News & Articles
Laws of Reasonable Force
Understandably there are times when members of the public feel it’s their right to defend themselves from violent attack; however in these tense situations it’s unlikely that anyone will sit down and calmly consider the options before they respond in defence of someone else’s actions.
With regard to domestic situations, The Director of Public Prosecutions is quite clear on the subject, saying that ‘as long as a householder acts instinctively, in the honest belief that they need to act in order to protect themselves almost any level of violence can be used’. Although the DPP’s comment clarifies the issue to a certain extent the adjective ‘instinctively’ still remains a somewhat grey area.
In relation to SIA Licensed security staff such as Security Guards, Door Supervisors and Close Protection staff acting instinctively has very different connotations, and is where the term ‘Reasonable Force’ needs definition.
For example, if a member of the public were to decide to prosecute a Door Supervisor for assault whilst he or she was acting in their professional capacity, the Door Supervisor in question would need to demonstrate that only reasonable force had been applied to alleviate the situation not instinctive self defence. In the rare cases when assault charges are made against security staff, the prosecution would have to prove that the plaintiff was under threat of harmful attack by the door supervisor and acted in a way to protect themselves from harm.
The defence ruling here of ‘reasonable force’, in favour of the door supervisor, is based on non-harm techniques which form a vital part of effective and professional Door Supervisor or Security Guard training. These are best described as passive intervention or escorting procedures that put neither party at risk from harm. The Security Industry Authority approved course content which covers physical intervention does not instruct candidates in self defence skills. Despite whether you may be a Taekwondo expert, no practice of martial arts or any self-protection expertise outside approved SIA training is permissible as part of your job.
It’s easy to understand from the above example how vital expert SIA License Training is especially where you might be dealing with the general public and managing potentially volatile situations. More significantly there are two important facts to learn from this article. One, security industry staff are, despite what sceptics might think, skilled professionals and expert training is crucial to ensure you are fully prepared to handle yourself correctly in tricky circumstances. Two and possibly most importantly, is that your SIA Licence is not a permit to act outside of the law; on the contrary you are responsible in all cases for upholding regulations applied to your job.
At best this article describes just how expert and specialized the roles we’ve discussed here really are. We’ve described many times in the past in our news items how far the industry has progressed in the last decade. It’s not that long ago that a law regarding reasonable force wouldn’t have applied to working in our industry, but it serves as further proof of how high the training standards bar has been raised to ensure that your career in the our industry is recognised with the professionalism it deserves.
Although the example to define reasonable force we’ve used here might seem daunting, on the whole working in the security industry, whilst it’s undoubtedly a challenge, it’s also very rewarding. To put the more problematic aspects aside for a moment if you’re the kind of person who enjoys working with people and plenty of career diversity the security industry is a fascinating employment sector to be involved in and it’s fair to say that there are far more positive angles to dwell on than just negative ones.
Remember that whatever sector of the industry you decide to start off in there is always room for continued development. Once you have achieved your SIA Licence status there’s nothing to stop you adding more qualifications to your CV, and there are few employment sectors that offer such a vast range of employment options and hardly any that train candidates to such high standards, especially the legal implications of your job.
