Been assigned to work Security at a Sorority House

[Timsierramist]

Good day! I am a current college student who has his eyes set on a career in law enforcement and/or corrections. I came to this forum not necessarily to understand how to join a fraternity, but rather, to get some insight into a new job I have been assigned.

At the moment I work armed security (that is, with all equipment such as a firearm, baton, chemical agent spray, etc). I have recently been assigned to work a Sorority House at a major University. While I have been assigned by my Guard Company, I am still waiting final approval from the House Director before I begin.

This post is mainly aimed at Sorority members. My aim is to be the absolute best security guard I can possibly be and gain some information into this fairly unique security post. In fact, it was hinted they may have had issues with previous guards not giving their work 100%, and I aim to restore any misconceptions or stereotype of a security guard with the professionalism that is expected of someone in law enforcement or the military.

That said, tell me. If your house has a security guard, what do you like and not like about the guard and how would you have him/her improve if you were able to do so. Also, what does your house guard do on a daily basis. Does he walk in circles around the house at night or does he man some sort of post inside the house, making occasional foot patrols? Any info on this upcoming assignment would be helpful.

If you do have a Security Guard or even if you don't, I would like to know what are you main concerns about safety and security at your Sorority House and how can they be rectified or improved.

Can you share any incidents that happened to you at your Sorority House and how they were resolved or how they could have been better resolved? I have a good working understanding of the law and what a private person can and cannot do under certain circumstances such as trespassing or assault.

Basically, what can I do to be the best darn guard I can and make fear for safety at the house a second thought while i'm there. I would like to make a good impression as I always have.

I am excited for this possible post. Having served in the military, I always took great pride in the idea, wrong or right, that I was taking the fight to those who would do harm to Americans in their own backyard, and keeping Americans safe domestically. I feel the same sense of duty while standing guard over a Sorority House in this fairly questionable part of town.

Thank you in advanced for your replies. If there is anything outside of my questions you'd like to add, please don't hesitate. I will use this info to surprise my new contract house with exceptional service, likely, that they've never had before. And who knows. If your house is currently hiring a new guard or may be soon, I may be that guy.

Thanks again!

[SydneyK]

Welcome, Timsierramist, and thank you for your service to this great country of ours.

I don't expect I'll contribute much to this thread, since it's been *mumbe, mumble* years since I was an active, and campus security in general was quite different then than it is now.

I will definitely be following this thread, though - I find the topic very interesting! I hope you get a lot of helpful and constructive feedback from the GreekChat community.

Best of luck!

[WCsweet<3]

Welcome and thank you for your service.

My campus did not have security guards for the sororities. I find it an interesting idea since I had never heard of anyone having one. I think our biggest security issue was our door code getting out. We had mechanical locks that had a five code number lock. It was easy for it to get out though with sisters telling boyfriends. There were also a few times when the sisters were not exactly discreet about punching in the number and someone caught what it was. Usually this resulted in some harmless pranks by fraternities, but it was a pretty obvious safety risk.

We (or at least me) felt pretty safe in the house though. Our biggest problem was walking back from campus at night. There had been a few instances of people stalking and attacking women as they walked through the cemetery on campus (next to sorority row) or from the library.

[AZTheta]

My advice: contact the University Police Department of the campus where you'll be working. They can best assist you.

I don't see the point in posting any incidents; I don't see that it would be helpful to you. Every campus is unique, every facility will have its own needs.

And FWIW I do not think the actives and house director should be lulled into a false sense of security b/c there is a security guard on the premises. It is imperative that we are always on guard, each and every one of us. It is great that you are so enthusiastic; I'm simply cautioning you not to approach this from the standpoint that you will protect the inhabitants and that it's okay for them to not continue to practice basic risk management and safety measures. Education is a great place to start with your new assignment.

[Timsierramist]

Originally Posted by AZTheta

My advice: contact the University Police Department of the campus where you'll be working. They can best assist you.

I don't see the point in posting any incidents; I don't see that it would be helpful to you. Every campus is unique, every facility will have its own needs.

