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Passage to India: lots of guards, but are they trained?
Written by Glen Kitteringham, on Mon-February-2010
I just returned from an 18 day trip to Delhi, India. I went there to train Certified Protection Officer Instructors on behalf of the International Foundation for Protection Officers for G4S Security (India). G4S India has an ambitious plan to train their guards to the Certified Protection Officer standard within three years.
They strongly believe this initiative will give them an edge over their many competitors. I asked someone familiar with the Indian security industry if there were any official estimates of how many guards there are in the industry. I was told the government was not keeping numbers as yet. However, I was told there were likely 10,000 guard companies from the small mom and pop operations to international contract security companies in Delhi and the surrounding area.
With an estimated population of 30 million in Delhi and surrounding area, and 1.2 billion in the country, this may well be true. I personally estimate there are several million guards in the country. From my arrival straight through to departure I saw guards everywhere. Manpower is extremely cheap with the average guard making around Rupees 4000/month. At 42 rupees per Canadian dollar, this works out to about $95/month.
The first guard I saw was in the Indira Gandhi International Airport. He was stationed at the bottom of an escalator in the arrivals area. Presumably, his job was to turn the escalator off in the event there was a problem with it.
The next day, Sunday, I was picked up by a senior trainer with G4S who would be my escort for much of my time in country. We drove to a local mall. There were two guards stationed at the underground parkade entrance conducting vehicle searches. The first guard, using a wheeled mirror would slide the contraption under the front of the vehicle. I guess he was looking for explosives but as he slid the mirror beneath the vehicle I saw he didnt even look down. The second guard had us pop the rear door hatch. He waved a hand-held metal detector around for a few seconds before closing the hatch. I was told he was looking for explosives. Good luck with that.
Heading into the underground parking lot, there were several more guards directing traffic. Once parked, we went to an elevator bank where we walked through a full body metal detector before being patted down. We jumped on an elevator, also operated by a uniformed guard.
We wandered around the mall for about an hour as I checked out the operation. Each retailer had one or two uniformed guards stationed at their entrances. The mall property management company also had their own guards located throughout the mall. Many of the guard companies had different uniforms. My escort informed me that there was little interaction between the retail guards and the mall guards so that there would be little or no coordination of response if there were any incidents in the mall.
I estimated the number of guards at this one little shopping mall at about 200. The guards I saw were mostly unarmed but one large mall that I did go to did have one security guard armed with a double barred 12 gauge shotgun. I did see that he had six shotgun shells on an ammunition holder on the stock of the gun. I often saw metal detectors located in a number of shopping districts, quite often with no one around. I would walk through the detector, it would beep, presumably activated by my cellphone or watch but no one was there to search me so it seemed a waste of time to me.
Lack of training is a major problem as many security companies dont provide it. Quite often they simply hire guards away from those organizations that do.
I also went to an ASIS New Delhi chapter breakfast. There are only two chapters in the country, the other is in Mumbai. One of my co-facilitators, who had retired from the Indian army, was a member of the chapter. He had obtained his CPP a few years previous. The guest speaker, an American corporate security officer conducted a presentation on supply chain security.
After the presentation, the chapter conducted its executive business. Meeting business was the same as what I had sat through many a time here in Canada. Discussions ranged from whether to increase chapter dues, what to charge for breakfast, how to get more members out for the meetings, who could present at the next breakfast, etc.
I will say that in the short time I was in India, the senior security people I dealt with were as professional and knowledgeable as any I have dealt with any in the world. I was treated with the utmost respect and the Indians were amazing hosts, second to none.
Canadian Security Magazine - Passage to India: lots of guards, but are they trained?
Written by Glen Kitteringham, on Mon-February-2010
I just returned from an 18 day trip to Delhi, India. I went there to train Certified Protection Officer Instructors on behalf of the International Foundation for Protection Officers for G4S Security (India). G4S India has an ambitious plan to train their guards to the Certified Protection Officer standard within three years.
They strongly believe this initiative will give them an edge over their many competitors. I asked someone familiar with the Indian security industry if there were any official estimates of how many guards there are in the industry. I was told the government was not keeping numbers as yet. However, I was told there were likely 10,000 guard companies from the small mom and pop operations to international contract security companies in Delhi and the surrounding area.
With an estimated population of 30 million in Delhi and surrounding area, and 1.2 billion in the country, this may well be true. I personally estimate there are several million guards in the country. From my arrival straight through to departure I saw guards everywhere. Manpower is extremely cheap with the average guard making around Rupees 4000/month. At 42 rupees per Canadian dollar, this works out to about $95/month.
The first guard I saw was in the Indira Gandhi International Airport. He was stationed at the bottom of an escalator in the arrivals area. Presumably, his job was to turn the escalator off in the event there was a problem with it.
The next day, Sunday, I was picked up by a senior trainer with G4S who would be my escort for much of my time in country. We drove to a local mall. There were two guards stationed at the underground parkade entrance conducting vehicle searches. The first guard, using a wheeled mirror would slide the contraption under the front of the vehicle. I guess he was looking for explosives but as he slid the mirror beneath the vehicle I saw he didnt even look down. The second guard had us pop the rear door hatch. He waved a hand-held metal detector around for a few seconds before closing the hatch. I was told he was looking for explosives. Good luck with that.
Heading into the underground parking lot, there were several more guards directing traffic. Once parked, we went to an elevator bank where we walked through a full body metal detector before being patted down. We jumped on an elevator, also operated by a uniformed guard.
We wandered around the mall for about an hour as I checked out the operation. Each retailer had one or two uniformed guards stationed at their entrances. The mall property management company also had their own guards located throughout the mall. Many of the guard companies had different uniforms. My escort informed me that there was little interaction between the retail guards and the mall guards so that there would be little or no coordination of response if there were any incidents in the mall.
I estimated the number of guards at this one little shopping mall at about 200. The guards I saw were mostly unarmed but one large mall that I did go to did have one security guard armed with a double barred 12 gauge shotgun. I did see that he had six shotgun shells on an ammunition holder on the stock of the gun. I often saw metal detectors located in a number of shopping districts, quite often with no one around. I would walk through the detector, it would beep, presumably activated by my cellphone or watch but no one was there to search me so it seemed a waste of time to me.
Lack of training is a major problem as many security companies dont provide it. Quite often they simply hire guards away from those organizations that do.
I also went to an ASIS New Delhi chapter breakfast. There are only two chapters in the country, the other is in Mumbai. One of my co-facilitators, who had retired from the Indian army, was a member of the chapter. He had obtained his CPP a few years previous. The guest speaker, an American corporate security officer conducted a presentation on supply chain security.
After the presentation, the chapter conducted its executive business. Meeting business was the same as what I had sat through many a time here in Canada. Discussions ranged from whether to increase chapter dues, what to charge for breakfast, how to get more members out for the meetings, who could present at the next breakfast, etc.
I will say that in the short time I was in India, the senior security people I dealt with were as professional and knowledgeable as any I have dealt with any in the world. I was treated with the utmost respect and the Indians were amazing hosts, second to none.
Canadian Security Magazine - Passage to India: lots of guards, but are they trained?
