--:-- Noelle King: Welcome to Today Explained. I'm Noelle King.
--:-- Noelle King: So here's the truth. In this particular neighborhood in Philadelphia, the crime is low. But that was actually the entire point. What we really pitched to neighbors is that this is when you get involved. You get involved now to get out ahead of the crime. Joe Dane of Society Hill in PA is not just referring to Neighborhood Watch. His neighborhood hired a private security firm to protect them from that low crime.
--:-- Joe Dane: [audio clip] I lived right next to Beverly Hills, where there are now not only 10 cities, there are open-air drug markets, there is elevated crime. You know, I had a very similar thought process that this was not going to happen in my neighborhood.
--:-- Noelle King: As of today, the third biggest private employer of people in North America is a private security company called Allied. And ahead on Today Explained, we're going to trace the explosive rise of the private security sector.
--:-- Noelle King: Support for Today Explained comes from Adio. Adio is an AI-native customer relationship management platform that Adio says is built for the next era of companies.
--:-- Alana Samuels: I'm Alana Samuels, an investigative reporter for Time magazine. She was working on a story recently when she came across a press release from a private security company called Allied Universal. With what, to her trained eye, was kind of a staggering statistic. They had a press release saying that they were the third biggest employer in North America.
--:-- Noelle King: Which really just surprised me, just because you don't think about private security as some giant company like Walmart or Amazon. And I hadn't really seen that many private security officers or people, you know, in my daily life.
--:-- Alana Samuels: So it seemed like this was kind of happening under the radar. But the more I started looking into it, the more I realized that this is a booming industry. It's booming as police departments are having a lot of trouble recruiting and retaining staff.
--:-- Noelle King: And so I think we're really witnessing a sea change in the accountability of who patrols our public spaces in the U.S. You know, you have police departments which have had some problems in recent years, but they're still ostensibly accountable to the public.
--:-- Alana Samuels: Private security does not have the same obligations. These are private companies whose first priority is to their shareholders and is to make a profit. And we don't really know what's going on behind the scenes at the private security companies.
--:-- Noelle King: How big is the private security industry? It's pretty big. And the U.S. Allied has about 300,000 employees. They have about 800,000 globally.
--:-- Alana Samuels: And if you look at just the number of security officers per citizens, basically, there are three security guards for every 1,000 people in the U.S., but there are only about two cops for every 1,000 people.
--:-- Noelle King: And this is an industry that's just really boomed in the last couple decades. So in the last 20 years, the number of security officers has doubled in the U.S.
--:-- Alana Samuels: I have to say, once I started writing about this, I started seeing them everywhere. I mean, you see them in the grocery store. You see them in the airport. You see them driving around nice neighborhoods or at the gates of gated neighborhoods.
--:-- Noelle King: You see them in a lot of businesses just kind of hanging out. But a lot of it is these private companies or neighborhood associations who decide they want a little bit extra safety.
--:-- Alana Samuels: In some Chicago neighborhoods, it is safety at any cost. The demand for private security grows in the city and suburbs. Some business executives are now even requesting armed security to take them to and from Chicago for meetings.
--:-- Noelle King: Private companies and neighborhood associations decide they want more safety. And and that's the entirety of the hiring. There are actually also a lot of governments that hire private security.
--:-- Alana Samuels: You'll see a lot of them on public transit. The president of New York City Transit says the guards do more than just help the MTA recoup money. They improve the system's image and make it feel safer.
--:-- Noelle King: And sometimes you'll see governments like, for instance, in Beverly Hills, California, they'll just hire security in addition to the police because they maybe don't have enough police officers or they just want the technology that private security companies can can bring them.
--:-- Alana Samuels: The city is still contracting with two private security companies, as many as 80 armed guards who've been supplementing police since the summer of 2020.
--:-- Noelle King: What can private security guards do? Can they do exactly what police do? It depends on the state. But yes, in a lot of states, they can do basically what police do.
--:-- Alana Samuels: That is really wild. And so in order to be on the police force in, you know, a city or a town, you have to go through usually police academy. Do private security guards have the same kind of training?
--:-- Noelle King: Most of the time they don't. A lot of times, companies see this as kind of a service industry job, like McDonald's or Walmart.
--:-- Alana Samuels: They're hiring the same people, and they want to hire them pretty quickly because there's so much demand. They just kind of get them in the door.
