Sukhdeep Arora,

Director, Checkmate Security Services Private Ltd

While people in India invest crores of rupees in real estate and properties, not even one per cent of this is spent on the security aspect, or for that matter, on safeguarding their investments, which is tragic.

Although enquiries about security have doubled recently after the German Bakery blast, not all enquiries get converted into full-time contracts. It is the psychological fear after a specific incident that force people to inquire about various equipment and services, which gradually dies down once the incident fades from public memory.

Most of the enquiries in the city were from the hospitality industry pertaining to CCTV and its utilities. Some of the other enquiries were pertaining to deployment of guards, etc.

There are various types of cameras, but from the security perspective, the dome cameras are preferred for internal monitoring, and box cameras for external surveillance like parking, godowns, lawns etc, while pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras are put in use for monitoring larger areas.

But cost effectiveness of the cameras and other instruments totally depends upon the brand chosen by the client. Besides, there are a wide range of options for business today, hence the issue of cost effectiveness  shouldn’t replace security concerns.

An establishment like German Bakery that records much movement of people in a short span of time within a small periphery, would require physical monitoring by a guard at the entry-exit point. It is easy for suspects to mingle in small crowded eateries with flexibility without getting noticed. The presence of a guard would deter, to an extent, the person from placing/hiding an object with ease.”

A majority of the incidents pertaining to malfunctioning of CCTV cameras are because of non-payment of service bills, or the concerned businesses or residential societies failing to renew their contracts for small monetary savings.

Security and traffic management must be privatized

S M Mushrif,

Former Inspector General of Police, Maharashtra

In the backdrop of the changing security scenario, there is no doubt that private security force has a major role to play in society today. With rising crime and criminals getting more sophisticated, there has to be a greater coordination between police and private security establishments.

Security is divided into two major sections - law and order and other security (of private establishments). To start with, the government should privatise the security of establishments and traffic management, while it retains law and order and investigations. This will help in relieving the overstretched and understaffed police force to concentrate on the most critical aspects of policing.

Pvt security must get industry status

Brig (retd) Mahesh Eranna,

Managing Director and CEO, Unique Delta Force Security P Ltd

For the next two to three decades, private security will become the most sought after sector. Security will be required everywhere, considering the number of industries coming up and the growing threat perceptions.

Today, the private security sector is the second largest after the armed forces. But in terms of social recognition, it has no standing.

Everybody wants to hire a private security agency but does not want to give the men their due recognition - financially and socially.

Except for a handful of big companies who pay anywhere between Rs 8,000 to 12,000, most of the companies give a meager payment of around Rs 4,000 after all deductions.

This is coupled with humiliating work atmosphere provided to these guards by the companies hiring them.

This reflects the attitude towards the private security guard profession as a whole. Today there is a huge gap in demand and supply of private security personnel. The armed forces itself is witnessing a shortfall of 16,000 officers. From where will we get men for private security guards ?

Today, be it companies or residential societies, a professionally trained private security person is called a ‘watchman’. This is extremely humiliating.

If this scenario has to be changed, the government has to declare the sector as an industry. Only then will society will take notice of the sector.

Housing societies are responsible for their own security

By

Rohit Gera,

Vice-President, (Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association, Pune Chapter)

Unlike in the past, almost all the new residential complexes that have come up now are equipped with technically advanced security and surveillance equipments. The level of surveillance depends on the type of residential complex.

In some cases, state-of-art access cards and video-phones are also provided for security. After a residential complex is built and is handed over to the residents, their role becomes important.

From the builder’s side, it is also important that there is regular check on the performance of the hardware to ensure that all the systems are in good working order. But day to day implementation has to be the responsibility of the office bearers and the members of the housing society.

We as citizens are definitely concerned about the overall security. Protection of the residents in the building that we have built is of utmost importance.

I will never be able to trust anyone now

Eighty-year-old Gurpreet Singh (name changed) tells Nupur Chaudhuri about the harrowing experience of the night when two men tried to rob her house in Pune Cantonment

It was 10 pm on May 9. I had locked the gates of my bungalow an hour earlier, as my son-in-law’s driver and his family, who live in the quarters behind the house, had gone out. I was getting ready to sleep when the bell rang. I looked through the peep-hole and saw two young boys, maybe in their twenties. I realised they had jumped over the gate and entered the premises. Without opening the door, I asked them what they wanted.

