Situational Awareness and Security Personnel

I often hear this term and it is amazing to me how many definitions Security Officers (S/Os) have when trying to explain what this concept means:

"Always be ready to fight!"

"Never trust anyone!"

"Call the police if you see anything suspicious."

"Watch people who look like criminals."

All definitions I have heard over the years (usually made by S/Os who are just starting out their careers) and that need to be addressed by a supervisor as part of ongoing training.  

So to help out I would like to make a simple suggestion:

Situational Awareness (S/A)

Reverse the words...

Awareness is what you have innately; it is based on the culmination of all that you have experienced and the lessons you have learned.

Situations vary in time and place; of the two concepts (depending on what you are doing) you may have less control over the situational aspect than you have over awareness.

Security personnel often get called into situations that are already evolving before they are asked to intervene - as such the momentum of the situation can start to escalate beyond the ability to control the events as they unfold.

A key concept in this evolution is to be able to assess the situation and make your team aware of the events as you take a course of action. This concept is different from the S/A options you have as an individual: your best option may be to just avoid the situation as an individual; but S/O's often do not have that option and need to be aware of this before the situation escalates.  

Once someone has piggybacked into you company S/O's are expected to address the situation and take action - think of what would happen if they walked away in front of employees - it would call into question what kind of security program was in place. 

Awareness of security policies and procedures should be addressed before situations through training and coaching; this will help establish the course of action to take over the situational landscape S/O's will have to navigate.