--:-- Noelle King: One guy told me it was kind of like a test at the DMV. This is what you should do. You go there or whatever security company you want to go to, you go to the security company, you apply, you get the job.
--:-- Alana Samuels: You know, you have to pass a test in some states to get your guard card, as they call it. But you can take the test as many times as you want. And, you know, no, there's no penalty for taking it five or six times.
--:-- Noelle King: They're going to have you take a test for the level two security guard. It's like a test. It's real easy to pass, bro. You know, they're probably going to let you study for it. They should let you study for it. Everybody passes that test.
--:-- Alana Samuels: You feel me? It's a little different if you're carrying a weapon. You do need a little bit more training in almost all states, but not all.
--:-- Noelle King: Private security guards are allowed to act like police officers. How common is it that they actually do?
--:-- Alana Samuels: Well, usually they're supposed to just observe and report. So they're kind of standing there and if they see a crime happening, they're supposed to just call the police.
--:-- Noelle King: But you have a lot of people that don't do that, whether it's because they feel pressured from their employer to act or just because they don't want to see someone stealing something.
--:-- Alana Samuels: You've had a few instances in New York and San Francisco where these private security guards actually assaulted the people that they thought were shoplifting.
--:-- Noelle King: In San Francisco, the guy actually killed the person who was shoplifting. The district attorney announcing the Walgreens security guard who pulled the trigger will not face criminal charges, finding the guard acted in lawful self-defense.
--:-- Alana Samuels: So it can get very dangerous for both civilians and, of course, for the guards themselves.
--:-- Noelle King: Are these well-paying jobs? So the median wage for a security guard is about $17 an hour.
--:-- Alana Samuels: There are exceptions. There are some companies that hire ex-cops or ex-military, and they pay a lot better. But it's usually not that high of a wage because companies are just hiring someone to kind of observe and report.
--:-- Noelle King: This isn't someone that's going to make money for them, right? It's just someone who's basically standing outside their business deterring people from stealing things.
--:-- Alana Samuels: So it's not like they're in sales or, you know, some department that's going to bring in revenue.
--:-- Noelle King: We hear a lot of the time that the U.S. now essentially has a service economy, right? These are the sectors of our economy that are growing, the service sectors.
--:-- Alana Samuels: And I can imagine this being characterized as a service, right? Yeah, I think it definitely is a service.
--:-- Noelle King: What is driving the growth of it? I mean, I think, first of all, you have 9-11 and you have people feeling unsafe.
--:-- Alana Samuels: And that's when the industry really started booming. But, you know, it's this kind of steady growth until the pandemic. Then the pandemic hits and, you know, people go home. There are a lot of empty buildings.
--:-- Noelle King: So you have companies hiring people to patrol these empty buildings. And then you have the murder of George Floyd and a lot of backlash against police.
--:-- Alana Samuels: And you have police not be able to recruit and retain people. From big cities to small towns, law enforcement agencies across the country are in a bidding war for new officers as many lifelong first responders leave the profession in droves.
--:-- Noelle King: There's just a lot of people leaving police departments. It's leading to significant shortages impacting cities that are already dealing with increases in violent crime.
--:-- Alana Samuels: So you have this law enforcement crisis where they don't have enough people. And then you have this narrative that's really going on across the country that crime is booming.
--:-- Noelle King: You know, that's not really true. There's some crime stats that show that shoplifting or certain robbery is up, but then other things are down or it really depends on the place.
--:-- Alana Samuels: But you have this narrative that crime is out of control. This video has been seen more than 300,000 times. A woman leaving a high-end retailer with an arm full of clothes and getting away in a waiting car.
--:-- Noelle King: And so you have businesses and neighborhoods looking around and saying crime is out of control and the police aren't going to come if we call them.
--:-- Alana Samuels: And so we're going to hire private security. And so part of it is, you know, the police can't come as quickly as they used to for things like, you know, someone broke into my house, but now they're gone.
--:-- Noelle King: But some of it is just kind of this fear of quality of life things like, you know, homelessness is definitely up and people don't like that.
--:-- Alana Samuels: And there may be a few more car break-ins and that makes people fearful. And so they want to feel protected. And if they don't feel protected from the police, they're going to turn to private security and hope that that can do something.
