Private securityIowa mall shooting draws attention to lack of private security preparedness

Published 26 June 2015

A fatal 12 June shooting by Alexander Kozak, an off-duty security guard at the Coral Ridge Mall in Coralville, Iowa has highlighted the lack of screening regulations in private security firms. In Iowa, for example, despite licensing by Iowa Code Section 80A, many private security guards working at state malls, schools, and corporations have no training requirements and dodgy background check rules.

A fatal 12 June shooting by Alexander Kozak, an off-duty security guard at the Coral Ridge Mall in Coralville, Iowa has highlighted the lack of screening regulations in private security firms.

As theCedar Rapids Gazette reports, despite licensing by Iowa Code Section 80A, many private security guards working at state malls, schools, and corporations have no training requirements and dodgy background check rules.

“Most organizations want to give the appearance of security, but they don’t want the substance,” said Tom Conley, the president of the Conley Group, a private security company.

Though a mandatory background check is required for new guards, and finger prints must be submitted for state and federal checks, the guards are still given temporary work authorization for fourteen days. A “guard card” is then issued for the employee, but never expires and requires no further background check ups.

“It certainly creates the possibility that a guard could be convicted of crimes without the state’s or employer’s knowledge,” said Ross Loder, the chief of the Iowa Department of Public Safety (DPS), which issues the cards. “I’m not aware of any significant problems that result from the current structure. One reason companies may not order periodic background checks is the $40 cost.”

Additionally, Iowa currently has no required training for employees of private security companies.

“[That] means many guards are not prepared for emergency situations, Conley said. “In traditional guard companies, if you want to apply as a security guard, you do a 10-minute interview and you’re hired. By 10:45 a.m. you’ve got your uniform and you’re on a post by noon.”

Sandi Davies, the executive director of the International Foundation for Protection Officers, added that few states have any training regulations at all.

“Only 10 to 12 states have some form of training requirement, and even that is minimal,” she said. “Back in the old days of security guards, there weren’t many threats. There are more threats now, and security employees are protecting people and property in a much bigger way.”

Further, mall shootings in the United States and beyond have also become more common, with the murder of sixty people by masked terrorists in an upscale Kenyan mall in 2013, and nineteen killed by Robert Hawkins in an Omaha mall in 2007.

“You see these mall security and you wonder what kind of security they are providing, other than a uniform and a radio,” said Representative Clel Baudler (R-Iowa), a retired state trooper who chairs the House Public Safety Committee.

Universal Services of America, the firm which hired Kozak, released a statement that he had quit the company hours before the shooting took place.

Private security professionals report that low wages — Kozak made $11.25/hr — and high turnover in the industry lead to inexperienced guards who may not normally fit the ideal character traits that security companies look for. They urge that both the federal and state governments, as well as the companies that employ security guards, consider the greater responsibilities of regulation.

“When you’re responsible for other people, you have to operate at a higher level,” Conley said.