Comments of lawyer on some rights of employees of security firms

Number of security companies continues to increase. It is related to demand for these services. Security departments are used in supermarkets and big shops. Unfortunately, conflicts between customers and security personnel happen very often. According to the current laws security personnel have some rights and obligations for realization their functions.

The Law of Ukraine “On a security activity” is the main legal act in this sphere. At first, we will pay attention to a security’s uniform. A badge with a name and a position is only one feature which distinguishes guardians from people very often. It breaks the clauses of this law. The article 11 defines that security personnel conduct their functions if they have specific features on their clothes which attribute them to some security firms. Moreover, every guardian must have a certificate signed by a company’s head and verified by a company’s seal. Certificate must have information about guardian’s name, position and validity term. An owner’s photo is required element of a certificate.

As follows, we can distinguish two obligatory elements for security personnel are a visible attribute (for example, a chevron or a stripe) and a certificate which is draft according to the law requirements. At the same time, it is forbidden to use elements of the state bodies’ and the law enforcement agencies’ uniforms. Accordingly, workers of security departments can’t have writings “MVS”, “SBU” on their uniforms. It is not allowed to wear the state bodies’ and the law enforcement agencies’ uniforms by the guardians.

If abovementioned rules are broken then a guardian violated the clauses of the Law of Ukraine “On a security activity”. It means that he is not allowed to conduct security activities.

We need to say that guardians have serious rights according to the Article 12 of the Law. They can be divided into two groups: the ones with a physical contact and without. Let’s look through some of them.

At first, we will examine the rights without a physical contact. Guardians can demand from individuals to stop doing unlawful actions, to follow rules and guardians can demand from representatives of guarded objects to conduct pass through and other required regimes. Guardians have a right to film and photo unlawful actions if there is a warning about this at a guarded object. As follows, buyers must be informed about filming in a trading room. Rights which are dined by 1, 2, 7 clauses of the Article 12 usually don’t cause any questions.

Other rights of security personnel are related to a physical contact with an individual who breaks rules. We will examine them in our next article on the matters of the security activity.