Legal and Ethical Issues
Foundations
A Florida security guard's authority comes almost entirely from the same law that binds any private citizen, plus the limited powers granted by a Class D license and the license of the agency that employs them. Guards are not police officers: they have no authority to conduct searches on demand, no power to compel identification, and no immunity beyond what citizens' arrest doctrine allows. The core concepts to master are citizens' arrest (a private person may arrest only for a felony or a breach of the peace committed in their presence), trespass authority (a guard may ask a person to leave private property and may use reasonable force only to eject, not to punish), detention versus arrest, and false imprisonment liability, which arises when a person is detained without legal justification or for an unreasonable time.
Ethics and traps
Ethical duties - honesty in reporting, confidentiality of client information, avoiding conflicts of interest, refusing gratuities that compromise judgment - appear on exams as scenario questions. The classic traps: (1) confusing "reasonable suspicion" with "probable cause" and assuming either authorizes a search; (2) believing a guard may arrest for any crime witnessed; (3) treating a verbal request to "step into the office" as automatically lawful detention; (4) assuming an employer's policy overrides state law - it never does. Remember that use of force must be proportional and defensive, and that a guard who exceeds authority can face both criminal charges and civil suit, and can lose the license.
Rule of thumb
When in doubt, observe, report, and call law enforcement rather than act. A guard who documents and escalates rarely creates liability; a guard who improvises an arrest usually does.