And FWIW I do not think the actives and house director should be lulled into a false sense of security b/c there is a security guard on the premises. It is imperative that we are always on guard, each and every one of us. It is great that you are so enthusiastic; I'm simply cautioning you not to approach this from the standpoint that you will protect the inhabitants and that it's okay for them to not continue to practice basic risk management and safety measures. Education is a great place to start with your new assignment.

Understood. I suppose I should clarify. I did not mean that there should be no risk management from any of the inhabitants on this post, I only meant that I wanted to be a factor to that component on the property. Obviously I'm not there 24/7 and even if I was, i'm not superman.

In any case, I do plan to contact both the local PD and Campus Security as well for tips, local crime statistics relevant to my area and just to simply let them know there is an armed guard at the location so there is no confusion. I agree that education is a great place to start, and that is why I started it right here.

That said, I had not really thought it out I guess whether or not it would be a good idea to post incidents on a public forum. Obviously I'm just some random person on the net asking security questions about a Sorority house and now that i'm awake this morning, and not writing this post tired just before bed I see where that can be a concern. Nobody has to share incidents if they are not comfortable doing so. It's just often with crime in a neighborhood, there can be patterns to it. In university neighborhoods as is often the case, the two biggest crimes are petty theft and vehicles burglaries.

As I mentioned before, I give 100% in my employment. Well, maybe 90% if I have a big headache or am feeling sick. j/k.

So that means fully researching a new job position to it's fullest. I think a lot of us do that. Before I worked a previous loss prevention job, I searched the internet and specific forums similar to this on the many ways thieves stole merchandise from the store, and believe me, there are absolutely numerous ways to play that cat and mouse game.

[Timsierramist]

My campus did not have security guards for the sororities. I find it an interesting idea since I had never heard of anyone having one.

The fraternity housing is located off campus. But I agree, I had never heard of fraternities or sororities having security guards and found it interesting they would hire them, as hiring security can be expensive for budget minded students. Particularly a fully armed guard. But then again, this part of town can be "iffy" so to speak, so I can also see why safety is paramount.

Do you all think it's wise to be posting potential security issues with sorority housing on a public message board?

I certainly see your point. I did notice other postings on Security related dicussions as well though, even though most of them were pointed towards security systems, replacements to bars on windows, etc. I didn't see much information on working security.

I'm generally interested in the security profession as a whole, and working loss prevention or guarding a deserted constructions site can be quiet a different experience than an active fraternity/sorority neighborhood. My strengths lie in pre-planning and I do a lot of that when preparing for projects.

I suppose a lot of my questions are similar to the pre-contract manager/client talks, and I certainly wouldn't mind aiming for that either in addition to my career goals in law enforcement.

[DaffyKD]

Oh my. In my day, there were no security guards at any of the houses. We also used old fashioned house keys and not key codes to get in to the house. Looking back at our members, I think the biggest difference we would have had with security vs. what we did have is the number of girls making a pay for the security guard.

DaffyKD

[ThetaPrincess24]

Originally Posted by Cherrypi

Do you all think it's wise to be posting potential security issues with sorority housing on a public message board?

As someone who works with risk management/prevention and as a former facility advisor, this was my first thought when I read this thread/post!

I don't think it is a good idea from a risk perspective not just for exposing security flaws, but this is a public message board that any Tom, Dick, & Harry can read. Further, how do we know this poster is who they say they are and is benign? We don't!

[Timsierramist]

Originally Posted by ThetaPrincess24

As someone who works with risk management/prevention and as a former facility advisor, this was my first thought when I read this thread/post!

I don't think it is a good idea from a risk perspective not just for exposing security flaws, but this is a public message board that any Tom, Dick, & Harry can read. Further, how do we know this poster is who they say they are and is benign? We don't!

It's the internet. There's no way to prove I work security any more than to prove you worked with risk management.

I guess you can't be too cautious these days. I was interested in a thoughtful discussion and I guess I still got it, just not what I was expecting, lol.

Anyways, I guess I'll drop it and accept that this is one of those jobs and posts that I'll just have to wait and see.

I do understand where you are coming from. I guess as a guy I didn't think about the question from your guys point of view.

See, I'm learning already.

[FSUZeta]

My advice would be to be professional at all times when on the job. Pretend you are a security officer in a high rise building and treat the sorority members like you would executives and office workers. No fraternizing.

