Security Officers and Guards
Provide security and investigative services to organisations and individuals.
A shift on the stadium and the centre
You are a licensed security officer working a match-day shift, watching the gates, the cameras and the floor, and reporting to a control room. It is 4pm. Gates open in an hour, the crowd is already building outside, and you have been posted to the main entrance with one colleague and a radio that crackles.
Choose what you would do. Then see what happens. There are often good reasons for each choice.
I've got a ticket, I'm on time and I'm not taking my bag back to the car. This is ridiculous. Everyone else got through without all this. Let me in right now.
Let him through with the bag because the line is long, he has a ticket and the game starts soon
Others in the queue see this and ask for the same. By the time your supervisor notices, the rule is meaningless at your gate. Rules at a gate only work if they are the same for everybody.
Stay polite, say the bag rule is the same for everyone, and point to the bag drop
He grumbles, but leaves the bag at the drop and is in the stadium ten minutes later. Staying friendly while holding the line is the hardest skill in the job.
Tell him loudly that the rules are the rules and move him out of the way
The rule is enforced, but a loud argument draws a crowd and slows the whole gate. You were right, and you could have been a good deal calmer about it.
Gate C, I'm seeing a group of young people on camera 12 near the bike racks. They keep looking at something on the ground. Can you check, but don't go in heavy. Could be nothing.
Walk over calmly, say hello, ask if they need help, and tell control what you find
They are looking at a lost phone. You help them hand it to the lost property desk. Checking in a friendly way meant a problem was solved instead of created.
Tell control you will leave it, because the gate needs you and it is probably nothing
The phone owner leaves without finding it. It was nothing dangerous, but a check would have been easy. A report from control is worth at least a look.
Approach the group quickly with a hand on your radio and tell them to move on
The group feels accused and one of them films you. Nothing was wrong. Treating people as suspects before you know anything can create the problem you were worried about.
Can anyone swing by the food court? Fire alarm has gone off on level one, and people are starting to walk toward the exits. I'm on my own up here and need a second pair of hands.
Run up there at once without telling control, because Dani needs help
You leave your post without a word, and the gate is unattended for ten minutes. Control had no idea where you were. Going to help is right, but telling control first is part of doing it safely.
Tell control you are leaving the gate, ask for cover, and go up to help
Control sends cover and you reach Dani, but it takes a little longer than necessary. You did it the right way, and a quick radio call is all it took.
Radio control that you are heading up, ask for gate cover, and begin guiding people calmly to the exits
Cover arrives at the gate and you and Dani guide people out. The alarm is a false one, but the evacuation was smooth. Radio first, then act, and people can rely on you.
How it went
The match ends, the crowd drifts away, and the last bin is emptied. Security work is a mix of patience, observation and being the calm face in a stressful moment. Could you stand your ground and still be kind?
This is a simplified, fictional situation to help you explore. It is not professional instruction or a test of your ability.
Case study: The gate that started to bunch up
A fictional case set in a fictional football stadium on match day, and the shopping centre next door.
The situation
At the Meridian Park stadium, crowd controller Samira was posted on gate C before a big evening match. Twenty minutes before kick-off, the queue outside was getting dense. Fans were pressing forward, a bag-checking scanner had slowed down and she could hear people calling out that they would miss the start. The supervisor had said to keep the gate lines moving as normal.
What they did
Samira called her supervisor on the radio and told him in one sentence what she could see: the queue was packing in and the scanner was slow. She asked for a second lane to be opened and a colleague to help with bag checks. While she waited, she stepped out in front of the line, raised her voice calmly and told the crowd a second lane was opening in a minute. People started to ease back.
How it turned out
The second lane opened within three minutes and the queue thinned. The supervisor used her radio call in the debrief as an example of speaking up early. Samira said the hard part was staying friendly with people who were shouting at her.
What would you do?
- Why did Samira use the radio before she tried to control the crowd herself?
- How can a calm voice change the mood of a big group?
- What would you find hardest about this job: the waiting or the shouting?