WA Radio Scanner Users' Group

Hi all,

Am new to this forum and have a general interest in scanning, but also have a specific question:

I've come over from the UK and am an Australian citizen. Whilst in the UK, I was a police officer for coming up to 3 years. I decided that a career in the police wasn't for me (too much bureaucracy; excess paperwork and senior management have lost focus, as it's no longer about preventing crime or catching offenders, but meeting performance targets and fostering good PR with 'representative groups' and the media).

Having now settled here, I'm looking for some security work, as I've no intention of joining WAPol having followed the industrial dispute that's going on, and fully supporting the police.

I will be starting at Burswood soon as Security, but am after a little casual work on the side to supplement my income to pay off some debts in the UK. I've done my Certificate II and done Certificate III modules in baton, cuffs and UDT (since even though my training ticket was still valid, it's not recognised here, though I managed to get some RPL on the Cert II) and won't have any problems getting a Commercial Agents Licence, and was after some recommendations, as a lot of you on here know your stuff about the industry.

I have an interview with SecureForce tomorrow, as I did a little bit of public transport policing in Manchester and have an idea of what to expect and how to deal with some of the jobs. However, reading some of the posts on here, SecureForce seem to get quite a bad rap. Is the company as bad as it's made out on here, or will I just be able to keep my head down and get on with it? Haven't done my driver's yet and am after static work.

If not, can anyone recommend any other security companies or jobs that carry out work likely to be engaging to ex-police?

Thanks in advance.

secureforce ARE pretty much a bunch of donkeys. I'd tell you to join ISS (ex group 4) and apply to edsec but I would be lying if I said ISS were a top company to work for either.

Read through the Security Officers Award - I take it this is the rate paid throughout the industry?

Might look to be employed in-house as security instead.

welcome to wa im in the security industry at the moment have been for 3yrs and i must say enjoy my job

Id say give iss a go or wilson security both these companys have decent contracts any hassles pm me

I heard a lot of the train guards are ex-coppers. Might be worth a looky.

Turbo wrote:I heard a lot of the train guards are ex-coppers. Might be worth a looky.

i was goin to say theres a point they are doin a huge recruitment drive at the moment for transit guards

http://www.pta.wa.gov.au/scripts/viewar ... SID=PRDPTA

[quote="Spartan"]I'd tell you to join ISS (ex group 4) quote]

I thought group 4 became tempo???


As far as the casino goes, be very carefull, anything happens and they will not support you, they will leave you to fend for yourself if any police investigation or assult or anything else comes up... I know quite a few people who left because of their lack of support to their employees...

but it depends what ya wanna do???

There is a shit load of work out there, I have worked security now for about 7.5 years, started out just doing static work and crowd control (at a measly 10.60/hour) then moved to patrols, armed guard work and now manage the electronic security division for the company I work for and install alarms, cameras and supervise employees as well as some fun on the weekends doing crowd control work.

But here is my breakdown...
Armed guard work, Armourguard and Chubb... Brinks went under in most of aust cos they lost their contracts. No real advantage in either...

Static Guard work for almost any security company you like but alot of the smaller companies have alot of smaller shifts of about 3hours standing out the front of chemists and shops etc. but some also have good contracts with bigger companies and provide guards to the likes of minig companies and construction companies... some of this can be quite boaring though, and then the larger companies, Wilson (aka MSA), chubb, ISS / tempo (aka group 4) have lots of shoping centres and also mine sites etc...

There are also patrols if you don't mind being stuck in a car all night... alot of companies have patrol services, some are a little more relaxed than others... in that you can sit arround if it is quite and do not much at all where as the bigger companies have GPS tracking and if you are stationary for more than a certain amount of time they wanna know why...

But ask arround as you have done in here and get peoples oppinions, but I do aggree with most, stay away from secureforce / metro security...
Give a smaller company a go first, some of them are quite respectable where as the bigger ones focus on $$$... as i learnt through experience.

and the transit guards might not be a bad option either... i think dazla was/is one of them, so you may wanna ask him for more on that.

anyway enough of my carry on, any more questions ask me and i'll help you out where i can...

Mikey, Group 4 changed to Tempo, which then changed to ISS. Don't really matter though, you can't polish a turd!

The PTA is currently looking for Transit Guards, good money and enjoyable work too. Kinda a mixture between Police and Secuirty.

Looked at Transit Guards and it looks ideal, but the recruitment process takes a few weeks, and I was looking for something with a more immediate start.

It turns out Secureforce is literally a 3 minute walk down the road from where I am, so will give them a shot and see how it goes - it's not going to be my main job anyway, and I'm aiming ultimately for the Air Force, and will hopefully start that in Jan or Feb.

Best of luck with your choice, hope it all works out well for you... (immediate job and future goal)

Thanks, there's been some great advice from people on here! So thanks all!

What do you want to do in the RAAF?

First preference is Security Police Officer, then Air Defence then Admin O.

Assessment on the 24th so have been reading in a lot of detail!

Turns out I need to purchase cuffs and pepper spray myself, so much for hoping they'd be issued to me.

Can anyone recommend places other than Wellington Army Surplus and the shop just down the road from there for this sort of thing? If I'm going to have to buy handcuffs I'd rather use the Hiatt Speedcuffs I was issued with, trained in and am very used to in the UK, and these two shops don't seem to sell them.

Not sure if I should bother with the pepper spray? I never needed to use CS in the UK and can't see myself needing to here.