--:-- Noelle King: We needed extra eyes and ears on the ground after hours. Here are some uniformed guards walking this neighborhood, taking pictures, you know, have their walkies.
--:-- Alana Samuels: And the visual deterrent alone is so impactful. And we've seen a drop in just a certain type of element kind of hanging around the neighborhood.
--:-- Noelle King: I sometimes think of it as a scarecrow. You know, it's someone who's just kind of going to stand there and scare the birds away.
--:-- Alana Samuels: But once the birds realize there's a scarecrow and they're not going to do anything, then they're going to, you know, keep doing what they're going to do in the first place.
--:-- Noelle King: If you go on TikTok or Twitter, you can find all these videos of security guards just standing there while these retail crime rings go in and just sweep things off the shelves.
--:-- Alana Samuels: Excuse me. Did he pay for all that? All that ice cream he just walked out with? You don't know? You don't care?
--:-- Noelle King: You know, on the one hand, you don't really want them to do anything because that probably leads to more violence.
--:-- Alana Samuels: But then you kind of wonder, what is the point of these security guards who can't do anything except call the police who can't really come?
--:-- Noelle King: Coming up next, Time magazine's Alana Semuels asked people who worked at Allied Universal if they liked their jobs.
--:-- Noelle King: Support for Today Explained comes from Chime. Nobody likes fees and complicated banking, says Chime.
--:-- Alana Samuels: I talked to dozens of people and reviewed dozens of lawsuits, and I did not find anybody who had a positive experience working for Allied.
--:-- Noelle King: I have been shift supervisor with Allied Universal. This is an update video for the fact that I quit. This has been one of the worst working experiences of my life.
--:-- Alana Samuels: You're not nobody. You're just a number to them. So right now I am working a 32-hour shift, basically.
--:-- Noelle King: It really sounds like as they're growing, they're really losing control of the contracts and they just do not have enough people to staff all of these security contracts.
--:-- Alana Samuels: So it's a private company, so we don't really know what's going on back there. But you have a lot of examples of pretty horrible things going on.
--:-- Noelle King: I talked to a woman who worked in a hospital and basically her first day on the job, she was told to disarm people coming into the hospital with weapons.
--:-- Alana Samuels: And, you know, if there's a shooting victim, she'd have to lock down the hospital. She'd have to escort corpses to the morgue and she did not have any training to do any of this.
--:-- Noelle King: I talked to a guy who patrolled a shopping center in California, and his job was to ask homeless people to move if they were camped out there.
--:-- Alana Samuels: And he said he had been spit on. And, you know, sometimes people were very nice and sometimes it would turn a little nearly violent.
--:-- Noelle King: You have examples of people who actually have been killed on the job. If you remember the mall shooting in Texas, the security guard on staff there who was killed was an Allied security guard.
--:-- Alana Samuels: If you remember the Buffalo supermarket shooting, the security guard who was killed there also worked for Allied.
--:-- Noelle King: Working security at the Topps grocery store, Salter engaged the shooter who was heavily protected by body armor.
--:-- Alana Samuels: Why do people keep hiring them? If I'm a homeowners association or a business and the data is mixed on how effective private security guards are, and also there are all of these other problems, why keep doing this?
--:-- Noelle King: There really aren't that many other options, in part because they've acquired so many companies. So if you look at many markets across the country, there may be two security companies that you can hire because they've acquired so many other companies.
--:-- Alana Samuels: And so maybe you try one and then maybe you try the other one. And if neither of them are particularly effective, you might end up just bouncing back and forth between them.
--:-- Noelle King: And, you know, the other problem is people want security. They want this sense that someone is going to protect them. Even if it's a false sense of security, they want to hire someone to do that.
--:-- Alana Samuels: And so Allied can't get enough people to do that, but people still want to feel like they did something. They want to be able to say, well, at least we had security, so, you know, we tried.
--:-- Noelle King: We needed extra eyes and ears on the ground after hours. Here are some uniformed guards walking this neighborhood, taking pictures, you know, have their walkies.
--:-- Alana Samuels: And the visual deterrent alone is so impactful. And we've seen a drop in just a certain type of element kind of hanging around the neighborhood.
--:-- Noelle King: I sometimes think of it as a scarecrow. You know, it's someone who's just kind of going to stand there and scare the birds away.
