Adequate countermeasures will serve to evade potential security threats

Dear Editor,
I was not very surprised when I read the report that a prominent security company had been robbed on December 3, 2022, of the salary to pay its guards. My first thought was that with an almost sole reliance on CCTV and other surveillance security cameras, the importance of the human element has all but diminished. These cameras simply record what occurs and have no control over the space they are covering.
The fact that two perpetrators could have the audacity and opportunity to rob a security company of its payroll is enough to make real security experts wonder if there is some kind of quality control and assurance system complied with by the plethora of security companies. In my opinion, the Guyana Association of Private Security Organisations ought to have such a system in place to monitor adherence to set national standards and international good practices. For example, apart from initial training upon recruitment (if that at all happens), is there an in-service training regimen which keeps security officers upskilled?
I think that we could agree that nothing will remain static in this expanding economy with an increasing demand for security coverage ranging from physical property to executive protection. In that regard, security service providers will of necessity have to up their game and move away from an attitude where the mere detailing of a guard to a post is the sum total of their understanding of security coverage. It is not unheard of that security chiefs can be asked to provide security assessments which consider factors including within the social, political, legal, economic and environmental framework.
Notwithstanding the foregoing however, we must keep an eye on the basics, among which is the understanding that as much as there are crimes of opportunity, it behoves security service providers to put measures in place to thwart those which are meticulously planned. One oft-ignored measure is surveillance detection which can best be described as “the art of prevention” “an effective early warning system for preventing crime and terrorism”. The advent of foreign oil and gas executives and line workers makes it imperative that we as a nation put all systems in place to ensure that Guyana does not gain the unenviable reputation of being a hotbed for incidents where foreign nationals and their families are targets of transnational extremists. Therefore, the employment of adequate surveillance countermeasures will serve to evade and elude potential security threats. As someone asked, is anyone listening?

Yours faithfully,
Patrick E Mentore