I have nothing against security officers, but the difference in firearms training between them and police is not make believe.Grog wrote:03Lightningrocks wrote:Glad we agree that rent a cops haven't the training to be running around with loaded guns playing batman.
Why do you have such an issue with security officers? Police officers receive more hours of training in many subjects, but do not ever make believe that they receive a heck of a lot more than armed security does in the actual use of firearms.
I've got a pretty good handle on what the real deal is because I have been a police officer in 2 states (including Texas) and took the commissioned security officer course in Texas as a prerequisite for executive protection work. I also was the director of training for a 200 officer police department.
I can state from personal experience that a recruit in the police academy gets a minimum of 5 times as much direct firearms training in the basic academy than a commissioned security officer does to earn that license. Then the police recruit usually gets about another 40 hours when he joins an agency, and gets annual refresher and specialized training all during his career. He also qualifies to considerably higher (though still not very challenging) standards at least annually, with many agencies requiring semiannual or even quarterly training or qualifications.
To meet license renewal requirements, the security officer just has to qualify once a year on a course of fire that could almost literally be passed while blindfolded.
Please don't take these facts as disparagement of the many fine commissioned security officers out there. They are meeting all the standards their profession requires, and they perform sometimes dangerous work for very marginal pay that is commensurate with their level of skill, education and training. My point is that their professional standards are far below those maintained by police agencies by several orders of magnitude.
Any police officer who did what the security officer in this case did would likely find himself on the rubber gun squad until his termination processing was complete.
I personally hope that the dog owners in this case file a complaint against the guard's license with the Private Security Bureau, which is now an arm of the Texas Department of Public Safety. I have a feeling that agency would be pretty interested in what happened.