The security guard is almost synonymous with private security in the public mind.

This is for good reason: guards are everywhere, stationed at every possible kind of site. Guards are also required; insurance companies offer discounts to policy-holders with round-the-clock guards.

But there’s a paradox: although guards are seen as an important countermeasure, most guards in the U.S. aren’t highly-trained security professionals. Unskilled security guards present a dilemma for those who want to keep their assets safe. But is there an alternative to security guards? It’s complicated, but the short answer is yes.

‘Guards, guards’: a brief history of private security

The private security guard force has been around for a very long time. The private guards of medieval Europe were the predecessor of the modern police force, and their jobs arose from necessity: people needed to protect their assets, so they hired people to do that job.

Guards protected property, money, and acted as bodyguards. (Think of every film you’ve ever seen in which a hero has confronted a bad guy in a castle. “Guards, guards,” yells the villain, and in they clomp: medieval private security guards.)

Eventually, as public law enforcement evolved, (a process that took hundreds of years in Europe) public policing eclipsed guards. This is a trend that continues today. In Western culture, the top security-minded job candidates aspire to be police officers. This isn’t the case in parts of Asia, where security officers are licensed, highly trained, and highly paid.

In the U.S., many of those who take security guard jobs are unskilled, often paid little and given terrible hours. Being a security officer may be the only job opportunity they have.

Can you replace human security guards?

Ultimately that depends on your organization’s needs. For one thing, insurance companies are unlikely to approve of a decision to replace all human guards with robots, for example. For another, humans are still necessary — to make decisions and respond to emergencies.

However, some automation can be a good strategy for a guard force. Technology and AI can act as a force multiplier, taking on the boring, repetitive tasks, so humans can take on the more important job of making critical decisions.

Autonomous robotics and AI

You don’t always need a guard for access control. Robotic Assisted Devices (RAD) develops electronic wall boxes and standalone units that can perform specific functions of a guard sitting at a security desk. When someone wants to enter a building, they speak to a television monitor that connects them with a live person, perhaps an operator at a regional dispatch center.

The operator confirms that visitors have access to a facility and then either contact the visitor’s host to let them in, or are able to open the door themselves electronically. RAD units can also include different capabilities, like scanning for weapons and MAC addresses, and other critical capabilities.

Self-driving robots

Not all organizations want their guards stationed at a desk. For those who need to patrol areas, like halls, lobbies or outdoor areas, there are robots, such as those provided by RAD and Knightscope. Such robots do more than patrol and detect intruders; they can also include an intercom function, recording, live streaming, facial recognition technology, and license plate recognition security.

For organizations that need outdoor patrols, more durable robots — which resemble self-driving cars — are available. But even these can’t monitor the most difficult terrain.

Drones

Drones allow organizations to patrol large, or difficult-to-access terrain; the sort of terrain that might be difficult for a human guard to navigate, like rocky, hilly, or overgrown areas.

Drone patrols, like those offered by Nightingale Security, allow a company private air support. Drones move fast, and can get to a threat quickly, so that security personnel can see what’s going on as quickly as possible. This can mean getting to a threat, finding someone lost in a state park, or simply noticing that something is amiss.

Human guard or technology?

When you’re deciding between technology and a security guard, ask yourself a question: can this job be automated?

If you need someone to make intelligent decisions about how to respond to a threat or file a report with the police, you need a human guard. But if you’re using a guard to simply check badges of people entering or exiting a facility, maybe you’d be better served by an automated device or one of the other security guard alternatives on the market.

The best way to decide what solution is right for you is to assess your physical security regularly. Security risk assessment software, like Circadian Risk, allows you to collect risk data from all your sites, and see that information in one pane of glass. Then you can decide if you need a guard or a robot.

Learn more about how technology can improve your security posture. Schedule your personalized demo today.

About the Author

Daniel Young

Founder & Chief Innovation Officer

Daniel has been a security and risk advisor for more than 10 years, and is passionate about helping companies to better understand their risks to undesirable events on a daily basis. Dan previously served as the Regional Bioterrorism Coordinator for District 1 in Michigan, where he was instrumental in preparing communities for catastrophic incidents. He has also acted as the Private Security Liaison for the City of Lansing’s Critical Infrastructure Team, which identified and documented deficiencies in the city’s critical infrastructure.

He is a Co-Founder of the CSO Risk Council, a think tank of seasoned security professionals and thought leaders with extensive experience in managing the physical security and risks of large enterprises consisting of multiple sites and whose mission is to create a better process to develop and share innovative solutions and pertinent information with organizations to improve safety and security risk by providing a forum to discuss best practices and recommendations for specific risk scenarios and to network with other enterprise security professionals.