Monument Security employees are regulated by state
MORGAN HILL
Three guards who chased an alleged shoplifter Nov. 27 at the Safeway grocery store on East Dunne Avenue have been suspended by Monument Security.
Safeway spokesman Brian Dowling said Monday the guards were placed on leave by Monument Security following the death of Salinas resident Atalberto Madrid, 47, who was pronounced dead at Saint Louise Regional Hospital shortly after the chase.
Dowling said the company’s investigation into the incident is ongoing, and Safeway is cooperating with the Morgan Hill Police Department in its own investigation into the incident. Safeway still uses Monument Security guards, he said.
Madrid died following a chase by the guards through the parking lot of the Safeway store, a pursuit of about 100 yards.
A shopping cart full of meat and alcohol valued at nearly $800 was found outside the store.
The guards cuffed Madrid, and Morgan Hill police arrived shortly after and discovered Madrid was not breathing. Officers started CPR and uncuffed Madrid, and paramedics took over, transporting him to the hospital. He was later pronounced dead.
Attempts to reach Madrid’s family were unsuccessful. He was believed to be a resident of Salinas or Greenfield.
Repeated calls to Monument Security were not returned.
The Morgan Hill Police Department’s investigation into the death of Madrid is on hold pending toxicology results, according to Cmdr. David Swing.
Swing said, like any other death, detectives are awaiting toxicology results since the autopsy did not show an obvious cause of death.
Meanwhile, a former Monument Security guard, who declined to be identified, said when he worked for the company back in 1997, security guards worked in teams of two. If there were three guards, he speculated, one of them was in training.
He said Monument Security guards were not encouraged to chase suspects, but to watch them and ask them to return to the store if they felt they were suspicious. Employees were told to contact police, he added.
The former employee said that Monument Security guards, at the time he worked for the company, were told not to go beyond 100 feet outside the store. If the merchandise was recovered, he said, there was no need for the guards to give chase.
The private security industry is represented by the California Association of Licensed Security Agencies, Guards and Associates, or CALSAGA. William Hodges, deputy associate manager for the organization, said that California has the highest standards for security guards in the nation.
Forty hours of training are required for guards, with eight hours of refresher training each year afterward, Hodges said. Mandatory background checks with both the FBI and the Department of Justice are also part of the process.
“No other state has those requirements,” he said.
California Bureau of Security and Investigative Services is the regulatory agency, Hodges said. Information on the agency’s Web site states that the mandatory 40 hours training went into effect in 2004, prior to that it was three hours.
Hodges said he could not comment on the Monument Security guards at the Safeway specifically, but he said California security guards are given “post orders” which are unique to different jobs and environments.
“It’s a set list of guidelines on what to do that varies from place to place and situation to situation,” he said.
For example, a building security officer may have post orders to mainly be a “visual deterrent,” he said, to observe and report and to contact law enforcement officers if necessary.
