Djordje Vucinic, director of Securitas Services - Give us any law

Djordje Vucinic (Photo: ekapija.com)

And while the British are largely preparing to make savings in the budget by outsourcing some police tasks to private security companies, Serbia still has no law to regulate this field. A draft law on private security and tens of other bills were withdrawn from parliamentary procedure some ten days ago.

Our country also has no precise information on the number of employees in the private security sector. According to the statements issued by the government early this year, it is speculated that there are between 25,000 and 60,000 people working in that field. At the same time, as it was announced, private security firms have about 47,000 pieces of weaponry in their possession (the same source claims that the police have about 53,000 weapons at their disposal).

Absence of regulations in this highly sensitive area leaves much room for malpractices, abuses of authority and the operations of unregistered organizations and individuals that diminish the reputation of the entire profession.

In order to get answers to questions like: Which of the important government facilities in Serbia can be protected by private security firms? In which cases is it allowed to carry arms? Why do we need a private security law so much?, eKapija has talked with Djordje Vucinic, director of Belgrade-based Securitas Services.

This company is specialized in rendering services pertaining to physical security, technical security systems, transport of money and treasures, industrial security and safety, reception services, alarm-monitoring and mobile security. It is part of the Securitas family that operates in 51 countries and employs 300,000 people.

eKapija: Which of the public facilities in Serbia are safeguarded exclusively by the state?

- Protection of strategically important facilities is still under the exclusive jurisdiction of the state, which is also specified in the Draft Law on Private Security. These are government facilities, prisons, thermal and hydroelectric power stations...

What also falls within the exclusive jurisdiction of the state is airport security, which is not the case in other parts of the world. For example, Securitas safeguards airports in Turkey, Sweden, Hungary...

When it comes to government facilities that are not of strategic importance, security tasks are almost always outsourced to some of the existing companies that render such services on the territory of Serbia.

eKapija: It is possible to hire private security firms to safeguard railway stations, ports or other important transportation facilities in Serbia? What about embassies?

- It is possible to hire private security firms to protect ports, railway stations... For example, Securitas provides security services at the Port of Belgrade.

As far as embassies, diplomatic missions, diplomatic clubs and residences are concerned, Securitas has been protecting the Embassy of Sweden since 2003 and was later also hired to safeguard the embassies of Slovakia, Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, Holland, Germany...

eKapija: What is the situation regarding the outsourcing of security services at public facilities to private security firms in other countries?

- I will best answer this question by citing an example. Securitas is hired, or was earlier hired, to render security services at the Austrian Interior Ministry, NATO facilities and detention centers in Turkey, central military hospital and a prison in Czech Republic... In that country we collaborated with the police, exchanging support, reports and mobile teams with them.

Also, we were hired to protect some of the nuclear plants in Belgium, Finland, France, Germany... This is only part of the activities that Securitas carries out for the institutions of national importance.

In Great Britain, for example, government authorities are already preparing to outsource some police tasks to private security firms in order to make savings in the budget. In this way they show that they consider such firms important, competent and capable of responding to any challenge, just like the government sector.

We sincerely hope that the things will also change in Serbia upon the adoption of the Law on Private Security.

eKapija: Why is it so important to promulgate the Law on Private Security? What are your expectations?

- Ever since the National Parliament of Serbia repealed a set of laws in 1993, including the Law on Social Self-Protection, there have been no regulations pertaining to the private security sector in Serbia. Since then, over the last 19 years, this branch has been using, that is, applying about 10 laws and by-laws that partially regulate certain aspects of operations of such companies. The entire private security industry is based on these laws.

I want to say that the repealing of the Law on Social Self-Protection created a legal gap, given that that had been the only law regulating the position of this specific actor in the security sector. I can freely say that the private security sector at this moment requires any law, which is certainly better than "no law." As for my expectations, I believe that it will clear up the situation in the market and show which of the private security firms are capable of doing that job.

eKapija: The Serbian government announced early this year that, although there were no precise data, the private security sector in our country had about 47,000 pieces of weaponry in its possession. When is it allowed to carry arms?

- If we are talking about physical protection, private security officers are allowed to carry arms only within or on the grounds of the facility that is subject to protection, of course in line with the Law on Arms and Ammonition. In special cases, they can carry arms outside the protected area - when protecting the transport of money and insured parcels, when providing bodyguard services (with the previous consent from the police), as well as during interventions by an intervention team.

Milica Stevuljevic