The private and public sectors are populated by a rich vein of security managers, all of them highly-skilled and totally dedicated to the task at hand: protecting the people, property, assets and reputation of their host organisation.

Sadly, for the most part those individuals aren’t overly recognised for what they are – specialists performing a thoroughly professional job under often trying circumstances. Budgetary cuts, for example, can (and do) bite into their ability to serve the company, and there’ll be constant gripes from certain Board Directors that security offers no return on investment.

Of late, those – spurious – ‘complaints’ have translated into further economic cutbacks on corporate spend, in turn resulting in the security function becoming blurred. Either an organisation will sub-contract its protection remit to a facilities management provider, or the incumbent manager is tasked with looking after not only security but Health and Safety, fire prevention, contract building services maintenance and general facilities management (to name but a few areas of additional responsibility).

In some instances, such a realignment is possible. One only need refer to the slick operations at 30 St Mary Axe (‘Reach for the Sky’, SMT, October 2004, pp18-26) – where facilities professionals are in charge of security – and the Wembley complex (‘Wembley way’, SMT, September 2001, pp20-24) for sufficient proof. And let’s not forget that, for medium-sized and smaller companies, paying the right salary for a solo, in-house security specialist is neither practical nor viable.

That said, if the trend towards outsourcing is replicated on a grand scale, can we really construe this as being a positive development? Shouldn’t security management continue to remain a separate discipline with a clear, unhindered focus?

Both sides of the argument were debated at length in The SMT Forum (pp18-21). A compelling case for security ‘branching out’ was put forward by Michael Jasper, Bob Holmwood and Stuart Lowden, but Mike Bluestone, Chris Smith and Erez Sharoni stated in no uncertain terms that, if truly professional status (and a reporting line to the Board) is the aim, then security managers must always stand alone.

By publishing the results of our Forum, SMT is very deliberately widening the debate to encompass the journal’s entire readership. Make your opinions known to us.

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SMT