[DubaiSis]

My house didn't have security (in the 80's), but really, we could have. There were some pretty frightening incidents of weirdos and break ins at or near all of the sorority houses on campus. And with some of the houses holding upwards of 100 girls now and NOT being budget housing, it makes complete sense to me to add security.

I can't imagine you will be walking the floors of the house. It is an actual house after all. But I imagine you'll be frequently checking the doors and functioning more as a door man. Maybe making sure the kitchen stays locked after hours

My advice to you, having lived in secure apartment buildings, is know all of the girls by name, know their boyfriends and best friends (subtly of course) BUT don't try to become a friend or boyfriend. Also, when 50+ girls all live together, there is a world of drama that you can't even imagine, particularly at that very special time of the month (and yes, they really do sync up). Stay out of the drama and know the difference between a girl having a meltdown at her boyfriend and abuse. Unfortunately, we did have an abused sister and it would have been great to have an ex-soldier there to kick his arse.

Let us know how it goes! I'm also interested to hear how this will actually work.

[Timsierramist]

Originally Posted by DubaiSis

My house didn't have security (in the 80's), but really, we could have. There were some pretty frightening incidents of weirdos and break ins at or near all of the sorority houses on campus. And with some of the houses holding upwards of 100 girls now and NOT being budget housing, it makes complete sense to me to add security.

I can't imagine you will be walking the floors of the house. It is an actual house after all. But I imagine you'll be frequently checking the doors and functioning more as a door man. Maybe making sure the kitchen stays locked after hours

My advice to you, having lived in secure apartment buildings, is know all of the girls by name, know their boyfriends and best friends (subtly of course) BUT don't try to become a friend or boyfriend. Also, when 50+ girls all live together, there is a world of drama that you can't even imagine, particularly at that very special time of the month (and yes, they really do sync up). Stay out of the drama and know the difference between a girl having a meltdown at her boyfriend and abuse. Unfortunately, we did have an abused sister and it would have been great to have an ex-soldier there to kick his arse.

Let us know how it goes! I'm also interested to hear how this will actually work.

I was curious to come back and see if anything was added to this post. Thanks for the reply. This is what I was looking for on this thread. I like posting on forums such as security info watch and officer.com to get insight, but this post is sorta a special position and fairly unusual in the law enforcement/security/military community.

I suppose it will be up to the house director how far or how restrained she wants me to take things. Having studied a variety of security/law enforcement topics, I consider myself well versed in what I can and cannot do under the law as a citizen and a private guard. That said, in general, most companies and clients like to limit what their guards do even more. It all comes back to vicarious liability.

For example, the law might allow me to physically remove someone under trespassing who I believe poses a threat to the property or people on it, but does the house director want me to take such action or would she rather me watch the subject while police arrive.

There is a certain point I have learned, however, where I go from security guard to human being, plain and simple. Like the boyfriend abuse you suggested. The rules might say to "observe and report" an incident such as someone being assaulted or battered, but when it comes to something I can stop or prevent, even under threat of termination, I will still step in, despite not being legally obliged to do so.

In any case, I suspect the main job will involve patrolling outside the resident. My research indicates the biggest problem in this particular neighborhood is vehicle burglaries, followed by home burglaries and, obviously, alcohol related charges such as drunk in public. I fully expect all burglaries on this residence to go to zero while I am there.

Also, still haven't heard back from client end. Guess approval is slow or maybe they need approval from higher up to add a guard.

[Timsierramist]

Originally Posted by FSUZeta

My advice would be to be professional at all times when on the job. Pretend you are a security officer in a high rise building and treat the sorority members like you would executives and office workers. No fraternizing.

Agreed. Serving in the Marines, i've seen Fraternization firsthand and know the issues that arise from that. I know these houses have rules everyone follows and its my hope that my position will focused on protection versus enforcing rules everyone agreed on from the beginning.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

I think the unique part of your job is that there are possibly going to be prank-type things, like fraternity men coming by to steal paddles or something, and you should know how you are going to respond to that stuff. I have seen pranks quickly become dangerous, but also, if a professional had been there to diffuse the situation, I'm not certain the police would have needed to be involved.

[NutBrnHair]

Beware of members propping open doors to the outside. Might not be a problem during colder months, but it certainly is a security risk.