# Question for security guards

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-security-guards/792420>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [July 30, 2017, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-security-guards/792420 "2017-07-30T02:20:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Reddy\_Mercury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@Reddy\_Mercury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reddy_Mercury)\
**Post date:** [July 30, 2017, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-security-guards/792420/1 "2017-07-30T02:20:57Z")

</div>

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?

[[Album] imgur.com ![](https://i.imgur.com/oePma2R.jpeg?fb "imgur.com") ](https://imgur.com/a/muBLS)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\
**Post date:** [July 30, 2017, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-security-guards/792420/2 "2017-07-30T02:24:18Z")

</div>

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’.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\
**Post date:** [July 30, 2017, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-security-guards/792420/3 "2017-07-30T21:34:14Z")

</div>

**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.