“Rogue” Security Officers Pose a Threat to Life and Public Safety

The dangers of this should be apparent to everyone. Fraudulent licences, or genuine licences obtained fraudulently by cutting corners, are putting lives at risk. In the event of a major safety or security incident, it is vital that security guards are trained to an SIA industry standard, can call the emergency services and communicate with the public. It is inconceivable to allow anyone to become a security guard or door supervisor who cannot speak English or who cannot administer vital ‘first person on scene’ lifesaving first aid.

We only have to look at the tragedy of the Manchester Arena bombing to see what the potential outcomes would look like if these dangerous people - with their inadequate training and accreditation for security staff  and with their minimal or non-existent operational capabilities inevitably fail to protect the public.

In 2022, 954 licenses were suspended, and 1,260 licenses were revoked by the SIA. 

Halo Solutions notes that for the last couple of months it has been working with clients to build a new Halo Accreditation Module to help tackle this issue. This will now be extended to SIA-approved security training providers and will be available from next month (December 2023). The Halo (v5) crowd safety and security software will now allow security training providers to: 

·  Link their BS7858 screening and vetting responsibilities to verify the identity of trainee security guards taking SIA courses.

·  Have the ability to prove the people attending their courses are who they say they are.

·  The ability to include facial recognition and the generating of a unique verified ID and pass for each person.

·  Trainee security guards can be scanned in at the start of each day and scanned out at the end of each day, making sure they attend the course in full.

·  Generate audit trails for training logs for both the approved security guard and the SIA training provider.

·  The Halo accreditation pass will act as their company ID card and support with access control at sites and events that the security guard is approved for.

·  Integration with the Halo (v5) crowd safety and security platform operated by event security teams.

Lloyd Major added:

Thankfully this very serious issue is confined to a small rogue element of training providers who are putting the safety and security of the public at risk. We work with some fantastic SIA approved training providers who have some of the very highest professional standards of training and who continually invest in both the training and accreditation of security staff.

Halo Solutions, a British security technology company which was founded by Lloyd Major, has quickly established itself as one of the leading crowd security and safety technology companies in the world, with its Halo (v5) incident and threat management software platform. 

Lloyd Major’s policing career saw him sit on the National Policing Events Gold Group (NPEGG), the Tactical Training and Equipment Working Group (TTEWG) and as an expert advisor to the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) for officer safety and public order. He also worked across England in operational planning units, including sitting on Safety Advisory Groups (SAGs) for specialist planning advice for thousands of events, major tournaments and operations.

Halo (v5) 
The Halo (v5) software system was designed with public safety and security at its core, to assist with rapid decision-making, the ability to integrate streams of information and intelligence to enable faster responses and ultimately protect the public and save lives. Halo (v5) acts as a central command-and-control function that operates from a standard laptop, tablet or smart phone and can bring together more than 10 different systems integrated into one, with more than 75 client-led features. It integrates monitoring and recording of multiple feeds of information across a venue, from security, CCTV and live drone feeds to health and safety, cleaning, medical, public reporting, video streaming, ticket scanning and accreditation – and next year will include crowd management, crowd density, flow, sentiment, mood and capacity. 

Halo Solutions has played an important role in protecting people at some of the biggest events, among them the coronation of King Charles III, the Eurovision song contest, FIFA World Cup fan zones in Qatar, the Miami F1 Grand Prix, Silverstone’s British Grand Prix and Moto GP. It has also protected fans at some of the UK’s biggest entertainment events, from Notting Hill Carnival and Glastonbury to the Edinburgh Military Tattoo. 

The crowd and event safety platform has also been deployed at the NEC Exhibition Center in Birmingham, ExCeL London, Motorpoint Arena Nottingham and ACC Liverpool. The Halo (v5) crowd safety platform has also played a major role in protecting the public across major rail transport infrastructure and stations across the UK.