I was wondering…
My grandfather is the guy on the right of this photo. As you can see he was a uniformed security guard, but he also has a sergeant’s stripe very similar to an army Sgt. My question for any security workers on here: Would his patch have been ceremonial? If not, what sort of duties would a sergeant in a security firm have?
A Sergeant in a security company is a ‘Supervisor’. Some have formal stripes, some don’t, some use the title, some don’t. I had a sergeant over me when I worked for the small university. When I was a supervisor at another company, I was just a ‘Supervisor’.
Chimera pretty much got it. Police tend to mimic the military in basic rank and decoration and some security companies and private police do the same. I get the impression from what I’ve read on some other boards that slowly more and more are going to more businesslike titles but I can’t find any real good evidence on just what form is most common or by what percentages.
As for your Grandfather, saying roughly 1965, his duties would have been much like a sergeant in the Army during stateside deployment. Basically a supervisor and representative of his Captain or Lt. for particular details/areas. If they had a “pre-watch roll-call” he could have probably been in charge for most of it and handling things like days off requests and assignments. Training would probably have been his job as well; at least in terms of arranging it. Think of it in terms of a combination of HR and shift manager today. A lot would depend on how large the force/company was and how their founder wanted it run.