What Law Enforcement and Security Personnel Need to Know about Coronavirus (COVID-19)

 

During this COVID-19 crisis, law enforcement and security personnel are not only expected to continue their usual levels of service to the public, but are also expected to assist in community and government efforts combating the virus. It is important that law enforcement and security officers are aware of the following information: Recognition, Protection, Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) and how to Respond if Exposed.

Below are helpful guidelines from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and law enforcement and security protocols.

1. Recognize the signs and symptoms of COVID-19. The symptoms may include fever, cough, and shortness of breath. Symptoms after exposure can appear in as few as 2 days or as long as 14 days.
2. Protect yourself from exposure. Try to maintain a distance of at least 6 feet from other persons, particularly those exhibiting the above symptoms. Practice proper hand hygiene and do NOT touch your face with unwashed hands. Have trained EMS or EMT personnel assess any persons who are suspected of having COVID-19 and have them transported to a medical facility. Know your agencies plan for exposure control.
3. Recommended Personal Protection Equipment: At a minimum, have disposable latex gloves, disposable single use isolation gown, coveralls, NIOSH approved particle respirator and protective eyewear. And use them! They do you no good left on your belt or in your cruiser.
4. If close contact is made with any individual suspected of having COVID-19, clean and disinfect your duty belt and other gear prior to re-use. Use a household cleaning spray or wipe, according to the product label. Follow standard procedures for the containment and disposal of a used PPE. Follow standard procedures for containing and laundering clothes. Avoid shaking the clothes. Make sure that you document any possible exposure.

Remember, be aware of who you are coming in contact with and watch for signs of exposure. Keep your distance. Follow common sense hygiene protocols. Don't hesitate to ask for EMS / EMT assistance if you think you need it. You are a key component in combating this virus and keeping your community safe, so stay safe and stay healthy.

For more information visit the CDC website at: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/guidance-law-enforcement.html

Security officer guarding Baltimore ballot box shot in attempted robbery, police say

 BALTIMORE —

Baltimore police have confirmed that an unarmed security officer guarding a polling drop box location was the target of a shooting Thursday morning.

City police said officers were called around 4:55 a.m. to the 2200 block of Pinewood Avenue to investigate a reported shooting. Officers found a 24-year-old man suffering from gunshot wounds. He was taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Election officials said, at last check, the victim was in serious but stable condition.

"Our prayers go out to the victim of this situation," Baltimore City Elections Director Armstead Jones said.

"I really feel bad for that guy and really hope he gets well and in a safe and fast manner," said Officer Parks, a security guard with Metropolitan Protective Service.

Police said investigators believe the incident may have been an attempted robbery. The victim was working the midnight to 8 a.m. shift for a security company as an unarmed guard tasked with keeping watch over an election ballot box at the Achievement Academy location.

After looking at video surveillance footage of the parking lot, detectives learned that armed subjects approached the victim's vehicle and tried to open the door. The victim refused and the suspects began shooting at the victim.

The ballot box was not touched and did not appear at any time to be the focus of the gunmen.

"I believe that these locations are safe. I think this had a situation where we had a situation that was beyond our control," Jones said.

Jones said the state requires ballot boxes have video security or be watched by security guards. He wouldn't give specifics but said the Board of Elections is taking additional measures to keep the guards safe. Other guards say they are now on alert.

"Watch out for my surroundings and that's basically what I can do," Parks said.

Jones said the ballot boxes are still a safe way to make sure your vote is counted.

"(It's) just basically a shame where we're living in a time where a person can't be minding their own business, making an honest wage and someone does something like they did here today," Jones said.

The Maryland State Board of Elections released a statement, saying: "Our thoughts are with the victim of this morning's tragic shooting as well as his loved ones. We are actively cooperating with the authorities investigating this matter."

Anyone with information is asked to call police at 410-396-2444 or Metro Crime Stoppers at 866-7LOCKUP.

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

Unarmed guard watching ballot box in Northeast Baltimore overnight is shot in an attempted robbery. Police say it has nothing to do with the ballot box itself #wbal pic.twitter.com/ZHTwbMB1sc

— Kim Dacey WBAL (@kimdaceywbal) October 15, 2020

Coroner IDs man shot by South Point security officers at hotel's valet

I think this is the BEST news of Security Professionals doing their job without any support. The real news will be if they still have their jobs. Because Las Vegas are full of pin heads that manage Security Officers. Should shoot the bosses.

