Should Security Professionals Call Themselves 'Officers' and 'Agents.'

I'm not big on private protectors calling themselves 'officers' or 'agents.'

To be clear, it doesn't anger or offend me. It just means we've yet to arrive at terms of our own choosing.

To me at least, I think the private sector does itself a grave disservice by adopting phrases and mindsets from government counterparts.

I favor terms like security professional, protector, or one of my own creation, 'safety creator' 

I know security professionals who go to great lengths to be referred to as security officers instead of security guards, since the latter has negative connotations affixed to it.

As an advocate for security professionals, I understand how loaded the term 'guard' is to people who are sharp and serious about being protectors.

However, calling ourselves officers, to me at least, suggests that the industry feels it needs to borrow a term commonly associated with law enforcement to gain legitimacy.

Very bad move.

I favor terms like security professional, protector, or one of my own creation, 'safety creator' that clearly covey our being private professionals separate from police officers.

We need to double down on our unique identity instead of copying verbiage from policing, whose role in society markedly differs from ours.

Obviously I don't buy into the pecking order that places law enforcement at the top of the 'protective pyramid' if you will.

Security professionals face the same grave threats police officers do, without qualified immunity and often unarmed or devoid of bullet resistant armor. Those running such a gauntlet deserve their own titles.

We need to secure our dignity by referring to ourselves in terms which reflect our unique role in society. We don't need to borrow terminology from government counterparts.

While I'm not outraged by security professionals who call themselves security officers, I don't think it should be at the top of the list of what we call ourselves.

We're private protectors and should proudly use language that communicates this fact, except where local, state or federal law refers to us as a category of officer.

Nadra Enzi aka Cap Black is a security professional and 'safety creator' with a philosophical approach to the calling and business of private protection.