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groups the client is seeking protection from, and these social engineering experiments provide an illogical and unacceptable alternative to real security.
The other problem with these programs is that they frequently encourage turnover. There are guard firms which appear to replace personnel at just about the time the subsidies run out: These employees are, of course, replaced with new disadvantaged folks. . . and new subsidies.
The reader may have been approached by guard agency representatives offering services for as low as $6.00 or $7.00 an hour. If the agency is adequately insured, provides supervision and is properly making the contributions required, it costs well in excess of this to pay minimum wage. But not with subsidies.
It is my personal opinion that not only shouldn't today's clients deal with a firm which will send subsidized personnel to their site; they should not deal with a guard agency which has ever taken advantage of these programs. Why? I feel a company which would solicit security work, then charge fee to provide this kind of increased exposure to an unsuspecting client likely has other ethical problems.
However, there is one exception regarding subsidies. This involves a distinctly different group of people where tax credits sometimes can apply. I'm referring here to legitimately handicapped individuals.
Thanks to the media's coverage of various staged events, handicapped individuals are viewed by many as whining radicals demanding the public pay for special $500,000 upgrades on every unit of public transportation that they would never use anyway. In fact, however, these crass publicity seekers are not at all representative of this group.
Persons with legitimate physical disabilities (not the recovering drug addicts and alcoholics the government has seen fit to add to this classification) tend to be the most dependable, productive and competent employees available in the labor market, normally outperforming their physically fit counterparts. While a wheelchair-bound security officer might be unable to handle duties such as perimeter fence patrols during a blizzard, when assigned to appropriate posts, these folks typically excel in security roles. The only real downside here is that their performance quickly makes them candidates for promotion and they may have to leave the client's post to get ahead.
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