--:-- Alana Samuels: But once the birds realize there's a scarecrow and they're not going to do anything, then they're going to, you know, keep doing what they're going to do in the first place.
--:-- Noelle King: If you go on TikTok or Twitter, you can find all these videos of security guards just standing there while these retail crime rings go in and just sweep things off the shelves.
--:-- Alana Samuels: Excuse me. Did he pay for all that? All that ice cream he just walked out with? You don't know? You don't care?
--:-- Noelle King: You know, on the one hand, you don't really want them to do anything because that probably leads to more violence.
--:-- Alana Samuels: But then you kind of wonder, what is the point of these security guards who can't do anything except call the police who can't really come?
--:-- Noelle King: Coming up next, Time magazine's Alana Semuels asked people who worked at Allied Universal if they liked their jobs.
--:-- Noelle King: Support for Today Explained comes from Chime. Nobody likes fees and complicated banking, says Chime.
--:-- Alana Samuels: I talked to dozens of people and reviewed dozens of lawsuits, and I did not find anybody who had a positive experience working for Allied.
--:-- Noelle King: I have been shift supervisor with Allied Universal. This is an update video for the fact that I quit. This has been one of the worst working experiences of my life.
--:-- Alana Samuels: You're not nobody. You're just a number to them. So right now I am working a 32-hour shift, basically.
--:-- Noelle King: It really sounds like as they're growing, they're really losing control of the contracts and they just do not have enough people to staff all of these security contracts.
--:-- Alana Samuels: So it's a private company, so we don't really know what's going on back there. But you have a lot of examples of pretty horrible things going on.
--:-- Noelle King: I talked to a woman who worked in a hospital and basically her first day on the job, she was told to disarm people coming into the hospital with weapons.
--:-- Alana Samuels: And, you know, if there's a shooting victim, she'd have to lock down the hospital. She'd have to escort corpses to the morgue and she did not have any training to do any of this.
--:-- Noelle King: I talked to a guy who patrolled a shopping center in California, and his job was to ask homeless people to move if they were camped out there.
--:-- Alana Samuels: And he said he had been spit on. And, you know, sometimes people were very nice and sometimes it would turn a little nearly violent.
--:-- Noelle King: You have examples of people who actually have been killed on the job. If you remember the mall shooting in Texas, the security guard on staff there who was killed was an Allied security guard.
--:-- Alana Samuels: If you remember the Buffalo supermarket shooting, the security guard who was killed there also worked for Allied.
--:-- Noelle King: Working security at the Topps grocery store, Salter engaged the shooter who was heavily protected by body armor.
--:-- Alana Samuels: Why do people keep hiring them? If I'm a homeowners association or a business and the data is mixed on how effective private security guards are, and also there are all of these other problems, why keep doing this?
--:-- Noelle King: There really aren't that many other options, in part because they've acquired so many companies. So if you look at many markets across the country, there may be two security companies that you can hire because they've acquired so many other companies.
--:-- Alana Samuels: And so maybe you try one and then maybe you try the other one. And if neither of them are particularly effective, you might end up just bouncing back and forth between them.
--:-- Noelle King: And, you know, the other problem is people want security. They want this sense that someone is going to protect them. Even if it's a false sense of security, they want to hire someone to do that.
--:-- Alana Samuels: And so Allied can't get enough people to do that, but people still want to feel like they did something. They want to be able to say, well, at least we had security, so, you know, we tried.
--:-- Noelle King: We needed extra eyes and ears on the ground after hours. Here are some uniformed guards walking this neighborhood, taking pictures, you know, have their walkies.
--:-- Alana Samuels: And the visual deterrent alone is so impactful. And we've seen a drop in just a certain type of element kind of hanging around the neighborhood.
--:-- Noelle King: I sometimes think of it as a scarecrow. You know, it's someone who's just kind of going to stand there and scare the birds away.
--:-- Alana Samuels: But once the birds realize there's a scarecrow and they're not going to do anything, then they're going to, you know, keep doing what they're going to do in the first place.
--:-- Noelle King: If you go on TikTok or Twitter, you can find all these videos of security guards just standing there while these retail crime rings go in and just sweep things off the shelves.
--:-- Alana Samuels: Excuse me. Did he pay for all that? All that ice cream he just walked out with? You don't know? You don't care?
