Hi,

One of my family members operates a non-profit organization in Seattle and they're about to hire a security officer to work during their normal hours of operations.  They deal with a lot of homeless individuals with "issues."  Since this is the case and its not getting any better, they have found a person that they will hire to work in that position... I advised them that they should pay for a "BASIC" security officer training/certification course... for liability reason AND for this individuals own safety as well.  

With that said, does anybody know of a certified trainer/training course that is close to the metro Seattle area?   They are looking for a "basic" course and there is no desire or funds within their very limited budget to train this guy as a ninja or some type of overseas operator...  I haven't met this individual, but knowing this place and the people working there, "less is best" so, just the basic is good enough.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but if an individual "IS" a direct employee of an organization/business, they do not need to be licensed by the State and have a "Guard Card" in his possession or was I misinformed??  

Also, along with the basic training course, they're seeking the following training with certification in the following;

A) Handcuffing
B) Baton

I also recommended;

A) CPR
B) O/C spray

....CPR and O/C is based on cost.

Any help with information will be greatly appreciated...  If this job didn't suck so bad and with suck-@zz minimum wage pay, I would have posted it here, but this place is a freaking zoo and I didn't want anybody to start hunting me down or be labeled as a serious dick!!  They wanted to hire an off-duty LEO, but at minimum wage pay, it wasn't going to happen... Unfortunately, liberals live in a fantasy world AND now reality is starting to sink in...  The calm reassuring voices and group hugs are not working.  I volunteer my time, without pay, when possible, during periods of high traffic for whatever programs during the holidays, but my paying job has priorities and their is a limit that I'm willing to donate.

Again, thanks for any info!!

It's been a years since I worked in the industry, but at that time your assumption about licensing was correct.  I would check with the State Dept. of Licensing to confirm, however.

One reason for hiring an outside company to deal with such things is for liability and insurance purposes.  You might check to see what will happen to the rates with in house security vs contract security.  Plus whatever potential liability issues might come up.  The ACLU and other similar groups are all over the homeless rights issues in Seattle currently.  Probably don't want them all over the non-profit if the guard in question does something wrong.

Will this Security Officer be a direct employee of the Non-profit? If so, there is no training or licensing required. 
Of course getting some kind of training in defensive tactics and non-lethal would be a good thing for CYA reasons. 

John looks great in a cashmere sweater, so, he's definitely believable. But, in reality, his advice is gtg. Do not use an employee. Contract only. Liability is your number one concern. All else is a distant second. I used to teach those relevant courses. Thirty years ago,the atmosphere wasn't 1/100th as toxic as today. The bums aren't as much to be feared as all those stray letters...NBC, CBS, ACLU, WCF.......

If he's an actual employee of the company then no training required... and there really isn't any available. Some places won't even do certifications on defensive tactics (empty hand, baton, OC, TASER) or handcuffs unless the person is licensed by the state.
I don't think anyplace does the required 8 hour training required to get a license as it's normally done by the security contract company.

Having said all that, have them give Jeff at Northwest Tactical Training a call. He does a lot of the armed and DT training for some of the smaller companies in the area. He does the range portion at Bullseye in Tacoma.