad, some drugs just bring out what is already there. Can be a good revelation for some..if they are paying attention.

        • cannedhams on 07/03/2018 - 19:48
          +1

          @typhoonadventure: I'm a lawyer, and right up until the last bit I was thinking I've seen worse stories than this.

        • typhoonadventure on 07/03/2018 - 21:02

          @cannedhams: I bet you are at a point where due to our industry everytime you hear the following statement

          "So is it reasonable force if…" and you are just like… here we go again…

        • cannedhams on 08/03/2018 - 07:27
          +1

          @typhoonadventure: well pretty much.

          I dont think people realise that killing someone is a hell of a thing and if you are any kind of normal person it is going to weigh on you for the rest of your life. Also, its not like in the movies in that it creates a hell of a mess. Its not something I would do just to stop my DVD player getting stolen.

    • typhoonadventure on 07/03/2018 - 07:53

      As for ridiculous haha… this is a regular occurrence especially during loss prevention, just the levels people will go to for theft.

      I'll just go for most recent one on the weekend during a large car race here, had someone risk their life to steal a broken spoiler from a wrecked car…

  • dasher86 on 06/03/2018 - 09:57
    -2

    when was the last time you rain into your from hell?

  • dogboy on 06/03/2018 - 09:59

    Sounds like a buzzfeed article from the title.

  • Twodogs on 06/03/2018 - 10:43
    +1

    That was a good read , thanks.

  • [Deactivated] on 06/03/2018 - 11:53
    +2

    are you on the gear, brah?

    • typhoonadventure on 06/03/2018 - 18:20
      -1

      Actually last night was on the bourbon. We aren't allowed to drink on duty, i've not had too many nights off in a while so last night and my staff had a bit of a drinking session hence the relaxed writing.

      • Scrooge McDuck on 07/03/2018 - 13:22
        +1

        Way to dodge the question.

        • typhoonadventure on 07/03/2018 - 14:09

          We get drug tested frequently, if any members of our industry work closely with police, court or firearms operations it's not as random it can be incredibly frequent.

          It's a standard feature most of the time where any inspection by authorities will involve an alcohol breath test, depending on your role you will often get someone showing up with the uniforms to take a swab sample for narcotics, if that comes in with any indicators you are immediately suspended and taken for further testing.

        • Scrooge McDuck on 07/03/2018 - 14:14
          +3

          @typhoonadventure:

          The Dark Lord was asking you about anabolic steroids.

        • typhoonadventure on 07/03/2018 - 14:39
          +1

          @Scrooge McDuck: Ah.

          100% with you now, used to gear being a reference for class 1 narcotics. This is an area which to be honest has been an issue a while ago and we're limited with what we can do.

          What you are referring to is part of what you will have seen me referring to as some of the negative stereotypes of the industry which are unfortunately true. Each hiring decision i've been involved in including establishing hiring policies for companies, risk assessments (this is a massive part of the business) we hand down a recommendation to avoid certain types.

          We have to be careful how we place it not to run a foul of discrimination laws, certain steroids do show up on drug tests but sad truth is a lot of them do not.

          A lot of companies have a you showed up, you passed a drug test, your license is valid, you are hired.

          This is unfortunately a process for large scale events where a company has procured a contract where they have no interest in quality service, so they will literally just fill staff requirements, in many cases you will find a staff hire company or some of the larger companies have outbid other companies, don't have the staff and literally hire anyone that show up.

          It's currently happening for the commonwealth games, I wish I was joking about this and it's a big problem in the industry.

          Most reasonable companies won't hire people who fail the interview test, if you show up late and you have not got a good excuse, brag about fights you've been in, as well as a ton of other red flags, we make it clear what we expect of staff, someone can still give us the answers we want to hear, if we get the impression you are bs-ing us, sometimes we'll give you a trial, if it's pretty clear cut, thank you for coming in.

          We have to be very careful with certain things as it can be argued in one direction or another it's active discrimination, but we see a lot of use of steroids as failing the personality test, a good friend of mine from youthgroup has been a body builder for 15 years, does not use steroids, he's now 36 and he's pretty much a really good guide of what someone should look like doing it clean.

