America counts about 1.3 million security officers, yet in much of the country we ask them to prove almost nothing. If our profession wants public trust, it has to invest where the public actually meets it.
Think about the last time you dealt with private security. It probably was not a consultant or a security director. It was an officer: the person at the emergency room door at 2 a.m., the one who asked you to step back at a loading dock, the one who walked a nurse to her car at the end of a night shift.
To most Americans, that person is the security industry. Yet in much of the country, the only proof we ask of them is a state registration card. In some states, not even that.
