Security Officer ethics

Many, if not most, people are attracted to security work because of their ethics. They want to find a work environment that fits their ethical makeup. Ethical behavior is one of the reasons security officers are hired by companies. But where do we learn what constitutes ethics: 

Ethics is simply defined as ... "Moral principles that govern, guide a persons behavior or conducting a specific act." Others say that ethics is "...doing the right thing all of the time even when no one is watching you."

Moral principles are learned behaviors. They are learned from parents, friends, and family members. They are learned from churches or childhood activities that may include girl scouts, boy scouts, or sports. Many learn ethical behaviors in the workplace as well. Consider the military, or working for companies that have strong ethics programs to govern employee behaviors. 

There are a few guides that define ethical behavior as well, such as laws, company policies and procedures, training, and professional organizations. For most security officers, yes there are a limited amount of exceptions, they come to the profession with the moral principles already in place. 

Consider this example; A security officer guarding a large amount of money was asked, "Why don't you just take some money? No one will know." 

The officer responded, "I will know." 

This is one of the best examples of having moral principles ingrained in one's behavior to govern their actions in a given situation.

Another example; a young boy at school saw two boys bullying another. He attempted to intervene and was beaten pretty badly. When asked why he did it, he replied, "Because it was the right thing to do. The other boy got away, that was my intent."  WOW!!!!!

There are those individuals that sometimes fail to follow ethical practices. Less than 1% of those employed as security officers, but security officers are hired and work because of their ethics, moral principles. 

So the next time you see a security officer, know that you have just seen an ethical person.