          When you have a 40 year old come in with veins popping out of their forehead, certain attitude cues, yes it's pretty clear they will be using, and it's not someone we want in the industry, and when you get a 20 year old coming in who's absolutely massive, they generally throw off other red flags. We've only had one occasion of catching someone juicing on duty and being able to dismiss them for it, and to be honest the company had numerous warning signs, just the behavior was a start and every time this person was seen they were snacking on certain things… This and numerous complaints for hostile behavior. I was not in management at this time and this was one of the larger companies in my state, he got caught juicing up and the next week he was working for another company.

          Not a fan of it and it's something we've been working with current legislation to stamp out through what legal methods we can, one of the things we've been actively campaigning for in the last decade is a national security licensing scheme with national requirements in training and conditions of duty, non-medical exempted steroid use would definitely be a consideration we'd lobby for on it.

          Take for example the juicer above, it did affect their duty, I recently went on tour with a hip hop act in rural areas, one guard I met in a rural area was transitioning in gender, due to this they were taking steroids for medical reasons, yes it would have given them an edge strength wise but they were required to see a psych during this to monitor aggression levels, i'm not a doctor, they had a doctor who approved them for duty in the role they were in and they were apparently on a dose that wasn't going to give them stupid huge muscles or mess with their ability to think clearly, so I have to say they were no issues.

          They explained it to us before duty and asked us if we had any concerns, questions were asked in relation to stability and they presented a medical certificate and a letter from consumer and business services approving them to be on duty so they had obviously satisfied them.

          I think it comes down to a line of when it goes from medical to something nefarious.

        • Kangal on 08/03/2018 - 19:13
          +1

          @typhoonadventure:

          What keyboard do you use, and can you do my 3,000 word essay?

        • typhoonadventure on 08/03/2018 - 20:06

          @Kangal: AORUS :D

        • gimli on 08/03/2018 - 21:20

          @typhoonadventure:
          it was a yes/no question. LOL

        • typhoonadventure on 08/03/2018 - 21:29

          @Gimli: You asked on the keyboard brand

        • gimli on 08/03/2018 - 21:30

          @typhoonadventure:
          lol. :)

          are you on the gear, brah?

          The Dark Lord was asking you about anabolic steroids.

  • Darron65 on 06/03/2018 - 12:53
    +1

    I enjoyed your stories. My brother went into security after military too. Very similar accounts, very credible.

    • typhoonadventure on 06/03/2018 - 18:22
      +1

      You'd be surprised how common this is, you can likely understand as well what we can and can't say and how we have to dance around facts when writing stuff like this as well.

      We've got a lot of people like myself who after injury were told we could not perform certain functions, yet here we are in other industries performing similar roles doing said functions in contradiction to what discharge notes say.

      • BestofOZB on 07/03/2018 - 19:13

        Because doing those functions in security is different from doing them in the army perhaps? 🤔

        • typhoonadventure on 07/03/2018 - 19:22

          rofl. oh there are definitely similarities between officers mess duty and some jobs :P

        • buckster on 07/03/2018 - 21:51

          @typhoonadventure: I guess the difference being that your employer won't necessarily be liable for any future issue arising from the previous injury where the army would have been?

        • typhoonadventure on 07/03/2018 - 22:04

          @buckster: I was more referring to the fact that the amount of times during a function you'd have personnel having too much fun and certain people being given the duty of making sure they don't cause trouble / have the mp's show up.

          As for the injury yeah… pretty much.

  • [Deactivated] on 06/03/2018 - 16:59
    +1

    Lets say I own a hand gun. Let's say my handgun is kept in a concealed compartment in my house within easy reach. It is biometric and RFID locked.

    In the case of an unwanted entry into my residence, can I discharge a gun to incapacitate (ie. Into the leg, not necessarily knee cap) and at what point can I take a shot at a non-vital organ but cause permanent damage (ie knee cap). At what point can I use lethal force?

    Is concealed storage (not concealed carry) with the intent for quick accessibility in home invasions permissible?

    Ofcourse, liability waiver - your response is not a replacement for professional advice and is purely for the purpose of entertainment.

    • typhoonadventure on 06/03/2018 - 18:28

      Where to even begin with this one…

      Short answer our laws would not allow such a situation to occur.

      I can go into more detail later if you like, but this would have to deal with a lot of firearms laws, security laws and so on but our self defense laws in australia are all based upon reasonable force.

      If you like I can follow up on this a bit later and break down the individual elements of it for their real world counterparts.

