Physical Security - Flawed as ever

PHYSICAL SECURITY - FLAWED AS EVER
A smart turnout, a physique which compliments the uniform & the wonderful sound of the clicking of heels with a graceful salute is what I was used to. Being more in civil areas I now do not have an experience of it.
Sometime back I visited Mumbai & happened to visit a well known shopping mall in Bandra (W). I had a presentation the other day & I had forgotten to put my tie in the bag thus it served a good excuse to buy a new one. We haven't forgotten how & what the terrorists did in Mumbai sometime back. In all cases the mere detection of weapons & explosives would have saved many lives. Many scholars have written about 'Terrorism', none has been able to define it, they all agree to this fact that its difficult to define. As humans we end up over analysing certain things. Instead of defining effort should be on to stop it. All terrorist attacks are to instill fear in the minds of citizens & thus vigilance & prevention of such things should be on the top of the list.
Coming back to my Mumbai visit, I was accompanied by some Mumbai Police chaps. They belong to the elite unit responsible to act first in the wake of any attack. We all entered the mall complimenting some really beautiful girls (just amongst ourselves).
We obediently went through the metal detector framce. It beeped loudly as all were carrying the standard issue 9mm. There were 7 security guards loitering at the entrance & a smart security girl frisking females. According to me the only qualification she had was her gender & may be the ability to speak english. To my surprise one of the guards smiled at me on hearing the beep & observing the light on top of the frame. I smiled & said, " Kharab ho gaya hain kya tera machine?" Quickly he replied, "Arey nahin sahab, woh to itna hi bajta hain agar apke pass keys, coins ho to." One of my chaps smiled & replied, " Haan Haan mera belt ka buckle dekha? Kitna bada hain. Iski vajah se hoga."
The gurad at the entrance was tasked with one of the most difficult jobs, to opne the door for every customer. Whenever you go to a shopping mall the next time observe the first guard at the entrance. One of his hand will be folded at the back carrying the click counter to count the number of walk-ins. I sometimes feel if a threat enters & pumps in metal into him the chap will not even get time to click or even think of clicking.
Here we were, fully armed & had reached the 4th floor. No detection no frisking. We simmonned the chap incharge of security, he was absent. Then the old chap responsible for administration & security appeared after 30 mins. When the identity was disclosed & the weapons kept on his table he started sweating. One of my friends conducted a quick training session of how to frisk people & effectively use the metal detector.I will obviosly skip the discussion we had with the old chap as I dont want to tell you all the level of shamelessness the chief administrator had achieved.
The brightest minds complete management education & join companies like the one which owned the mall. They give a chance to agencies which recruit uneducated, unfit chaps from the villages of UP, Bihar & Assam to become a security guard. I have gone through innumerable security checks & trained many to design them, but nothing can beat the time taken by the guards at Pune Central to put the mirror under the car & the guard at Esquare Pune to check the baggage carried by women. The time taken by them beats the time taken to blink an eye. Do they actually know what an explosive/I.E.D (improvised explosive device) looks like?.
The irony of the situation is that most of the guards are hired to keep an eye on the customer & the employee. This can be one of the points in the profile but obviously should be second to 'SECURITY'.
But the harsh reality is right in front of us. Ex-servicemen will never work at a salary of 5K as a guard. The beauty of it is that Security Industry is a huge one & most the corporates/business houses have failed to understand the importance of Physical Security.
REVAMP IS REQUIRED.