Private Security Professional Teaches Safety in Public School
ATLANTA, Georgia (PRWEB) February 13, 2015 -- An employee of national security company U.S. Security Associates is volunteering in his personal time to help community youth develop a sense of safety awareness. As business development manager for U.S. Security Associates’ Charlotte office, Craig Meredith assists local schools, businesses, and other organizations with strengthening their security postures. As a security service professional, Meredith knows the importance of establishing a culture where safety is everyone’s responsibility. Private security forces as well as law enforcement teams, firefighters, and other public responders are most effective when community members take an active role in safety awareness and reporting.
Twice each school year, Meredith teaches safety awareness classes to 4th and 5th grade students in the Charlotte Mecklenburg School System. Classes focus on “safety awareness” fundamentals, covering topics like the importance of reporting anything suspicious to adults and knowing fire safety basics. Meredith encourages children to go home and ask their parents, “What would we do if there was a fire?”
Meredith has plans to bring in guest speakers to address the students next year. “I’d like to coordinate with local law enforcement to show students how security and law enforcement work together to address common concerns.” By spreading the message of safety awareness as part of his work with Men in Blythe, a volunteer group affiliated with BeThereDad® and the Charlotte Mecklenburg PTA, Meredith is personally demonstrating how community groups and private citizens can influence overall security and safety.
Building productive and harmonious relations between community members, private security, and law enforcement is a hallmark of a unique private policing approach developed by Meredith’s employer, U.S. Security Associates. The security company is currently rolling out its Community Assisted Problem Solving (CAPS) program nationwide with remarkable results. In 2009, the RAND report recognized the successful reduction of crime in Hollywood, where the company’s affiliate Andrews International has implemented the CAPS program. In the first two years of the program alone, in an area where homelessness, drug abuse, and mental illness are rampant, the number of arrests dropped nearly in half, from 2,349 arrests in 2007 to 1,234 in 2009.
About Men in Blythe and BeThereDad
Men in Blythe is a volunteer group of motivated fathers, stepfathers, grandfathers, and other significant role models who want to exercise a positive influence on the campus life of Blythe Elementary students. BeThereDad® is an organization whose purpose is to help dads become engaged and stay involved in the lives of their children. BeThereDad partners with the PTA to help dads establish their own groups, such as Men in Blythe, within their schools, so they can participate in activities with their children, provide service to their schools, and encourage each other.
ABOUT U.S. SECURITY ASSOCIATES
U.S. Security Associates (USA) is North America’s security solutions leader, with 160 locally-responsive offices providing premier national security services and global consulting and investigations. The company provides career paths for over 46,000 security professionals serving several thousand clients and a range of industries. Innovative applications of leading-edge, proprietary technology enable USA to rank annually among the world’s best training companies, meet the globally recognized ISO standard for quality management, and underscore world-class customer service with unparalleled accountability. USA’s rise as one of today’s largest security companies is a natural byproduct of these differentiators together with a commitment to investing in employee reward and development, giving back to local communities and relentlessly striving to be the best. Safe. Secure. Friendly.TM For more information, visit http://www.ussecurityassociates.com.
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Ginger Dillard, U.S. Security Associates, http://www.ussecurityassociates.com, +1 (703) 655-2573, [email protected]
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