 

 

LAS VEGAS (FOX5) -- Las Vegas police said security officers at South Point hotel-casino shot and killed an armed man on Sunday afternoon. 

Lt. Ray Spencer said the investigation was in the valet area of the property at 9777 Las Vegas Blvd. South. 

We can confirm @LVMPD is currently investigating an incident here. We are cooperating fully with law enforcement officials and have no further details pending investigation.

— South Point Hotel (@southpointlv) October 5, 2020

At the scene, Lt. Spencer said about 4:30 p.m., security was alerted of a man walking outside the casino near the valet with a gun in his hand.

The suspect walked outside the valet and fired one round into the air. He then walked into a parking lot, waving the gun around. Lt. Spencer said it appeared he was trying to clear a malfunction with his gun. 

The suspect walked back toward the valet where he was confronted by South Point security. The man stopped and engaged the security officers, who gave verbal commands that were ignored.

Lt. Spencer said the security officers showed "a tremendous amount of constraint" in dealing with the suspect. The security officers repositioned over a 30 second period, police said, so the backdrop shifted from the valet to the hotel building. The suspect continued to point his gun at the officers. 

There, Lt. Spencer said the security officers shot the suspect multiple times, killing him. The Clark County Coroner's Office identified the man as Ryan Edward Clearwater, 41. Clearwater died of multiple gunshot wounds and his death was ruled a homicide.

Clearwater was not a guest of the hotel, police said, as he walked onto the property an hour prior to the shooting. 

This was the second homicide in the area on October 4. Police responded to the Grandview at Las Vegas timeshare next door to the casino property on Sunday morning for a deadly stabbing. 

Police said there was no connection between the two cases.

"It's just an extremely odd coincidence that it is extremely close to where we're standing right now," Spencer said.

Security guard shoots, wounds man in southern Las Vegas, police say

 

An armed security officer shot a suspected burglar early Thursday in the southern Las Vegas Valley.

Las Vegas police Lt. David Gordon said the security officer was working at a business in the 3500 block of Teco Avenue, near West Sunset Road and South Valley View Boulevard, at 2:46 a.m. when he noticed two individuals on the property.

“An armed security officer encountered two suspects who were seen exiting a fenced area to the rear of the business,” Gordon said. “One of the suspects was reportedly possibly armed with a gun. The security officer fired shots toward the suspect.”

Patrol officers arrived at the scene and found a blood trail. They followed the blood trail and located two individuals nearby, Gordon said. One person hiding in a tent was found to be suffering from a gunshot wound.

The man with the gunshot wound was taken to an area hospital. He is expected to survive. Detectives continue to investigate the incident.

 

 

Security officers are being overlooked during COVID-19 pandemic: NASCO

Essential and frontline workers such as doctors, nurses, grocery, and delivery personnel have been highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there’s one group who hasn’t received the credit it deserves — security guards, says Steve Amitay, executive director and general counsel at the National Association of Security Companies (NASCO).

“When you see that all the well-deserved praise of politicians and the media are given to essential workers for continuing to leave their homes to do their jobs, it’s just incredible that security officers who truly are on the frontlines are being overlooked in the praise,” Amitay told Yahoo Finance’s “On the Move.”

“Before COVID-19, the security officer was pretty much a visible deterrent at an entrance of a building —  he would help people. Now there’s added responsibilities of having to enforce the policies of the business. Some of the safe distancing and mass ordinances, so that’s an added responsibility.” 

Amitay tells Yahoo Finance that the risks security officers faced before COVID-19 were great, but the pandemic has amplified those risks.

“Someone might be ignorant, someone might be belligerent, someone might be troubled. But if someone comes into an establishment and says, ‘I’m not going to wear a mask,’ it falls on the security officer to deal with that situation, not anybody else in the store. Not the grocery clerk, not the retail employee; it’s a security officer who’s got that public safety duty.”

Attacks against security officials have spiked amid the coronavirus pandemic. Calvin James Munerlyn, a security guard at a Family Dollar in Michigan, was even killed after he allegedly refused to let a customer in the store without a mask.

Amitay notes that Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney’s (D-NY) introductory statement for the proposed COVID-19 compensation fund overlooked naming private security professionals, which he described as, “a measure of disrespect.”

Reggie Wade is a writer for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter at @ReggieWade.

Security Offers are First Responders too. "Push underway to make first responders' deaths due to COVID-19 'in the line of duty'"

Should COVID-19-related deaths of first responders be classified as "in the line of duty" deaths? 

Yes, say some local officials, backed by some state and U.S. representatives.

