Case Studies

Covid policing: city centre Saturday

by Mark Rowe

We were in a city centre over Saturday lunchtime and while queuing for a coffee at Greggs watched how the contract security staff at one covered shopping mall are doing a conscientious and impeccable job of enforcing coronavirus restrictions – notably the wearing of a face covering.

The mall security male officers wore black trousers and blazer, and white shirt and dark red tie, and a fluorescent tabard that said ‘Guest Services’ on the back; and their Security Industry Authority (SIA) badges on a lanyard. The staff mainly wore face masks, or screens; one wore a screen with mask, and one a bandana. Their work as cleaners and enforcers of rules looked conscientious and impeccable. That is not to say that shoppers kept to the rules on social distancing; no-one could, as numbers of shoppers were about at pre-virus norms for a weekend.

Besides, when a shopper asked a mall officer for directions, as both were wearing masks, they had to stand within one metre to hear one another. While the upstairs toilets were closed, stair rails and other surfaces such as around the hand sanitiser station, were cleaned regularly. The queue for Greggs, as common at lunchtime, stretched outside the shop and into the mall. A tape was set up to direct the excess queue parallel to the shop, beside stairs, leaving the mall corridor free. When a woman was queuing in the way of shoppers passing by, an SIA-badged officer went to her, and with outstretched, gloved hand pointed her to the queue; she joined the back of it.

The next door shop was the convenience chain B&M that had a general member of staff on the door to check compliance and only allow ‘one in, one out’, if the store were already full. When a short queue formed, the mall officer directed it to queue on the other side of the door. Compliance with mask-wearing was near total, though Professional Security did see one young mask-wearing man speaking into his mobile, while walking downstairs, and another man behind him talking into his phone with his mask under his chin.

Don’ts in nine languages

One woman we saw without a mask was stopped by a bald-headed officer. While we did not see the exchange between them, the woman did put on a mask. Mall officers are used to enforcing rules; posters at the entrances to the mall (in nine languages) listed the pre-virus don’ts, common in shopping centres: such as no skating, no photography, no smoking.

For all the persistent and outraged talk about a minority of people – of all ages, young and old – wilfully defying the mask-wearing rule, less has been said about how difficult it can be for front-line staff, whether security, retail or pub retail, to wear a mask doing active tasks for a whole shift. Bearing in mind that, to judge from mall cleaning staff, some may be carrying slight physical complaints such as limps.

Picture by Mark Rowe; socially distanced wedding, Saturday.

More on this link.

More in the November 2020 print edition of Professional Security magazine.

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