Executive Summary

Security Officers are among the largest frontline workforces in the United States and among the least protected. About 1.3 million people work as Security Guards—more than the nation’s police and sheriff’s patrol officers—staffing the hospitals, schools, transit systems, stores, and office buildings where the public expects a visible security presence. During the COVID-19 pandemic they were designated essential critical infrastructure workers, and their responsibilities have expanded to include de-escalating conflicts, managing emergencies, and responding to mental-health crises. Yet their wages, benefits, training, and workplace protections do not reflect that role. This report synthesizes national data with the UC Berkeley Labor Center’s series of state and metropolitan factsheets to profile the Security Guard workforce and to show why improving job quality in this sector is a matter both of economic justice and of public safety.

Who they are.

The workforce is predominantly male (76%) and majority workers of color (61%), with Black workers making up nearly one in three (31%). The median age is 40, and roughly six in seven guards have no bachelor’s degree. Low wages. The median Security Officer earns $18.70 an hour—about 73 cents for every dollar earned by the typical U.S. worker—and $36,282 a year.

Below a living wage.

Seventy-one percent of Security Officers earn less than the MIT living wage for a single adult, and 41% are low-wage by the standard two-thirds-of-median benchmark.

Thin benefits.

More than four in ten guards (43%) lack health insurance through an employer or union. High turnover. Annual turnover in the security industry reached 89% in 2024—far above the 66% private-sector average—and has exceeded it every year for a decade, peaking near 99% in 2022. Uneven training.

There is no federal training standard.

Only about half of states set a minimum number of training hours for unarmed guards, ranging from 4 to 48, and few require the de-escalation and crisis-response training the job increasingly demands.

Elevated safety risk.

Security Guards die on the job at more than twice the rate of the average worker, and nearly two-thirds of their fatal injuries result from assaults and other violent acts.

A policy path.

A growing number of jurisdictions—New York City, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C.—have adopted sectoral wage-and-benefit standards for Security Officers, and California is advancing legislation to raise training standards.

The poor job quality in the security industry is not only a problem for workers; it is a public-safety problem as well. Research on security work—most notably at San Francisco International Airport—finds that higher pay and lower turnover improve the quality and reliability of security services, while constant churn erodes the experience and readiness on which effective security depends. The policy tools to change this are increasingly well established: sectoral pay-and-benefit standards that take labor costs out of low-bid competition, meaningful and standardized training, responsible contracting, and career pathways that make security work a stable occupation. Improving job quality in this sector advances worker well-being and public safety together.

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The Hudson County Board of Commissioners want building security training and more CCTV cameras due to the increasing presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in James J. Braddock Park in North Bergen.

At Thursday’s meeting, Anna Grojec, a North Bergen resident and member of Estamos Unidos brought her concerns to the board over the heavy ICE presence at Braddock Park.

This is happening despite Hudson County Executive Craig Guy’s executive order banning ICE and Border Patrol from utilizing county-owner property for federal immigration enforcement – at least without a warrant – among other actions taken at the county level.

According to Neighbor Grojec, there is a lot of activity at the bus stop at the top of the park near Bergenline Avenue and 90th Street, where many arrested are being documented by Estamos Unidos and other immigrant advocates.

“I’ve seen videos of ICE agents chasing people into and through the park, seeing traffic, having to halt suddenly, and videos of ICE agents pinning people to the ground in the park,” Grojec declared.

“I’m just here to bring your attention to this and ask what the county is doing or planning to do to protect our community. What protocols does the sheriff have in place? Was the Sheriff’s Department aware of what was happening?” Grojec questioned.

She added that the Hudson County Sheriff’s Office has a “clear presence” at Braddock Park, but are usually located toward the interior of the park, as opposed to the bus stop near the top of the park, or other locations where detainments are happening.

Grojec was echoed by West New York resident Mark Bloomberg, who noted that a couple of days prior to the commissioners meeting, a man in a wheelchair was rescued from the lake in Braddock Park.

