>> Security guards aren’t respected. They’re barely a deterrent.
That was the case 20 years ago at our nice suburban swim and tennis in a good neighborhood. Kids showing up to hang out and party in the parking lot would thumb their noses at a private security guard. They might mosey on, but they really weren’t worried about the guy.
Then we started hiring off-duty cops with arrest powers. First time he got crap from the kids he was running off (who had throw out a bunch of trash in the lot, breaking a bottle, and given the off-duty cop a FU, IIRC), a couple of them got arrested, mommy and daddy had to bail out the kiddies, and the problem stopped.
The police don’t want security guards to have any real authority because then the cops couldn’t get overtime pay working security details.
Private security guards have the same power of citizen’s arrest as any other person. The problems are that there is little or no training in when to arrest;in fact, most are strongly discouraged from performing a citizen’s arrest of even a violent person .Nor will their employer defend the guard in court.As a private person if you arrest someone clearly committing a crime you can still be sued in civil court and face tremendous legal expenses proving you were right. On top of which you probably were dismissed from your job.I know of store clerks fired for grabbing shoplifters who were trying to leave with high-dollar items.
The lawyers of the last 50 years care absolutely nothing about justice.I say all of them are guilty because the good lawyers refuse to ostracize the scumbags.The judges who preside over so many farcial decisions are guilty as well.