      • [Deactivated] on 06/03/2018 - 19:05
        +1

        That would be much appreciated.

        • oscargamer on 06/03/2018 - 19:27
          -5

          he is talking shit, knows nothing

          wouldn't know legislation if it bit him in the bum

          the reason he will go into detail 'later' is that he would have to research it

        • typhoonadventure on 06/03/2018 - 20:42
          +7

          [@oscargamer]: Was actually at fire service training, also a vol firefighter.

          [@tshow]:

          Let's unpack this :

          "Lets say I own a hand gun."

          Well lets start here, if you have a civilian handgun license you are required to belong to a club, shooting in sanctioned events, you have to have a correctly categorized storage condition, check in with new laws to see what requirements are for the new conditions of H category with POU1 (club use).

          If you have security industry which is H category with POU6, you most likely have your duty weapon stored in an armory at work.

          "Let's say my handgun is kept in a concealed compartment in my house within easy reach. It is biometric and RFID locked."

          I'd hope not, to comply with regulations if you have a H1 license your storage conditions need to meet relevant legislation that has just been updated, the idea is new restrictions on storage condition, which while it could be concealed it would pretty difficult, we're talking about getting a new compliance safe into a concealed location, it's a bit of an ask at this point in time given the new regulations coming in as part of the NFA updates. There is a grandfather clause for all safes not deemed to fit in under the new system but you need an inspection, if the registrar or firearms or police in your state or territory deem your storage conditions are insufficient which given your statement of easy reach… this would most likely not meet requirements.

          "In the case of an unwanted entry into my residence,"
          Call the police, run or hide. do not engage.

          "can I discharge a gun"
          Solid no, Purpose of use 1 (club use), you can only fire it at an approved club, under the conditions in which they are approved to allow you to do so in.

          Purpose of use 6, security, you can only discharge it in the case that your life or someone elses life is in danger and you have absolutely no other option, there is a lot more to it than this, i'd suggest studying a h6 course for more information.

          All of our self defence laws are based on reasonable use of force, there is NO provision under most civilian firearms laws to use firearms for defense, security allows for it but only under strict circumstances.

          "to incapacitate (ie. Into the leg, not necessarily knee cap) and at what point can I take a shot at a non-vital organ but cause permanent damage (ie knee cap). At what point can I use lethal force?"

          Not going to go deep into this one, but this myth is busted early into firearms training. Law enforcement are taught to never deliberately take a lethal shot, the idea is to neutralize the threat, but at the same time, its too risky to perform "theatrical" shots, a lot of myths about this is down to hollywood.

          Those who go through this training are trained extremely well, and do the best they can, unfortunately there are many "experts" out there.

          I'm sure the person commenting above is about to apparently school me on my job and legislation, or tell us all that law enforcement know nothing.

          I can do an AMA another day on firearms but to be honest, that will get highjacked by politics and self proclaimed experts, both of which should have nothing to do with the subject.

          "Is concealed storage (not concealed carry) with the intent for quick accessibility in home invasions permissible?"
          Solid no, you can even get done for having items for the purpose of home defense, you may be able to explain away having a cricket bat by the front door or in the backseat of your car with the reason that you played cricket this morning, but use them in a defense situation where it can't be argued there was a legitimate reason why the item was there, and that the use of it was reasonable, you will go down for it.

          We've had a few situations for example on this :
          One person caught someone breaking into their house, hit them with a brick and tied them up until police got there.
          Got charged to my recollection with assault and false imprisonment. It got argued that the brick was excessive force and that they deprived them of liberty so instead of the intruder going before the court, they did.

          Guy had a drug thief come to the wrong address to raid the property for drugs, during the attempted home invasion the homeowner stuck a samurai sword through the crack in the door wounding the home invader. Got done for an illegal weapon and assault.

          So would not recommend these things, the best advice?
          Lock your homes up well, get security systems, call the police. Don't take the law into your own hands.

          "Ofcourse, liability waiver - your response is not a replacement for professional advice and is purely for the purpose of entertainment."
          Exactly lol its why this occurred, my boss thought it would be a good laugh, helps us gauge as well the public's impression of our industry

          We always recommend seeking correct legal advice, despite my experience in the industry both practicing and teaching various aspects of it, it is no substitute for sound legal advice.

          To quote my boss on this one, we are ambassadors for the industry, it's always good to seek out ways we can interact with the public, engage with them in a positive way to improve relations and understanding of our role in society.

