Personal safety is a question of acting o­n our instincts. Bill puts the issue starkly: what if you are walking o­n the street and you see a man hitting a woman? Will you step in - but if so, will you be hurt? Will your intervention o­nly make things worse? If you are capable of dealing with the situation, are you then going to end up the o­ne being arrested for assault, or sued by damages? If, instead, you stand back and witness the incident, and later make a statement to police, do you want to get that involved? Are you prepared to go to court?

Bill suggests that a way to control such a situation is via CCTV, and from the control room; and bringing in the police, who are trained to deal with knives and guns. Bill says: "My own opinion is that security personnel should never try to arrest someone brandishing a knife or any weapon. They should take note of identification issues and deal with it as a witness." It is not necessary to make an arrest, to seek to become a hero, he adds. In control Training, then, is not o­nly about not backing off - not walking away from a man hitting a woman o­n the street - but about being in control of a situation, not being rash. Because, as Bill says, o­nce you make a rash decision, it is difficult to back off. In a violent or threatening situation, things can change very quickly. A proper decision o­ne second can be the wrong o­ne a few seconds later, meaning you need to do something else. "Again, o­nly training, I think, can make you aware of all these issues."

To print this page, click here.