One said that the other wasn’t well, and so they wanted food. I told them to go out and I would give them food. I immediately called my daughter. She and her family stay a minute away, and she arrived with her daughter and sister-in-law, as her husband was attending meeting at the time. The men had jumped out by then.

I didn’t step out of the bungalow, but heard the ruckus outside. I was nervous, bewildered and scared. I heard my daughter, granddaughter and her aunt yelling at the boys, who told them that they needed money as their mother was ill. They also denied having jumped over the gate. But they were drunk and it was clear that they had come with an ulterior motive. One of them ran away as my daughter mentioned that the cops were on their way.

The other one tried to escape too, but the three of them held on to him. He knocked my daughter down and she fractured her elbow due to the fall. He tried to get something out of his pocket but my grand-daughter and her aunt grabbed his hands, all the time crying for help from the nearby housing society watchmen and other men around. Not one man came forward to help them.

After three-four minutes of struggling with him, he escaped. My granddaughter chased him but he flashed a knife. That’s when she stopped in her tracks.

The cops who had been called by my other daughter arrived five minutes later. They couldn’t find the house sooner, they said. Later, my grand-daughter and her aunt came and told me it was okay to come out. They took my daughter to the hospital as our family doctor, who lives nearby, was supposedly ‘sleeping’. It was 10.45 pm then. My other family members lodged a complaint with the police about the entire incident.

It was a frightening experience. If I would’ve opened the door, they would’ve knifed me and robbed the house. I’m asked why I don’t keep a security guard. It’s because I’m scared of them.

How can I trust them to not tip off robbers that an 80-year-old woman is staying by herself in a bungalow? I have a dog, and when it barks, I know someone’s around, so that’s enough for me. I’ve been thinking of putting barbed wires and maybe an alarm system. But even if the alarm goes off, will anyone come to help? No one helped my daughter when she fell to the ground and cried for help so how can I expect them to help me?

I am thinking of selling the bungalow and moving into a smaller flat. At least I’ll be in a society, closer to my daughters and will feel safer. Those men didn’t just come for food or a little money. They came with the full intent of even killing me if they had to, to rob the house. We are all still very shaken by the incident. Just thinking about it makes me shudder.

Lessons in security: KNRA’s experience on home ground

Surinder Aggarwal, Chairman, Kalyani Nagar Residents Association, shares his experiences of a security system set up by their association.

Our experience of building up our own security set-up and then watching it collapse, is worth sharing. It will definitely prove to be a lesson for others.

Three years back, incidences of crime in Kalyani Nagar were on the rise. There were regular incidences of chain-snatching and eve-teasing. Burglaries had become a regular affair.

Then we, the members of the Kalyani Nagar Residents Association (KNRA), decided to set up our own security. When we contacted the police to provide us with a patrol van, they said they did not have any to spare. We then decided to employ a security guard full-time and also bought a bike for him.

The police did assure us about a constable for few hours at night. The security guard we employed was asked to be on duty from 10 pm to 6 am. The police would accompany him on patrol. This did serve the purpose. Incidences of crime definitely came down.

However, at this point we started getting complaints about the person we had employed. Some residents alleged that the guard had started harassing the commuters. KNRA members had by now started opposing the plan. We had to scrap it. Even changing the person did not work. We felt that there was something wrong with the idea.

In our further discussions we realised that the issue is not single-ended. Merely providing a security guard is not enough. Who would solve the law and order problem arising due to mushrooming of so-called service apartments and illegal businesses going on in the area ? What about the nuisance created by visitors at the sandwich and juice stalls which encroach the footpaths ? This is the real bone of contention.

We are now planning for a new system, wherein we will be closing down three of the four openings to each locality and monitoring the one which is open. We have also asked police for the permission and they have agreed to it in principle. We are waiting for their reply.

People will agree that a well off area like ours, does need to extra efforts for security. A multi-dimensional approach is what is needed in such cases.

(Inputs By Shashwat Gupta Ray and Sushant Kulkarni)