Our nation is preparing to recognize the fifth anniversary of Sept. 11th in just a few months. The world and our lives changed dramatically that day. One of the first changes we saw when returning to our day-to-day activities was the increased number of security officers greeting us at downtown office buildings, university campuses and high risk complexes. New policies and procedures regarding identification procedures, foreign visitors and detection equipment were put into place seemingly overnight. Most frequently, the pledge of security reform was being hailed the highest of priorities across the country.
It is an unfortunate that now, five years later, our Commonwealth’s success, prosperity, and its well-known institutions and landmarks continue to be targets for terrorist attack. It even more disturbing that the pledges made after 9/11 to tighten security and make the Commonwealth’s institutions less vulnerable, have not been followed up with the commitment of resources needed to truly protect its citizens – especially here in the Boston and Cambridge area. One of the greatest gaps between the promises made post-9/11 and the reality of our vulnerability comes in the training, pay, and respect for those we hail as our ‘first line of defense’. The security guards who stand at the front doors and lobbies of our homes, schools and office buildings are chronically underpaid, undertrained, and undervalued for the role that they serve in our everyday lives.
While virtually everyone involved in building security agrees that these jobs are crucial, these security officers have not been given the respect, pay or training they need to do the important job assigned to them following our nation’s 9/11 wake-up call. Consider a few facts:
• Security officers in Boston and Cambridge today make approximately $10 per hour or approximately $320 a week. In Boston, the self-sufficiency standard for one adult with one child is $21.18 per hour. Simple subtraction tells the troubling story; these officers make $11 below the self-sufficiency standard despite the fact that daily they guard billions of dollars in real estate in a terrorist target zone;
• Benefits, if offered, are beyond the reach of most officers because of the low pay;
• Officers are offered little if any on the job training by their employers. Training for most employees consists of watching a video or taking an open book quiz. There are no live drills or simulations, just a few facts in a handbook. Nothing to prepare them to be leaders they would need to be if a major security breach occurred at one of our prominent research labs, high rise apartment complexes, sporting events or university campuses;
• With little or no opportunity for advancement for these men and women, job turnover is appalling. Officers are rarely given a chance to show their capabilities and move into a management role. Instead, the turnover rate for security officers is greater than 100 percent and in some cases up to 300 percent.
Poor pay, virtually non-existent training, and a lack of benefits. These factors lead to a turnover that means the man or woman at your desk this week is unlikely to be the same person who was there a month ago. Does this show any real commitment to a strong first line of defense to those people who lease our office space, attend our college or university, or live in our office towers? Of course not. The impact of the turnover alone is clear. It means the person guarding your building may not know where the bathroom is – never mind finding the fire panel or being able to properly execute an evacuation order for the building.
As elected officials and business leaders in Boston, we must understand what is happening in the building, university, or office complex just down the street. We can make a difference by insisting that security officers are better trained and compensated for their efforts. Major cities such as Chicago have moved towards establishing a more equitably paid, well-trained and organized security officer force and have not seen an increase in building costs associated with such a move. However, these cities have seen a vastly improved security force and a greater sense of security. In fact, Chicago has seen its turnover rate reduced to 25 percent.
As a community composed of responsible business owners, college presidents, real estate developers, hospital administrators and political leaders, it is time we told the security industry, “Pay your people a living wage, let them organize, and train them to a standard that improves all of our safety.” We owe our tenants, students and patients nothing less.
