The Black Belt Librarian by Warren Graham

Author:Warren Graham [Graham, Warren]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Safety and Security
ISBN: 9780838993743
Publisher: American Library Association
Published: 2011-11-22T00:00:00+00:00

5

Playing Chess with the Checkers Player

Student: “People are strange, aren’t they, master?”

Master: “Yes, we are.”

—Traditional

My first security job was at a theme park on the border of North and South Carolina. I naturally wanted to do a good job, and I wanted to please my boss. I wanted patrons to comply, but I didn’t want to make them angry. I didn’t want to be disliked by them. I also wanted to be safe and certainly not have to engage in a physical confrontation. In other words, I wanted to do the best job I could and be an asset to the company and keep patrons safe. Does all this sound familiar?

When you entered the park, there were huge signs warning you that alcohol was not allowed anywhere on property. The signs turned out to be a poor deterrent (we all know that patrons rarely read signs). There was many a good ol’ boy who wasn’t about to pay what he considered high prices for food inside the park. He would bring his own refreshments and proceed to drop the tailgate and have a family picnic right in the parking lot.

Now here come me and my pals in a huge patrol car, an ’80 Malibu. It was my job to approach and inform these folks that they could give me their beer, wine, liquor, or moonshine and stay, or they could keep it all and leave for the day. If they chose to keep the booze and leave, they did not get their admission fee back. I can remember one concert day in particular when I collected so much alcohol that twice I could not close the trunk of my patrol car. As you might imagine, I learned a lot about approaching people, and I learned it fast.

I was pretty successful and most folks, whether they liked it or not, complied, but I felt something was missing. Even though I was talking to several dozen patrons a day and hundreds on concert days, I didn’t feel I had a good rhythm in my approach. I had created a few standard lines to apply, but really I was like a ship setting sail without a crew. I had no real strategy, and I was just not at the comfort level I wanted. I didn’t understand the completely unpredictable reactions from patrons. There was no science to it. Then I remembered a lesson that was taught me many years earlier that had nothing to do with security work. It made all the difference in raising my confidence level in these situations.

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