Security guards should disclose their police records

PANAMA. The National Union of Security Guards is asking the government for more stringent prerequisites before a person is hired as a security guard. Over the last few years several security guards have been involved in robberies, acting as the inside man gathering information, that they later pass on to their partners in crime.

The leader of the National Union of Security Guards, Anibal Gonzalez said that currently those aspiring to security jobs only have to give two photos, a letter from the neighborhood’s Justice of Peace, an examination demonstrating that he knows how to drive a car and shoot a firearm, a psychological test and a drugs tests.

But no questions are asked about his criminal record.

Gonzalez said that the police record is very important because auto-robberies are occurring with amazing regularity.

The union leader also denounced that certain security agencies instead of putting four guards in an armed vehicle, are only assigning two.

That makes the job easier for would be assailants.

In the last five months there have been six assaults on armed vehicles.

Four of the major targets were Brinks armored vehicles carrying large sums of cash.

In the most serious case in front of the National Lottery on April 23, the National Cultural Institute director, Anel Omar Rodriguez Barrera was shot and killed.

The latest assault happened in Bethania, on May 19, when armed robbers got away with $1 million from a GS4 Group armed vehicle.

In that case a security guard confessed to having been part of the gang of thieves.