Security – The Give and the Take
No one wakes up in the morning expecting that to be the last time they get out of bed.
No one expects to go to work and never see or hear from their loved ones again.
We all know that tragedy and loss can strike whenever it so chooses. There is no good time really for either of those to happen, and even if there was – it seldom waits for a day where you have been fulfilled with quality time with those you love and care for.
As first responders, as men and women in combat, people on the front lines. You know that some days will definitely be worse than others, and your life is constantly hanging in the delicate balance almost all of the time. But never are you fully prepared – nor are the ones you love – prepared for that one wrong move. That one wrong place at the wrong time.
We all set out with a plan of action for the course of our day, as rough as those plans may be sometimes.
In the security line of work you go in with the best of intentions, a security plan, back up options, and a laundry list of things to do in what if situations.
Despite our best intentions and well laid out plans – as invincible as we may sometimes feel, there can always be those that are out with other plans that may conflict with ours. And by pure unfortunate happenstance, things can happen out of our control.
Our priority is the safety of those around us. People, Places, Things – our job is to care about everything around us. Protect and keep safe from harm.
If something should happen, we remove the threat if possible, or we remove the people and property we are keeping safe in order to ensure the least amount of harm is achieved.
Unfortunately as we all very well know, this often can leave us vulnerable and open to further incident for ourselves. Constantly facing the threat eye to eye while ensuring that above anything else, others are safe.
In the unfortunate case of a Security Guard in Guelph last week – this came at the ultimate price.
While in this instance it doesn’t speak to others being at risk, we can’t say for sure if this was an isolated incident or if he was just the unwilling victim of an assault gone horribly wrong.
I’m sure on his list of plans that day, not one time did he expect to not make it home.
Depending on your path in life, and the careers you choose, there is training that will prepare you for certain things. Sad things. Awful things. The things that the lesser percentage gets unfortunately dealt. Typically we don’t like to peg ourselves as statistics and are all under the impression for the most part that ‘that won’t happen to us’.
But it isn’t always up to us what happens in the day to day of our lives.
In this industry we know things can happen unexpectedly and we almost prepare for the unexpected to happen on a regular basis.
Preparation can often be taken with a grain of salt and a bit of tongue in cheek humour because while we like to know how to handle situations, we don’t expect to be caught up in them – nor do we want to be.
Our training, our experience, our expertise – everything plays a role in how situations are handled. Unfortunately, wrong time wrong place also takes its toll and in this situation, someone lost their life.
We can always be as prepared as we can be, but we also must understand that at times, things happen beyond our control.
Guest Blogger Rayna Davies
Rayna Davies is a graduate and practitioner of Business Management. She has developed an expertise in blogging, covering subjects like travel, world events and security. Having grown up with a father who has developed an expertise in Physical Security and Executive Protection in the RCMP and two major corporations, she has personally observed and 
experienced many security details. These experiences have included personally meeting HM Queen Elizabeth, Prime Minister Jean Chretien and many celebrities. She presently assists Sentinel Security in Executive Protection workshops and guest blogging and also assists Gloprosec Preventative Services in Intelligence gathering and Business Administration. Her passions include World travel, having visited every continent.