“There was easily 30 responders on site. That’s not digging at them in any way. They did their job. I’m not throwing any shade here, but I’d imagine if a child was reported missing from a playground in Braddock, there would be a similar response. Same thing goes if there’s actually a kidnapping that happens in progress,” Bloomberg expressed.

“So I’m wondering where is the response when federal agents, or just masked men that we don’t really know who they necessarily are – we’re just guessing – are abducting residents in the park. Where’s the sheriff?”

Resident Bloomberg said “If you haven’t heard, ICE is everywhere in the county. So when these things happen in the park, where is the sheriff and have they witnessed any of these? Can they change their patrolling protocols?” Bloomberg added.

“And let’s not have a side discussion, let’s discuss it publicly so the public can hear about it.”

Bloomberg asked for sheriff’s officers to, instead of sitting in their cars in parking lots in the interior of the park, monitor the entrances and bus stops – especially during rush hours – where ICE is picking people up while waiting for public transit on their way to work.

In addition, Bloomberg wanted to know the county’s plans if ICE shows up at public events on county property like flag raising and concerts, noting that the Security Officers at 567 Pavonia Ave. told him upon entrance that day that they did not receive any ICE training.

“You guys passed a resolution up. They looked at me like, ‘What are you talking about training? We haven’t gotten it yet.’ You guys, something’s not happening here,” Bloomberg declared.

Commissioner Bill O’Dea (D-2) noted he shared Bloomberg’s concerns over security personnel lacking any procedure to respond to ICE despite apparent existing protocol put out by the county Sheriff’s Office and asked the administration when that would happen.

“Passing a policy makes you feel good, but if you don’t implement the policy then you raise a false sense of awareness or security that doesn’t exist,” O’Dea said.

In addition to probing the implementation of the anti-ICE executive order, O’Dea suggested the installation of closed-circuit television cameras installed in the parks to monitor the situation with federal immigration authorities.

He suggested the county should monitor those cameras frequently and record any aforementioned incidents in the park, including at the outskirts of the park and near the bus stops.

O’Dea also recalled driving to work in Elizabeth one day when he saw about seven ICE agents surround an individual in there vehicle, prompting him to pull over and exit his vehicle to observe although he said the agents eventually left.

“they didn’t look like your typical law enforcement officers. They could have looked like just a gang of individuals that were armed and dangerous. So this is real. This isn’t going away tomorrow. And I think everything you said is true,” he continued.

“I believe that if we are committed to do the things that we said we are, I think we’ve got to now take the next steps to do that. If it’s additional CCTV to look at areas where these are regularly occurring, maybe they’ll occur less if they know there’s somebody watching them and there’s recorded footage of what they’re doing.”

O’Dea was confident his plan for CCTV cameras would work, contrasting the lack of incident in the camera-riddled Lincoln Park.

Bloomberg concluded it was important have a dialogue on this and include law enforcement as well, emphasizing the need to have their body cameras record incidents after he said an acquaintance had their phone ripped out of their hand and their video of an encounter deleted by a federal agent.

“We need the police to record. We need to create a record so there’s accountability,” he concluded.

Board Chair Anthony Romano (D-5) told Bloomberg to make North Bergen police aware about the activity at the bus stops, since that falls under their jurisdiction, however, Bloomberg said he already spoke to NBPD and they said they could do nothing.

ALBANY — Security Guards at several Capital Region hospitals — and other areas of the state — would be given Peace Officer authority, including the ability to take someone into custody, under a bill being considered by Gov. Kathy Hochul.

The legislation comes as hospitals are reporting more frequent and challenging public safety issues, including assaults on staff members. Since the pandemic, that has included violence directed at healthcare workers and sometimes spurred by emergency department backlogs.

The bill would grant the Peace Officer status to security officers employed by Albany Memorial Hospital, Samaritan Hospital and St. Peter’s Hospital.

The Peace Officer powers are similar to those held by police officers, who in some instances are allowed to pat someone down to check for weapons.

The measure is one of several identical bills Hochul is considering at other healthcare facilities in western and central New York.

The Legislature’s response has been to pass similar laws expanding the authority of Security Officers. The local bill Hochul is considering would limit a Security Guard’s authority to a hospital property and adjacent public areas.

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