Protecting your family, business, friends and neighbors is important to everyone. We want to be safe and secure. Reducing the chances of becoming a victim to a crime is everyone’s responsibility.

However, managing the known risk is often made by the key decision-makers of the household or business that we live, work at or visit. Regardless of how one looks at this, the core business process in each case is security protection.

Whether it be the common household, your local church, small business, corporate enterprise or even government facility, the security and protection of your people and properties are critical to your daily operations and overall success.

Unfortunately, many people in the past relied exclusively on law enforcement for patrolling their areas and properties being the visual deterrent needed. This added to a false perception of each resident or business owner having "enough" security, thinking there was enough law enforcement patrolling their streets and businesses. This led to unreasonable confidence of their own situation.

The flaw with this mindset is believing that law enforcement has the ability and time to work your needs. In the majority of cities across the United States, each police force has limited personnel and budgets to meet the minimal needs of their communities.

Law enforcement has unfortunately become more a reactive component rather than a proactive component and the lessons learned from the September 11, 2001, attacks were evident of this, as intelligence was not being collected nor shared with other law enforcement agencies. This was not a good approach for any American.

Therefore, many Homeland Security initiatives were instilled. One of those initiatives was to improve the intelligence community, since it plays a vital role in the protection of our people and critical infrastructures.

As a result, even higher demands were placed upon local law enforcement, including an even greater deal of responsibility for, preparing for and responding to terrorist events. Law enforcement officials are constantly strategizing public security procedures and practices to maximize the potential of their resources and now even some law enforcement positions have become filled with contract security professions.

A fundamental shift from traditional reactive policing has been a greater emphasis in the security profession and in the development of successful partnerships. Community policing has always stressed the prevention of crime that led to the creation of various programs such as Crime Prevention Through Environmental Designs (CPTED), neighborhood block watches, and crime free housing. These have all been small, yet successful, tools in this overall responsibility of security.

However, partnering with security professionals has become a much stronger tool, as it is the security professionals who are geared to be proactive, rather than reactive, in addressing what their client and the community needs. In addition, any perceived threat that a security professional becomes aware of is communicated to additional support personnel, including law enforcement and the intelligence community via Information Sharing and Analysis Centers (ISAC).

Security professionals have become the additional eyes and ears needed in combating crime and improving the overall environment of the communities they serve. It is the effective interaction and partnerships between the private security industry and law enforcement agencies that is imperative for successful crime prevention.

Today, we can no longer look at security guards as being "rent-a-cops." Security guards are required by many states to conduct and pass state mandated training, and are regulated by state agencies like many law enforcement personnel. Many accredited colleges today have security profession degrees that have elevated the security profession flooding the security field with educated and professional staff.