--:-- Noelle King: You know, on the one hand, you don't really want them to do anything because that probably leads to more violence.
--:-- Alana Samuels: But then you kind of wonder, what is the point of these security guards who can't do anything except call the police who can't really come?
--:-- Noelle King: Coming up next, Time magazine's Alana Semuels asked people who worked at Allied Universal if they liked their jobs.
--:-- Noelle King: Support for Today Explained comes from Chime. Nobody likes fees and complicated banking, says Chime.
--:-- Alana Samuels: I talked to dozens of people and reviewed dozens of lawsuits, and I did not find anybody who had a positive experience working for Allied.
--:-- Noelle King: I have been shift supervisor with Allied Universal. This is an update video for the fact that I quit. This has been one of the worst working experiences of my life.
--:-- Alana Samuels: You're not nobody. You're just a number to them. So right now I am working a 32-hour shift, basically.
--:-- Noelle King: It really sounds like as they're growing, they're really losing control of the contracts and they just do not have enough people to staff all of these security contracts.
--:-- Alana Samuels: So it's a private company, so we don't really know what's going on back there. But you have a lot of examples of pretty horrible things going on.
--:-- Noelle King: I talked to a woman who worked in a hospital and basically her first day on the job, she was told to disarm people coming into the hospital with weapons.
--:-- Alana Samuels: And, you know, if there's a shooting victim, she'd have to lock down the hospital. She'd have to escort corpses to the morgue and she did not have any training to do any of this.
--:-- Noelle King: I talked to a guy who patrolled a shopping center in California, and his job was to ask homeless people to move if they were camped out there.
--:-- Alana Samuels: And he said he had been spit on. And, you know, sometimes people were very nice and sometimes it would turn a little nearly violent.
--:-- Noelle King: You have examples of people who actually have been killed on the job. If you remember the mall shooting in Texas, the security guard on staff there who was killed was an Allied security guard.
--:-- Alana Samuels: If you remember the Buffalo supermarket shooting, the security guard who was killed there also worked for Allied.
--:-- Noelle King: Working security at the Topps grocery store, Salter engaged the shooter who was heavily protected by body armor.
--:-- Alana Samuels: Why do people keep hiring them? If I'm a homeowners association or a business and the data is mixed on how effective private security guards are, and also there are all of these other problems, why keep doing this?
--:-- Noelle King: There really aren't that many other options, in part because they've acquired so many companies. So if you look at many markets across the country, there may be two security companies that you can hire because they've acquired so many other companies.
--:-- Alana Samuels: And so maybe you try one and then maybe you try the other one. And if neither of them are particularly effective, you might end up just bouncing back and forth between them.
--:-- Noelle King: And, you know, the other problem is people want security. They want this sense that someone is going to protect them. Even if it's a false sense of security, they want to hire someone to do that.
--:-- Alana Samuels: And so Allied can't get enough people to do that, but people still want to feel like they did something. They want to be able to say, well, at least we had security, so, you know, we tried.
--:-- Noelle King: We needed extra eyes and ears on the ground after hours. Here are some uniformed guards walking this neighborhood, taking pictures, you know, have their walkies.
--:-- Alana Samuels: And the visual deterrent alone is so impactful. And we've seen a drop in just a certain type of element kind of hanging around the neighborhood.
--:-- Noelle King: I sometimes think of it as a scarecrow. You know, it's someone who's just kind of going to stand there and scare the birds away.
--:-- Alana Samuels: But once the birds realize there's a scarecrow and they're not going to do anything, then they're going to, you know, keep doing what they're going to do in the first place.
--:-- Noelle King: If you go on TikTok or Twitter, you can find all these videos of security guards just standing there while these retail crime rings go in and just sweep things off the shelves.
--:-- Alana Samuels: Excuse me. Did he pay for all that? All that ice cream he just walked out with? You don't know? You don't care?
--:-- Noelle King: You know, on the one hand, you don't really want them to do anything because that probably leads to more violence.
--:-- Alana Samuels: But then you kind of wonder, what is the point of these security guards who can't do anything except call the police who can't really come?
--:-- Noelle King: Coming up next, Time magazine's Alana Semuels asked people who worked at Allied Universal if they liked their jobs.
--:-- Noelle King: Support for Today Explained comes from Chime. Nobody likes fees and complicated banking, says Chime.
