NASCO White Paper: The Serious Economic and Public Safety Effects Due to Delays in State Security Professional Licensing

State action to decrease security licensing delays is a win for job seekers, businesses, public safety, and States.  

WASHINGTON, Feb. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- A new White Paper by the National Association of Security Companies (NASCO) lays out reasons why States should take regulatory and other actions to bring about faster licensing and employment of security professionals.  The Paper explains how "(g)etting security professionals on the job faster will: (1) increase employment opportunities for state residents; (2) contribute to local economic growth by enabling businesses to safely expand; (3) increase state income and tax revenues; and (4) provide more security for state residents."

States NASCO Executive Director Steve Amitay, "NASCO fully supports States requiring security officers to undergo training and background checks as a condition of employment.  However, if it takes weeks or months for a State to authorize a person to start working as a security officer, everybody loses. The applicants, the security companies, the clients of security companies, and the State."    

As the paper points out, "(b)ecoming a licensed private security professional can be a starting point to a successful career in the growing private security field or in law enforcement.  The private security industry provides competitive pay rates and once a person has a security professional license, that person will have excellent job security and meaningful career growth opportunities."   

Unfortunately, as noted by NASCO Board Chairman Jim McNulty, a long-time industry executive, "many good candidates who would make excellent security guards, such as veterans, cannot afford to wait to start making an income while his or her license is pending, and they will take a job elsewhere." According to the White Paper, the "drop out" rate for persons who accept a job offer from a security company, apply for a license,  but then "drop out" while waiting on their license, is between 30% to 70% in certain states. 

"But this does not have to be the case" says Amitay. "In a number of states, trained and vetted security professionals can get on the job in a matter of days. Other States can achieve such efficiency with simple legislative and regulatory changes and investments in personnel and modernization."

With crime rates rising and police resources increasingly stretched, more than ever private security companies and their security professionals are being called upon by government, retail, commercial, health, education, manufacturing, infrastructure, and other entities to provide or add security services. Accordingly, States should make regulatory changes and taking other actions to facilitate faster security professional licensing.  This will not only result in enough available security professionals to meet the public safety needs of state businesses and residents, but states will also benefit in terms of greater employment and more business and income tax revenue. 

The National Association of Security Companies (NASCO) is the nation's largest contract security association whose member companies employ over 500,000 highly trained security officers across the United States.

For more information on NASCO and the private security industry go to www.nasco.org

Contact: Steve Amitay, Executive Director, 202-347-4805, [email protected]

SOURCE National Association of Security Companies