Passaic Firefighter Israel Tolentino was 31 when he died on March 31. It was the first COVID-19-related death of a first responder in the state. Paterson Police Officer Frank Scorpo, 34, died soon after, also due to complications from the virus.

Shortly after Tolentino's death, Passaic Mayor Hector Lora started to reach out to state and U.S. representatives. He wants the families of first responders who die from COVID-19 to be financially compensated as they would be under line-of-duty death standards.

"I don't want the families to have to wait around for years," Lora said of first responders' families. He said Tolentino, who also served the city as an EMT with St. Clare's Hospital, left behind two young children and a wife. His family should not suffer because he worked during a pandemic, the mayor said.

What does it mean

So what does declaring the deaths "in the line of duty" mean for the first responders and their families? 

Without the designation, the family or survivors of a first responder will receive a life insurance payout in the amount of 3½ times the salary of the last year worked. A yearly salary of $40,000 would mean a one-time payout of 140,000. There are no health benefits included for the surviving spouse or partner and no college funds for surviving children.

That's not enough, said Paterson Public Safety Director Jerry Speziale. 

He said Scopo was a popular traffic officer who died after contracting COVID-19. He was on the lower end of the salary scale and leaves behind two very young children and a wife.

"Forget about putting them through college — that's not going to put them through grade school," Speziale said of the payout if the virus deaths are not reclassified.

Currently, firefighters and police officers must die of a work-related cause for it to be considered an "in the line of duty death."

If the death is deemed to be in the line of duty, the surviving spouse or partner will receive, for their lifetime, "70% [of the salary] and free health care for widow and dependents from the state of New Jersey," the Passaic Fire Chief Pat Trentacost.

Surviving children's post-secondary education costs at a state college will also be covered.

Currently, the survivors must prove the first responder “more likely than not” contracted COVID-19 while on duty, officials said, for the death to be in the line of duty. The elected officials are looking to take out the burden of proof by survivors and make it automatic.

Michigan Police Investigating Whether Dollar General Security Guard Was Shot Over a Mask

Still an ongoing investigation because they stated a few months ago of possible relationship with the people. Dumb, but I understand you have to uncover all points.

From the Associated Press . . .
State police are investigating whether a security guard at a Family Dollar store in Michigan was fatally shot because he refused to allow a customer to enter without wearing a face mask to protect against transmission of the coronavirus.
Calvin Munerlyn, 43, was fatally shot Friday at the store just north of downtown Flint. Latryna Sims-Munerlyn said she was told her husband was shot during an argument over a mask, MLive.com reported Monday.
Police are looking into that as a possibility, state police Lt. Dave Kaiser told the newspaper. Kaiser declined to discuss the case with The Associated Press Monday, deferring instead to the Genesee County prosecutor’s office, which has scheduled an afternoon news conference.
Sims-Munerlyn said her husband had worked in the security profession about 30 years, but only a little over a year at the Family Dollar. One of their sons also worked at the store but wasn’t there Friday. He was told of the shooting by a co-worker.
“My son called me and he said, ‘Mama, you got to get to the store,’ and my heart just dropped,” Sims-Munerlyn said. “I said, ‘Why son?’ He said, ‘Mama, just go to the store.’”
About 150 people attended a candlelight vigil Sunday night.
Munerlyn’s mother, Bernadett, said she wants justice for her son.
“They didn’t have to take my baby and it wasn’t that serious,” she said. “All you people just have to do is listen to the law, listen to the governor. Just stay home. If you don’t have to come out, then you wouldn’t need a mask unless you’re out getting groceries or necessities. All my baby was doing was his job working and doing his job.”
Last month, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered that people have to wear a face covering in enclosed public spaces such as grocery stores.
As of Monday, Michigan had reported 43,754 confirmed COVID-19 virus cases and 4,049 deaths due to complications from the disease.

Security Officers' are First Responders too.

     With all the hoopla, and deep concern over COVID-19 or Da Rona. Everybody, and I mean, EVERYBODY, health is at risk. You, and people around you, can die. Die I said. Dead. Gone. Outta here. Finite. No coming back to protest your State house crying about re-opening the city. Since 9/11, Mass shootings at schools, and 10/1 in Vegas. The Police, Nurses, Doctors, Paramedics, Firefighters, and Medical Assistants of all types, are in the hospitals and streets, taking care of people more than ever. Doing their jobs as essential employees. As First Responders. My question is, "Where's the acknowledgment and respect for Security Officers that are doing their jobs as First Responders?"

