Concord Hospital security

The red box on the left denotes a bus shelter, which the hospital security vehicle on the right is driving past.  The security vehicle pulled out just in front of me as I was going past the hospital, and the driver went past the bus shelter without a sideways glance.

The bus shelter is of course covered in graffiti.  The elderly patients and visitors that rely on public transport have to sit and wait in a filthy, vandalised mess.

I imagine that the security guards, like most these days, are contracted in, and they perform only a limited and narrow set of functions.  Looking out for graffiti and reporting it does not appear to be one of those functions, even though graffiti is one of those things that increases the fear of crime.  I imagine it must be quite disconcerting for the elderly to have to sit in that bus shelter after dark, surrounded by graffiti and wondering if they are going to get mugged or not.

A mate of mine once worked in security at the Regent Hotel in the Rocks.  He was employed directly by the hotel, and he took a much broader view of his role.  The hotel had an image to maintain, and from what I can tell, all the staff at the hotel took an interest in ensuring that every aspect of the hotels functions were delivered to the best possible standard.  My mate was not just there to wrestle with the drunks and grab the thieves - his job was to help look after the image of the hotel, because if it suffered, he'd be out of a job.

I would have thought that the role of the security guards at Concord Hospital would be to create and maintain a safe environment for all staff, patients and visitors, and that includes taking care of anything that makes that environment feel less secure - like graffiti.