Reflections stores consider arming guards

A local chain of retail stores that has been hit by robbers a half dozen times during the past few years is now considering making applications to the police to arm the security guards it employs.  

Reflections owner Prentice Panton said he doesn’t necessarily want to give his guards firearms, but he thinks the seven security officers need some method to defend themselves.  

Among the implements store owners are considering include handcuffs and Taser stun guns.  

“I met with the people from Taser {International} in January,” Mr. Panton said.  

Mr. Panton said an incident in the Reflections Food-4-Less store on Godfrey Nixon Way showed that handcuffs could be useful for store guards.  

“Two weeks ago we caught a kid, 14 years old, shoplifting,” he said. “We had to have four staff surround him and one hold onto his hand for 10, 15 minutes before the police arrived – because we can’t put handcuffs on him until the police arrive.”  

Firearms possession for security guards, with the consent of Cayman’s police commissioner, is allowed under the country’s Private Security Services Law. However, the application must be made to the police commissioner after suitable training is provided for the officers.  

Reflections store manager Lenny Jackson said none of the seven guards now employed by Mr. Panton’s company have been trained in the use of firearms, but they have gotten training in the use of batons, detention techniques and CPR.  

Mr. Jackson also said police have approved the store’s earlier application to allow its security guards to wear bullet-proof vests.  

“We’re being shot at from outside,” Mr. Panton said. “We’re just hoping to save [the guard’s] life.”  

Mr. Jackson said, during the last robbery at Reflections Food-4-Less, a shot was fired to break through the glass of the front door. He said the guard on duty at the store during the late-night robbery basically had to flee for his life.  

“The bullet went through the glass, but went into the frame,” Mr. Jackson said. “Two or three inches to the left or right, [the guard] was sitting in a position where, if it went through the glass, it would have entered his torso or his head.”  

Cost of security  

Mr. Jackson said the bullet proof vests obtained by the Platinum Security company will cost Reflections $100 per each vest every six months the security items are kept by the company.  

This means to outfit Reflections’ seven guards with bullet proof vests will cost $1,400 per year just for the permitting fees charged by the local police department.  

That’s in addition to the work permit fees, trade and business licences, the security company licence and individual licences paid on behalf of each guard employed by the company.  

“It’s just another way to charge us,” Mr. Jackson said. “We pay for trade and business and we pay immigration for the work permit. Then, under the Private Security Services Law, we pay the police to hire Platinum Security and we pay the police an annual licence. Now we have to pay the police for bullet proof [vests] for the guards.”  

It is currently illegal to own a bullet proof vest in the Cayman Islands unless special permission is granted to an individual by the police commissioner.