With the decrease in federal and state funding for public safety personnel over the past few years, there has been a rise in the need for private security guards and officers. From the watchman that protects private property to the more aggressive investigators and private police that actually make arrests and work more in tandem with police departments, employment for security officers is definitely on the rise. This rise in the security industry also means that related industries that serve these professionals like security guard uniforms and security guard gear manufacturers are also giving more attention to their specific needs.
The US Department of Labor statistics show that in 2008 there were over 1 million security officers that were employed, compared to around 800,000 public law enforcement officers. If you also consider that many security officers are also police officers who are just supplementing their income, you can easily see the heavy lean towards private security jobs.
Security guard uniforms have always very closely mimicked normal law enforcement uniforms with clean crisp class a shirts with metal badges, nametags, patches, etc. The main difference between the conventional law enforcement uniform and a security officer uniform for a long time has traditionally been the cost. For some reason, security firms have traditionally opted for a more economical uniform. Although this difference for the most part is still true today, with the increasing numbers and duties for security officers, their desires for more fully featured apparel has pushed some firms to spend the extra money to make sure their security personnel is well equipped to do their job.
Since 9.11 and the enhanced atmosphere of security and with the rise of criminals equipped with high powered automatic and semi-automatic weapons, the equipment and gear that security professionals carry have also changed a bit. More security agents have been trained to carry weapons and some even wear concealable protective body armor. And with the increase of use of electric stun guns, security officials have also begun to carry those on a more regular basis as well. Pepper spray, batons, handcuffs, and tactical flashlights are also common security guard gear.
Since some security professions require that the officer not be noticeable at all like undercover store detectives or casino gaming surveillance, the need to blend in with normal civilian clothing is much more important. With newer products coming from brands like 5.11 Tactical, Propper, TruSpec, and Elbeco that look more like normal clothing but have lots of hidden features especially for law enforcement and security officers, finding the right security officer uniform has become a little easier.
