Matthews’ death prompted Holden to introduce legislation in 2021 updating the training requirements for security guards. The law, which took effect in January, mandates eight hours of training in “the exercise of the appropriate use of force.”
The state agency overseeing security guards, the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services, is currently drafting regulations for the new training, which likely won’t be implemented until October at the earliest.
“The real emphasis is making sure that these private security officers are getting the appropriate training that they need to hopefully put them in a better position to use better judgment in how to address members of the public,” Holden said. “Obviously there’s a responsibility to address criminal behavior.”
But when $14 leads to a loss of life, he said, “we’ve got to do better.”
Holden’s bill also requires security companies to report within seven days any physical altercation between their guards and the public that results in an injury requiring medical attention, and any force used by a guard while on duty.
But implementing the law’s training requirement is what’s needed most urgently, said policing expert LaDoris Cordell, a retired judge who worked as San José’s independent police auditor for five years.
“I’d made certain assumptions about private security guards, because they are basically doing police work — and I was stunned to find out that there is no requirement that they be trained in the use of force,” she said.
Cordell praised the specificity of Holden’s legislation for spelling out in detail what the training needs to cover — including the limitations, responsibilities and ethics involved in making a citizen’s arrest, restrictions on searches and seizures, and criminal and civil liabilities.
One Bay Area security guard said the lack of any current use-of-force training — combined with evolving guidance from the security companies themselves — leaves both the public and security guards at greater risk of unnecessary altercations.
“I make it very clear to people: ‘No, I’m security, I’m not police.’ I don’t want to be police. But, we do need more training because a lot of people look at us as police,” said the guard, who has worked in the field for two years, and didn’t want to use his name because his employer doesn’t allow their guards to speak to the press. “You have to have training, you have to have accountability.”
He also noted that guards, who typically start out making less than $25 an hour, are putting themselves at personal legal risk when they engage physically with someone, regardless of what their employer has advised them to do. For example, even though the district attorney is not filing criminal charges against Anthony, the guard at Walgreens who shot Brown, he is still being sued by Brown’s family. A police officer in a similar situation generally couldn’t be sued as an individual.
