Posted By Cr8r can you help? We have a small security team of three guys, on an open college site. This week we have had several incidents involving gangs of youths and have obviously called the police to attend. However I am very concerned about our team's safety, as they are the first on the scene and are in an obvious line of fire. I am not in any way an expert on security or any of the ins and outs, but basically these guys are supposed to look friendly, so they wear smart but casual clothes, they do not look like guards or the police, and the students have no fear of them. I am thinking that they should at least have stab vests, as the incidents this week have involved knives being drawn though thankfully not used. Has anyone any experience of security teams and what works best? Upper management will want them to not look scary, so covert protection will be required, but I can't help but think that at least with some people, more obvious uniforms might put across an image of authority? Please don't give me daft answers, I'm really concerned about this. Experts in security please respond!

Posted By Cr8r Thanks for the quick response Ian. These guys do not report to me but I understand that their job is to move on suspicious characters and trouble makers. Our site is totally open on all sides and is in a town centre location, so it is impossible to stop people coming on site. We do have CCTV all over the place, but currently the guys get radio'd to attend any disturbance, something I will be taking up with their boss tomorrow. I'm hoping for a few ideas and a bit of advice before I confront him! What works best with everyone else's security teams? Do they wear uniforms, PPE? What training have they had? All help very gratefully received!

Posted By David P. Johnson The following are some starting points that I got directly from a relative of mine who works in public sector security management (magistrates and civil courts, colleges and schools in Greater Manchester)... Smart uniform - no ties or anything around the kneck, if you want them to wear ties obtain the metal clip style; high visability vest in a different colour to those used for contractors etc - green or orange usually works well Armoured under-clothes vests (used for protection from stabbing/shooting) Radios for communication with other security staff, and particularly useful if facilities management, health and safety, and building reception staff also have a set Panic alarms that can be either clipped to the belt or worn around the neck. The type that emit a loud personal alarm are cheap and a god way of catching attention, however there are systems that can be sourced which can set of a building-wide alarm, which display on control boxes the name of the person requiring assistance and their location - used in at least three secondary schools that I know of. Costing around £3,000 to implement if I remember SITO (Security Industry Training Authority) trained security personnel (which they should be, with the upcoming changes in security personnel legislation more than cover conflict management etc. If you neeed further help, email me directly. David