In much of Dhaka, the first line of defense against crime stands just over five and a half feet tall, earns less than Tk200 per day, and is armed with little more than a shiny belt buckle and a rolled-up daily newspaper.
Private security guards in the country might have confused you with their cop-like uniforms, but they themselves are confused about their roles.
Currently, about 400 private security agencies – engaging a little more than 300,000 people – are in operation, mostly in the capital and in some large cities. Apart from private housing, sectors like real estate, banks, NGOs, financial institutions, telecommunications, embassies, shopping malls, factories, and other private firms are the main clients of these agencies.
These private security guards have long been a sleepy presence here, but an unplanned increase in the capital’s population, marked by an unattended decline in the law and order situation, has instigated both a demand and some controversies centred around them.
Incidentally, intelligence agencies have long been alerted to the fact that crimes like abduction, snatching, hijackings, robberies, and even murder were being committing by a section of the private security guards. They have been committing the crimes wearing combat uniforms.
With a view to stopping such activities, the government in October 2012 planned to introduce a common dress for the staff of all private agencies. Official documents available said grey or light olive coloured shirts and dark blue pants were likely to be introduced soon for private security guards.
That plan obviously hasn’t been implemented yet. Meanwhile, after the hijacking of the first Bangladeshi ship MV Jahan Moni (along with 25 crew members and one passenger) by Somali pirates on December 5, 2010, the government planned to allow private security personnel to protect Bangladesh-flagged ships from getting hijacked by pirates in the international waters.
The ministry of shipping also approved the proposal for allowing private security personnel in the ship. But again, no such deployment has taken place as the country’s private security agencies lack the personnel ready to cross known boundaries.
The picture is a bit different in neighbouring India. A string of fatal attacks, culminating in the siege of three Mumbai hotels by terrorists in 2008, have created a demand for new and better trained guards, state-of-the-art equipment, and guns for the guards.
It is estimated that India’s $2bn private security sector will add a million employees this year, even as other industries lay off workers while the economy cools. Already, it employs about 5 million people, 1.3 million more than India’s police and armed forces combined.
In many Western private military and security companies, employees typically have previous police or military experience. In India, however, the dynamic has shifted. Young men can circumvent state police or military enlistment and go straight to private companies, which are in turn trained by state forces.
But even as the industry grows, some critics say that much of India’s private security companies are still unprepared to respond to threats such as terrorist attacks. Part of the reason could be the time it takes to prepare employees to adequately respond in the wake of a crisis.
Meanwhile, in the US, the private security industry is worth billions. There, this industry has shifted from creating small private security agencies to large private security contractors.
Mostly discharged military-personnel make up the majority of the PSCs there. The boom of the private security industry that took place in the 1990s can be traced back to the over 6 million military personnel that were discharged in that decade.
These PSCs have a number of duties depending on who they are hired by. In developing countries that have natural resources, such as oil refineries in Iraq, they are hired to guard the area. They are also hired to guard companies that contract services and reconstruction efforts such as General Electric. Apart from securing companies, they also secure officials and government affiliates.
But even the roles of PSCs in countries such as the US are not free of controversy. The US government’s use of PSCs in the Afganistan and Iraq wars have created a lot of global controversy.
Nevertheless, the truth is, private security agencies across the world have marched forward to create a big industry out of this. Our country is no different, but as of now, the general image of a private security guard here is: “Dresses like a man, but has the weapons of a boy.”