     Security Officers/Professionals are First Responders. We are essential employees. Do not misunderstand me, I am not "hating" or "talking shit" in any kinda way. I am bringing to light what most of you refuse to see. All the talk about Police, Firefighters and Medical personnel, you forget that Security Officers are out there too, getting abused, maimed, or killed. Wherever there is a business, there is at least one Security Officer watching over that property and products. Making sure that the certain types of Las Vegans don't fuck with what not theirs.

     We're the First line of defense for whatever company or gub' ment lobby the general public walks into? When the public show up to speak with someone in the back (Director, Manager, Supervisor). Who you think gets all the attention and attitude from them first? Security.

Has anybody given a thought about who sits in the lobbies of hospitals, offices, courthouses, or dispensaries? Security.

When the people in the "back" make the public mad. Who do you think they continue to take it out on? Security.

They go on and on and on, and all we can do is take it. And, take it we do because that's the job. Security Professionals are First Responders, even if you won't admit it. In all cases, we are the ones there as the primary when something serious happens. We make the calls. We fill out those reports. We are questioned and ask to view the cameras, if available.

     From before, COVID-19 or Da Rona has given Security Professionals more work due to the state shut down. Believe it or not, we are working harder due to certain people are finding this as an opportunity to invade other people's property. With Nevada being in a Fiscal State of Emergency there will probably more knuckleheads for First Responders, Security Officers like myself, to prevent from invading your home/businesses.

Two Guards at an ICE Detention Center With a Major Coronavirus Outbreak Have Died

Two guards at Louisiana’s Richwood Correctional Center, where at least 45 people in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody have tested positive for COVID-19, have died in recent days, according to the local coroner’s office and colleagues’ posts on Facebook.
The Ouachita Parish coroner’s office confirmed both deaths and said that COVID-19 test results are pending. Mother Jones is withholding the men’s names to protect their family’s privacy.
On Facebook, colleagues mourning the deaths pointed to complications from COVID-19 as the cause of death. “We are going through it at Richwood Correctional,” one woman wrote. “2 of my coworkers has passed due to COVID-19 and plenty are infected y’all keep us in your prayers.”
“Prayers for my richwood family need as much as they can get right now!!!!” a second person posted. In response to a comment asking what happened, he wrote, “corona.”

LaSalle Corrections, the private prison company that runs Richwood, has not responded to multiple requests for comment. ICE spokesperson Bryan Cox referred inquiries to LaSalle Corrections, confirming that the two men are not ICE employees.
Richwood has more confirmed COVID-19 cases among people in detention than all but two of ICE’s detention facilities. Across the country, 425 of the 705 people in detention ICE tested had COVID-19, the agency revealed Tuesday. ICE’s 60 percent positive test rate is more than three times higher than the national average, further evidence that ICE is not testing many people who are infected.
Public health experts have been warning for more than a month that outbreaks in immigration detention centers were inevitable if ICE refused to use its power to release large numbers of people. ICE largely ignored those recommendations.

Security Officer soundtrack for the time of virus

With this Coronavirus causing business Shutdowns. Essential businesses are open with Security Officers and Surveillance personel being labeled as "Essential" employees (a first in this town). So, to add a little smile on the faces of Security Officers and Surveillance personnel everywhere. I came up with a list of songs that apply to our profession. A soundtrack you may say.

I searched, and listen to a LOT of music. There are some titles I really want to put on here, but the list is getting way too long. A list of Theme songs to keep you on the move. To put an extra step in your step. Titles that'll make you think about the last thing you said, or want to say to a customer. Funny how music can either comfort a person or incite rioting. ENJOY! And, think of your own Soundtrack. 


Theme from Shaft by Issac Hayes
Move Bitch by LUDACRIS
Don't Stand so Close to Me by The Police
Stand Up by LUDACRIS 
Close the Door by Teddy Pendergrass
Stop in the Name of Love by The Supremes
Face Down by Prince 
The Difference by The Wallflowers
Train in Vain by The Clash
Fucked Up by Young Rising Sons
Head Sprung by LLCool J
Jump by Kris Kross
Jump Around  by House of Pain
Mama said Knock you Out by L L Cool J
Don't believe the Hype by Public Enemy
911 is a Joke by Public Enemy
We care a Lot by Faith No More
Take it, or Leave it by Cage the Elephant 
Protect yo Neck by Wu Tang Clan
Lock n Load by Bone Crusher
Back Up by Bone Crusher
Jumping Jumping by Destiny Child
Breathe by The Prodigy