Your primary role as a Security Officer is to keep people, property or information safe, from whatever may happen, which sometimes means the use of reasonable force. Having a clear understanding of the law and how it revolves around you in this role can help you make the right decision in stressful situations. Knowing what you can do and what you can’t do is important but also gives you the confidence to and perform your tasks safely and effectively.
Self Defence and the Law
In the eyes of the law, the definition of self-defence follows the common law and Criminal Law Act of 1967. This outline the doctrine which states that a person can use reasonable for in the defence of themselves or someone else
What is Reasonable Force?
So what actually is reasonable force? As a security officer or a door supervisor, this means that while you were carrying out your duties and you came across someone attacking someone else, you could use force to stop the attacker from causing any more hard. If, whilst preventing the attack, the attacker turned against you and started assaulting you, you would also be able to use force to defend yourself.
The act of self-defence also counts as reasonable force, as it’s an intervention stopping someone from getting hurt, whether it be yourself or someone else. The claim of self-defence lies on the fact that you did not want to fight in the first place and the force used was not gratuitous.
The idea of unreasonable force would be ejecting someone from the premises and then continuing to use force. This would be seen as unreasonable and you could be prosecuted.
Necessary Force
When you’re accessing whether or not the force used was reasonable, whether or not the force was necessary, should also be taken into account.
To classify the definition of necessary force would mean to put it in the eyes of the onlooker of the situation. Would someone on the outside look at the force which was used and deem it necessary? While this isn’t the official way to look it at things, it allows you to objectify whether or not the force you used to control the situation was needed.
Pre-emptive Force
A common view of self-defence is that you are the attackee, not the attacker. However that is not always the case, and the law does allow for pre-emptive use of force to de-escalate a situation. If you confident that a person is going to use force against you, then in the eyes of the law you are able to neutralise that.
Remember self-defence doesn’t involve you getting hurt first, it’s to protect yourself from harm.
When you’re considering pre-emptive reasonable force, there are a few things you need to consider.
- Was force needed?
- Was it reasonable?
- What are their size and build compared to yours?
- When was force stopped?
- As an outsider, was it needed?
These are questions which can help form a rational decision when it comes to reasonable force and will help you make the right call when it’s needed
The National Decision Model
Working in security, especially in busy environment, requires great decision-making skills.
The ability to think on your feet and often make the difference in stressful situations. Having the knowledge to know how to use your training will also put you in the right frame of mind when acting upon them.
The National Decision Model is used by the Police to help give them the right frame of mind when they are being confronted with a potentially dangerous situation. And that framework can easily carry over into your line of work.
