Law and the Private Security Regulatory Framework
This domain tests your knowledge of the Private Security Regulation Act, No. 13 of 2016, the regulator it created, and the hard limits on what a security officer may lawfully do.
The statute and the regulator
- The Act establishes the Private Security Regulatory Authority (PSRA), which registers and licenses providers and individual guards, sets standards, handles complaints and discipline, and advises government.
- Only a licensed provider may supply private security services; operating unlicensed is an offence.
- A guard must be individually registered with the Authority and carry identification on duty.
- The Second Schedule to the Act contains the Code of Conduct and Ethics.
What a guard may lawfully do
A private security officer is a private citizen. He has no police powers of search, arrest, detention or entry.
- Citizen's arrest: section 34 of the Criminal Procedure Code (Cap 75) lets any person arrest without warrant someone who, in his presence, commits a cognizable offence, or whom he reasonably suspects of one, and to hand that person to a police officer without unnecessary delay.
- Any force must be lawful, necessary and proportionate (Constitution Articles 24 and 29).
- The National Police Service Act, 2011 governs the police; it does not give guards police powers. Guards cooperate with police, they do not replace them.
Worked example
A client manager tells you to lock a suspected shoplifter in a store until he confesses in the morning. The correct response is to refuse. Holding a person against his will is a deprivation of liberty contrary to Article 29, and a private person may only hold a suspect briefly before handing him to the police without unnecessary delay. Record the instruction and the refusal in the occurrence book and report it in writing to your supervisor.
Traps that cost marks
Assuming the uniform confers police powers; believing an employer's instruction can legalise a detention; confusing the PSRA with the National Police Service; forgetting that individual registration and an ID card are separate from the employer's licence.