Educational institutions are often considered to be safe places where students can comfortably pursue their educational interests and socialize. However, the history of reported incidents of violence in educational institutions, ranging from bullying and sexual harassment to hate crimes and shootings, has left educators, parents, and students to question the security of educational institutions.
It is evident through statistics that crimes related to educational institutions are prevalent regardless of the socio-economic and political status of the country. Numerous unreported incidents take place regularly in which students experience sexual crimes, bullying, physical assaults, and homicide.

There are numerous indicators of sound security when it comes to Educational Institutions. A good security team will build amicable relations with your institution’s community while maintaining a professional demeanor. A primary goal of any security team is to provide a secure environment and identify the potential of harm from people and situations. Besides preparing for worst-case scenarios, the security team needs to tackle a wide array of responsibilities on a day-to-day basis. To prepare for serious emergencies and confronting those situations before their escalation, a well-designed training program is necessary. Above everything else, training in de-escalation techniques is the key to performance for security teams.

Deploying professionally trained security officers to your institutions is the best way to improve your institution’s safety. However assessing your security needs, and crafting a security plan that rightly fits your security requirement is a challenging and potentially overwhelming task.

Designing Your Institutions Security Plan

Educational Institutions generally have vulnerabilities based on their popularity, geographical location, and the population that require physical protection against potential physical threats. Assessing identified risks and other concerns include considering potential security issues and dangers already known to you and making every effort to evaluate risk and understanding threats and vulnerabilities. Developing a Security Check List is one way of ensuring all kind and categories of potential threats and dangers are being assessed including the size of security staff your institution requires, your emergency communication system, and rapid response plan. All aforementioned categories of security assessment can be expanded further with institution-specific questions. Security procedures outlined based on your assessment will allow you to choose appropriate controls to mitigate the listed risks such as gates, cameras, visitor management system, and post orders i.e. command for individual security officer’s post. It is important to audit and assess the effectiveness of your security control once your security plan is in place. One way of doing this is by reviewing your security level after defined intervals to confirm if your security control has improved. Any loopholes found in the plan can be corrected accordingly by giving post-order revisions to the security team.

Looking for a Security Team

It is significant to look for a security team with professional experience and training along with excellent communications skills and the ability to integrate with the culture of your Institution. It is important to hire from a firm that performs background checks to ensure that the staff has no prior criminal record and is suitable to work in a given environment. Your security staff should also be familiarized with rules about locker searches, boundaries for physical contact, and techniques to defuse situations. The security team deployed on-campus must be able to maintain an authoritarian style while still being friendly and accessible to make students and staff feel comfortable.

Training Your Security Team

Serving and protecting an educational institution requires a completely different skill set than the one required for guarding a commercial business. As security officers give the first impression of your institution, they should be fully trained on the culture and have a general understanding of what is expected from them. Security Officers stationed at educational institutions are required to support a variety of functions and participate in various interactions at all levels including faculty, students, guests, administration, alumni, board members, and community leaders. Hence, it is important to ensure that the security team deployed at Institution is well-trained to communicate at different levels using the best possible approach for a given situation and audience. However, it is important to note that your Institution’s staff should also be trained for identifying suspicious interactions and unique situations and timely reporting them to the concerned security team.

Your security officers must also be trained in walking the fine line between serving as an assertive figure and ensuring the sustenance of an atmosphere the supports the educational goals of your institution. A training program designed particularly for officers stationed at educational institutions will ensure the safest and supportive environment for educational communities.

End-Note

Both violent and/or non-violent crimes in educational institutions have damaging effects on the students’ psychological health. Students who are subjected to these crimes endure trauma resulting in poor attendance and educational performance. The resulting depression, social anxiety, and in some cases substance abuse may result in making these victims prone to violent behavior leading to more crimes. Prevention of such crimes requires concerted efforts from the Administration of educational institutions to prevent such crimes from occurring by deploying security personnel.

The physical security assessment is important in protecting the institution’s grounds, buildings, fire life safety systems, traffic control, mailrooms, and other assets linked with the facility. Appraising your security plan is exclusively important in protecting students and staff. Without a good strategy of physical security assessment, it is difficult to manage your institution without the high-risk factor.

Contact Syndicate Alpha Now

Syndicate Alpha is a security company in London that offers effective security solutions tailored precisely to your Institution’s needs. Contact Syndicate Alpha today to ensure your Institution is under the best possible protection and boost the confidence of your students and staff. Syndicate Alpha is strongly committed to integrity and professionalism, always picking the best resources from the market. Syndicate Alpha maintains the highest industry standards for security officers’ training, honor, loyalty, and character.