          So a bit of fun, and hopefully after this people have a better understanding that we arent self proclaimed bouncers, hard-cases and failed police. There are those people in the industry but with how regulation is going we are likely going to see less and less of that.

        • [Deactivated] on 06/03/2018 - 20:51
          +1

          @typhoonadventure:
          Thanks for the reply. That's similar to what a police officer told me.

          It's too bad that the law (as you described, and I cannot dispute as this is a very complex part of legislation) protects the armed intruder before the victims. Of course the following argument is "of course if the intruder is armed, you'll be excused" or "you don't know if the intruder has intent to harm", well… I'm not one to hold a conversation with a criminal in the act.

        • typhoonadventure on 06/03/2018 - 21:13
          +1

          @tshow: You'd be surprised the amount of times we've heard messed up situations where someone has protected themselves to what someone would deem reasonable under the pub test, only to have the courts turn around and convict them.

          So it's always good to have in the back of your mind, again movies and public opinion commonly give a different idea to what the legal side of things actually are.

        • [Deactivated] on 06/03/2018 - 21:29
          +1

          @typhoonadventure:
          I actually follow closely any home invasions involving occupants that have discharged a firearm (not necessarily hitting anyone).

          I am not sure if the defendants (which sadly means the victim of the home invasions) were poorly briefed or made some technical mistakes (like saying anything other than they were fearing for their life) or that the definition of proportionate force is poorly defined but government enforced removal of my rights to defence is down right criminal.

        • EightImmortals on 07/03/2018 - 07:17

          @tshow: Lols, if the intruder is armed then please ask him to be patient while you go to your gun safe, find the keys, unlock the safe and retrieve your weapon. Then make him a cuppa while you go to the place where the ammo is kept and load the gun. Once ready you can inform the intruder that he is OK to continue robbing your home and assaulting your wife and kids.

          C'mon, politicians in all their wisdom and experience have figured all this out for you, easy peasy.

        • [Deactivated] on 07/03/2018 - 15:49
          +1

          @EightImmortals:
          They've figured out a lot of things for people. In Victoria, they've figured out people are so stupid, they shouldn't put out a fire even if the firefighters aren't even close.

          I mean some people really are but generally not everyone needs to expose themselves to salmonella or engage a forum to find out if washing a car before the rain is worth it.

        • EightImmortals on 07/03/2018 - 17:00
          +1

          @tshow: Maybe not yet…but we're getting there. :)

        • typhoonadventure on 07/03/2018 - 18:46

          @tshow: Victoria… I feel for a lot of our brothers in sisters in yellow there. Not too long ago they found out one of their main training centers there was contributing to cancer and other health issues due to safety issues there.

        • Wallyt99 on 07/03/2018 - 19:22
          +1

          @typhoonadventure: As I understood it Cops are taught to aim for the biggest part. One the Torso. I also believe most cops get very little (bordering on zero) firearms training and most will never discharge their weapon and most couldn't hit the side of a barn from 3 metres.

        • typhoonadventure on 07/03/2018 - 19:29

          @Wallyt99:

          Center body mass. As for the rest of that comment, I can't make any comment on that, when it comes to firearms, even in an AMA i'd be extremely careful mentioning things further.

          In this country anything firearms related is taken extremely serious, in a training environment I can go further into detail but it would not really benefit this AMA discussing the role of firearms use any further.

          In a professional setting you can ask a police training officer or security training officer in an official capacity, as statements in further detail of this are carefully worded.

          Maybe another day ill do a firearms AMA, but i'd have to seek permission to do so, this AMA alone I obviously had approval to do so.

        • downbythecreek on 08/03/2018 - 00:25

          When I went through the college in 2006 I got 5 weeks of firearms and defensive tactics training, I had to pass a qualification shoot. Each year I would complete a 4-5 day recert with another qualification shoot and have a 3 day range session for continuity training, more if I could convince the boss to release me for it. New weapon qualifications were generally 5 days and would tack an extra 3 days to the end of your recert. Anytime a new holster or a different load bearing setup was released I had to go through a qualification process.

          Based on my fairly vanilla experience and how much I had to learn and continue to prove to carry a firearm every day, I'd say most cops know how to shoot.
          I've been out for a while now, I'd still be comfortable with my shooting ability if I ever needed to

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