Not all security guards wear bullet proof vests and not all reaction officers wear their plates, when they have the option. I know a few people in my industry who prefer to just wear their soft armour on an armed shift.
I fully understand why. I hate wearing my bullet proof vest. It’s hot and uncomfortable.
It’s also very heavy because of the plates. The nature of my job is diverse, so I’m fortunate to not spend too many hours a month in my vest but when I am on a shift that requires it, I personally prefer to wear at least my front and rear plates. The reason I don’t like wearing soft body armour by it’s self if I have the option to wear plates, is simple. Working in a security job, where you are responding to risky situations or guarding a high risk area, there is a strong likelyhood of you dealing with a professional, well armed level of bad guy so why take chances.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against soft armour but I would only really want to use it when the option to use plates is not available for some reason. The fact of the matter is that while someone getting home from a shopping centre and being hijacked in their driveway may be attacked by guys with handguns, someone working a security shift is more likely to be dealing with a more organised criminal.
In my situation, I feel like the criminals or terrorists that would be targeting my clients would not be coming through with handguns. I can’t see why they would. Not because I’m necessarily dealing with a sophisticated mastermind group here but simply because if you want to make sure you cause maximum casualties, you’re surely going to go with a rifle. If it was difficult to get one, then I’d worry less but according to this very interesting article, you can literally rent an AK47 for the day, for between R100 and R260. So why use anything else.
To each their own but I’ll be sure to use my level 111 plates when responding to suspicious activity or doing armed guarding. I prefer to keep my centre body mass free of holes if possible.
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