Poor start to New Security licensing Regime!

Kia Ora,

It has been a while firstly due to long hours in security task within the Christchurch CBD red zone, the wrongful arrest of myself & my offsider, then of late work mainly back in the red zone as Safety officer has meant little time to catch up.

At present the issues & subsequent issues surrounding our wrongful arrest are been worked through to hopefully involve police in getting issues sorted.

But in the meantime will aim for at least a post a week to share views on security.

First in the limelight is the new 'Private Security Personnel Act 2010'.

The best use of the bill proposing this act was as toilet paper & that has now been shown to be pretty much just that. It was supposed to look 35 years into the future(based on fact it had taken about 35 years to change since previous one was introduced) but instead in reality goes 40 years backwards.

Not to mention the fact that going on the adverts for renewal or new licences in the newspaper(which you don't have to do under the new act) many never received the letter outlining part of the process(promised second letter to outline finalized process is like Xmas. Its coming.) I

n fact I know this to be true as I had two security company licences & a COA. Previously, typical bureaucratic waste, all three entities have got a letter. This time only one letter was received for the company without a COA attached to its name.

Process of renewing your company licence in particular has been a shambles to put it nicely.

You no longer get transferred to the person(Lucy) who mainly dealt with the issues & knew what was going on, but just get through to a Ministry of Justice Call Centre.

Operators there have no idea what they are talking about & have quoted at me the previous act, the bill, but never the new act as it actually stands.

They have contradicted themselves, given totally incorrect information & told of how the process works(as it is also detailed when carrying it out online) then in mid process the office have tried to change that process.

That was in part because one half of the process required you to do it online & the other part to send in a paper portion. You can't mix the two & expect it to be a good system. NZTA(NZ Transport Authority) use a similar system now to change ownership of a vehicle & that has just been shown to be equally a failure.

Issue has been the process & advice given on the phone after several calls are that those with only one company officer(Director CEO, CFO etc) only had to fill in the online form. Now they are wanting the paper form filled in mid process.

Its a shambles.

Then an issue arose when we were wrongfully arrested. Under the previous act you were required too call the office & say if there had arisen circumstances where your COA(Certificate of Approval) or licence might be suspended. On this occassion we were told that since remanded at large with charges almost certainly to be withdrawn(they were but with no apology or even meeting to clear things up, so the issues that led to arrests are continuing) we didn't have too.

However I decided to call out of courtesy anyway. The Call Centre would not put me through to the new office to which they got the reply "look I want to talk to the organ grinder not the monkey".

I then went back over the new act & can not find the requirement to inform the PSPLA (Private Security Personnel Licensing Authority) of any such situation. It maybe there but I could not find it.

A few days later I was rung by the supervisor of the Call centre as mine was 5th complaint they had had that day to find out what the issues were. Outlined them then raised the last issue.

"Oh but it is a requirement on the website" "I don't care whats on the website. That was requirement under the previous act, but unable to find it in the new one so we don't have to inform the office" or words to that effect.

It has now been raised with the Prime Ministers Office as last quick look showed something in the region of 300 company licences on hold & about as many again only just started to be processed. I would say it is mainly due to same issue. That is just talking to a few in same situation around here alone.

Funny thing they are holding up company licences but giving out COA's to druggies or those who promote drug use amongst security industry. Also to quote one Auckland police officer we meet in the CBD red zone "over half the arrests they make in Auckland at present involve those in the security industry".

So where is the proper scrutiny?

This is what happens when poor consultation is carried out & bureaucrats are allowed to drive a process.

www.foxhoundsecurity.co.nz