How Your Security Personnel Should React to an Escalated Security Incident

When a serious incident occurs, you need security personnel who are calm, collected, and in control. Tense situations can rapidly spiral, with the potential for violence, so effective de-escalation is essential to defuse the situation. Security personnel training must ensure that officers are prepared for the challenges of an escalating incident and understand the actions they should take.

At Kingdom Security, we ensure that our security personnel are appropriately trained and prepared for the unexpected. Security officer services are vital for many businesses and organisations, helping to keep employees, customers, and visitors safe. By training them to industry standards, we ensure they approach escalations calmly by following these steps:

All our security personnel receive comprehensive training for challenging situations, which includes in-depth planning and preparation so that officers understand the necessary actions to de-escalate a situation. This ensures that fewer mistakes are made, security staff are confident and calm, and the correct decisions are taken to prevent a minor problem from becoming a serious breach of the peace.

Whatever the nature of the escalation, one of the security personnel’s duties and responsibilities is to understand the cause of the situation by looking beyond the actions of the perpetrator. Even in highly charged atmospheres, it is important to stay focused on the underlying problem, which will usually include a potent mixture of strong emotions – potentially exacerbated by the influence of alcohol and other drugs, as well as underlying mental health conditions. If the person exhibiting the challenging behaviour realises that the security officer is there to listen and understand, and not simply to be ‘part of the problem’, escalation is less likely.

In situations that are threatening to boil over, emotional and vulnerable people need to feel they are being heard. At Kingdom Security, we train our security officers in active listening to help to defuse threatening situations. For example, they maintain eye contact where appropriate to demonstrate that they are engaged and listen to and repeat what has been said to them to avoid misunderstandings.  

Once the cause of the situation is established, the security officer will be in prime position to open lines of communication between parties and seek workable solutions to prevent the problem from escalating. Effective communication isn’t just about what is said, but the way it is said and the use of positive body language. Our security officers take special care not to antagonise an already fractious situation and exercise caution in their behaviour to ensure a speedy resolution is achieved.

After resolving the situation, security personnel should then report the incident to their agency and the business who has hired them. This helps to build up a reliable pool of intelligence and ensure that training protocols adequately prepared the officer for the situation. If violence has occurred, reports will be required to be submitted to the police.

Do You Need Professional Security Officers? Contact Us Today

At Kingdom Security, we provide highly skilled, reliable, and trustworthy security personnel for commercial and industrial settings, who are trained to defuse dangerous situations in a calm and controlled way.

To find out more, please call our specialist team on 0330 022 9422.

Image Source: Canva