--:-- Alana Samuels: I talked to dozens of people and reviewed dozens of lawsuits, and I did not find anybody who had a positive experience working for Allied.
--:-- Noelle King: I have been shift supervisor with Allied Universal. This is an update video for the fact that I quit. This has been one of the worst working experiences of my life.
--:-- Alana Samuels: You're not nobody. You're just a number to them. So right now I am working a 32-hour shift, basically.
--:-- Noelle King: It really sounds like as they're growing, they're really losing control of the contracts and they just do not have enough people to staff all of these security contracts.
--:-- Alana Samuels: So it's a private company, so we don't really know what's going on back there. But you have a lot of examples of pretty horrible things going on.
--:-- Noelle King: I talked to a woman who worked in a hospital and basically her first day on the job, she was told to disarm people coming into the hospital with weapons.
--:-- Alana Samuels: And, you know, if there's a shooting victim, she'd have to lock down the hospital. She'd have to escort corpses to the morgue and she did not have any training to do any of this.
--:-- Noelle King: I talked to a guy who patrolled a shopping center in California, and his job was to ask homeless people to move if they were camped out there.
--:-- Alana Samuels: And he said he had been spit on. And, you know, sometimes people were very nice and sometimes it would turn a little nearly violent.
--:-- Noelle King: You have examples of people who actually have been killed on the job. If you remember the mall shooting in Texas, the security guard on staff there who was killed was an Allied security guard.
--:-- Alana Samuels: If you remember the Buffalo supermarket shooting, the security guard who was killed there also worked for Allied.
--:-- Noelle King: Working security at the Topps grocery store, Salter engaged the shooter who was heavily protected by body armor.
--:-- Alana Samuels: Why do people keep hiring them? If I'm a homeowners association or a business and the data is mixed on how effective private security guards are, and also there are all of these other problems, why keep doing this?
--:-- Noelle King: There really aren't that many other options, in part because they've acquired so many companies. So if you look at many markets across the country, there may be two security companies that you can hire because they've acquired so many other companies.
--:-- Alana Samuels: And so maybe you try one and then maybe you try the other one. And if neither of them are particularly effective, you might end up just bouncing back and forth between them.
--:-- Noelle King: And, you know, the other problem is people want security. They want this sense that someone is going to protect them. Even if it's a false sense of security, they want to hire someone to do that.
--:-- Alana Samuels: And so Allied can't get enough people to do that, but people still want to feel like they did something. They want to be able to say, well, at least we had security, so, you know, we tried.
--:-- Noelle King: We needed extra eyes and ears on the ground after hours. Here are some uniformed guards walking this neighborhood, taking pictures, you know, have their walkies.
--:-- Alana Samuels: And the visual deterrent alone is so impactful. And we've seen a drop in just a certain type of element kind of hanging around the neighborhood.
--:-- Noelle King: I sometimes think of it as a scarecrow. You know, it's someone who's just kind of going to stand there and scare the birds away.
--:-- Alana Samuels: But once the birds realize there's a scarecrow and they're not going to do anything, then they're going to, you know, keep doing what they're going to do in the first place.
--:-- Noelle King: If you go on TikTok or Twitter, you can find all these videos of security guards just standing there while these retail crime rings go in and just sweep things off the shelves.
--:-- Alana Samuels: Excuse me. Did he pay for all that? All that ice cream he just walked out with? You don't know? You don't care?
--:-- Noelle King: You know, on the one hand, you don't really want them to do anything because that probably leads to more violence.
--:-- Alana Samuels: But then you kind of wonder, what is the point of these security guards who can't do anything except call the police who can't really come?
--:-- Noelle King: Coming up next, Time magazine's Alana Semuels asked people who worked at Allied Universal if they liked their jobs.
--:-- Noelle King: Support for Today Explained comes from Chime. Nobody likes fees and complicated banking, says Chime.
--:-- Alana Samuels: I talked to dozens of people and reviewed dozens of lawsuits, and I did not find anybody who had a positive experience working for Allied.
--:-- Noelle King: I have been shift supervisor with Allied Universal. This is an update video for the fact that I quit. This has been one of the worst working experiences of my life.
--:-- Alana Samuels: You're not nobody. You're just a number to them. So right now I am working a 32-hour shift, basically.
