Book Review: Security Matters

Reviewed by Darrin Odom

01 December 2016

Print Issue: December 2016

Brass Cannon Books; available from Amazon.com; 302 pages; $44.

The day-to-day problems and concerns confronting security practitioners provide the substance of Security Matters. Author Francis Hamit writes about these topics with an authority gained during his years working in security services.

The chapters are essays that were originally written in the late 1990s when Hamit authored the “Security Counterpoint” column for Security Technology & Design magazine. While the data may be of an old nature, the principles stand the test of time. Hamit’s columns were challenging and provocative in their day, and they exposed events, personalities, and issues during that period. The author updates some items with commentary about, for example, the 9/11 terror attacks and other events that have changed the industry.

The book is quite readable and it will be especially interesting to the security manager or supervisor dealing directly with a guard force. It includes examples of security strategies that can be used in the field and leads the reader through challenging tasks within security services with sequential steps that can be taken to better manage these jobs. The book remains relevant, as well as informative, for today’s security industry workers and thinkers.

Reviewer: Darrin Odom, PPS (Personal Protection Specialist), CPO (Certified Protection Officer), CST (Certified Security Trainer), CSS (Certified Security Supervisor), is the security guard division operations supervisor for Pyratech Security Systems and owner of BMD Personal Protection & Event Security Services.