Governments relying more on lower-paid private security

Federal government security contracts, such as the one at the Canada Border Services Agency airport holding centre for immigration detainees, are typically low-bid contracts, a security expert says.

The CBSA holding centre is in the news because Lucia Vega Jimenez, a Mexican woman detained in the centre awaiting deportation, killed herself Dec. 20.

An coroner’s inquest into her death has been ongoing this past week.

“We’ve never held this contract and we’ve never bid on it. I never paid attention to it, because I didn’t want it. It’s a low-bid government contract,” said Leo Knight, a former police officer and former chief operating officer at Paladin Security.

André Gerolymatos, a professor specializing in security studies at Simon Fraser University, said governments are relying more on private companies for security because it is cheaper — the wages are lower and they don’t have to pay the pensions and other benefits that government employees get.

A former Genesis employee said that the security guards were making $15 an hour.

“That’s pretty shabby. That’s like working at McDonalds,” Gerolymatos said, adding that a government employee doing a similar job would be paid more than $50,000 a year and would get more training and better protection.

“If we are living in an age of terrorism, an age where security is a big question mark, we should demand more of it.

“And not just electronic surveillance, but real security,” Gerolymatos said.

Detainees at the airport holding centre are supposed to be checked every half-hour by an employee of Genesis Security, but for security reasons guards cannot do room checks unless there are at least two people on duty.

Knight was shocked to hear that former security guard Jivan Sandhu admitted at the coroner’s inquest to falsifying room check records for an hour and a half before finding Jimenez hanging in a shower stall.

Sandhu told the inquest on Wednesday that he was on his own at the facility earlier that morning and didn’t want to go into the rooms by himself, so he made false entries.

We’ve never held this contract and we’ve never bid on it. I never paid attention to it, because I didn’t want it. It’s a low-bid government contract. LEO KNIGHT FORMER CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, PALADIN SECURITY

“That should get you fired ten times out of ten,” Knight said.

“Falsifying a report speaks to the integrity of the individual.

“Having said that, the company is vicariously liable for everything the guard does.

“If they don’t have processes for checking on what their people are doing, that to me is also a problem.

“But I can’t speak to that, because I don’t know the company and I don’t know the procedures that were set in place for this contract.”

Genesis Security Group vice-president Ashley Meehan did not respond to a request for comment before press time.

Knight said most facilities use a digital patrol verification system to make sure that security guards make required checks.

Systems are typically owned by the facility rather than the security company, Knight said.

For example, he said, most downtown office towers have their own system, but mobile security guards might use a security company’s system.

Vancouver Police Department Const. Brian Montague said visual checks of all prisoners in VPD holding cells are done every 15 minutes.

“If required, based on assessments, observations, history or cautions, some prisoners are checked every five minutes, and there are cases where prisoners are under 24-hour constant visual observation.

“Checks conducted by jail staff are recorded manually in a series of observation log sheets and on video within the facility,” Montague said.

The RCMP would not comment on its policies for checking cells because the matter is before a coroner’s inquest.