--:-- Noelle King: It really sounds like as they're growing, they're really losing control of the contracts and they just do not have enough people to staff all of these security contracts.
--:-- Alana Samuels: So it's a private company, so we don't really know what's going on back there. But you have a lot of examples of pretty horrible things going on.
--:-- Noelle King: I talked to a woman who worked in a hospital and basically her first day on the job, she was told to disarm people coming into the hospital with weapons.
--:-- Alana Samuels: And, you know, if there's a shooting victim, she'd have to lock down the hospital. She'd have to escort corpses to the morgue and she did not have any training to do any of this.
--:-- Noelle King: I talked to a guy who patrolled a shopping center in California, and his job was to ask homeless people to move if they were camped out there.
--:-- Alana Samuels: And he said he had been spit on. And, you know, sometimes people were very nice and sometimes it would turn a little nearly violent.
--:-- Noelle King: You have examples of people who actually have been killed on the job. If you remember the mall shooting in Texas, the security guard on staff there who was killed was an Allied security guard.
--:-- Alana Samuels: If you remember the Buffalo supermarket shooting, the security guard who was killed there also worked for Allied.
--:-- Noelle King: Working security at the Topps grocery store, Salter engaged the shooter who was heavily protected by body armor.
--:-- Alana Samuels: Why do people keep hiring them? If I'm a homeowners association or a business and the data is mixed on how effective private security guards are, and also there are all of these other problems, why keep doing this?
--:-- Noelle King: There really aren't that many other options, in part because they've acquired so many companies. So if you look at many markets across the country, there may be two security companies that you can hire because they've acquired so many other companies.
--:-- Alana Samuels: And so maybe you try one and then maybe you try the other one. And if neither of them are particularly effective, you might end up just bouncing back and forth between them.
--:-- Noelle King: And, you know, the other problem is people want security. They want this sense that someone is going to protect them. Even if it's a false sense of security, they want to hire someone to do that.
--:-- Alana Samuels: And so Allied can't get enough people to do that, but people still want to feel like they did something. They want to be able to say, well, at least we had security, so, you know, we tried.
--:-- Noelle King: We needed extra eyes and ears on the ground after hours. Here are some uniformed guards walking this neighborhood, taking pictures, you know, have their walkies.
--:-- Alana Samuels: And the visual deterrent alone is so impactful. And we've seen a drop in just a certain type of element kind of hanging around the neighborhood.
--:-- Noelle King: I sometimes think of it as a scarecrow. You know, it's someone who's just kind of going to stand there and scare the birds away.
--:-- Alana Samuels: But once the birds realize there's a scarecrow and they're not going to do anything, then they're going to, you know, keep doing what they're going to do in the first place.
--:-- Noelle King: If you go on TikTok or Twitter, you can find all these videos of security guards just standing there while these retail crime rings go in and just sweep things off the shelves.
--:-- Alana Samuels: Excuse me. Did he pay for all that? All that ice cream he just walked out with? You don't know? You don't care?
--:-- Noelle King: You know, on the one hand, you don't really want them to do anything because that probably leads to more violence.
--:-- Alana Samuels: But then you kind of wonder, what is the point of these security guards who can't do anything except call the police who can't really come?
--:-- Noelle King: Coming up next, Time magazine's Alana Semuels asked people who worked at Allied Universal if they liked their jobs.
--:-- Noelle King: Support for Today Explained comes from Chime. Nobody likes fees and complicated banking, says Chime.
--:-- Alana Samuels: I talked to dozens of people and reviewed dozens of lawsuits, and I did not find anybody who had a positive experience working for Allied.
--:-- Noelle King: I have been shift supervisor with Allied Universal. This is an update video for the fact that I quit. This has been one of the worst working experiences of my life.
--:-- Alana Samuels: You're not nobody. You're just a number to them. So right now I am working a 32-hour shift, basically.
--:-- Noelle King: It really sounds like as they're growing, they're really losing control of the contracts and they just do not have enough people to staff all of these security contracts.
--:-- Alana Samuels: So it's a private company, so we don't really know what's going on back there. But you have a lot of examples of pretty horrible things going on.
--:-- Noelle King: I talked to a woman who worked in a hospital and basically her first day on the job, she was told to disarm people coming into the hospital with weapons.
