The 21st, the chair and the doorway
You are one of two property guards covering a council-owned community hall booked for a 21st birthday until 23:00. At 22:40 the hirer asks you to remove a guest \u2014 male, early twenties, very intoxicated \u2014 who is standing in the main doorway with a stacking chair in his hand, shouting at his ex-partner. About forty guests remain inside. The music is loud. Your colleague is 19, three weeks into the job, and has not dealt with a physical incident before. You hold a property guard certificate of approval. The venue's written instructions say the duty venue manager, not the hirer, authorises removal, and the venue manager went home at 20:00. The hire agreement says the hirer is responsible for guest behaviour. One CCTV camera covers the foyer doors; the rear fire exit is propped open with a mop bucket. Police estimate 15 minutes unless the call is graded urgent.
1. The hirer asks you to 'get him out'. Can you, and what do you need to check before anything physical happens?
Read the worked answer
Authority, certificate class, and lawful basis \u2014 in that order.
- Authority: you act on the occupier's authority. The hirer has a licence to use the hall until 23:00; the council is likely still the occupier, and your written instructions say the venue manager, not the hirer, authorises removal. Get the direction from someone who actually holds the authority, or take the hirer's request as information and act on the venue's own rules.
- Certificate class: physically ejecting a person from a function with forty guests is crowd control. A property guard certificate of approval does not authorise crowd control duties. If the task is genuinely crowd control, you are outside your authority and should escalate to someone who holds a crowd controller certificate, or to police.
- Lawful basis: the guest is lawfully in the hall as the hirer's invitee while the hire runs. You can ask him to leave, and once the authority is withdrawn you can warn him under the Trespass Act 1980 and call police if he refuses. Refusing to leave after a warning is an offence, but it is not punishable by three years, so there is no citizen's arrest available to you.
- Force: only reasonable and proportionate force, only as a last resort, only to remove \u2014 never to punish \u2014 and only with a plan. A chair in his hand means the risk has escalated: police, not a wrestling match.
- Also check: the propped fire exit (a fire-safety breach and an escape route for him), the CCTV arc, and where your 19-year-old colleague is standing.
2. Describe how you would actually approach the man at the doorway, minute by minute.
Read the worked answer
Before you speak (30 seconds):
- Get the music turned down \u2014 noise makes people shout and makes everything escalate.
- Move guests back from the doorway and away from glass.
- Note the exits and the chair. Position: you talk, your colleague stands a step back and to the side \u2014 not flanking, which reads as a trap.
- Keep 2 metres, hands low and visible, and stay out of the door frame so he does not feel cornered.
The conversation:
- Name and role: 'I'm [name], I'm security here.' Short sentences, calm, slower than normal.
- One clear ask: 'Put the chair down and come out the front with me.' Say it once. Repeating it three times is nagging and escalates.
- Offer choices and time: 'Do you want to ring your mate for a ride, or shall I get you a taxi?' A choice restores some control, which is what he is missing.
- Listen and reflect: 'Sounds like tonight's been rough. Tell me what happened.' Two minutes of being heard often does more than any warning.
- State consequences calmly and once: 'If you don't put it down and leave, I'll ring police and you'll be trespassed.'
- If he puts it down: give him space, let him walk, escort at a distance. Do not crowd him at the door.
- If he raises it or moves at anyone: everybody backs out, get between him and the guests if you safely can, and call 111 \u2014 do not grapple for the chair.
3. After he walks out, your colleague says he 'got in his face' and wants to put the incident on TikTok. What needs to happen?
Read the worked answer
Report it, preserve it, support him \u2014 and stop the upload.
- Use of force is reportable, always. It goes in writing the same shift: what was said, what he did, what the guest did, the exact force used, any injury, witnesses, and the CCTV timeframe. He writes his own account; you do not write it for him and you do not cover for him. If the force looks disproportionate, say so in your report factually and let the review decide.
- Preserve the CCTV immediately, under a hold, before it cycles. Note the camera clock offset.
- No TikTok, no Snapchat, no group chat. Privacy Act 2020 issues (disclosure and secondary use of identifiable footage), potential Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015 exposure, contamination of evidence, and employment consequences. Say it plainly: 'That's not going to happen \u2014 it's evidence and it's someone's face.'
- Welfare: he is 19 and just had his first physical incident. Check he is okay, tell him what happens next (report, supervisor call, possible police statement), and point him at EAP. A guard who is rattled on the next shift is a safety risk.
- Notify your supervisor and the venue, and give police a statement if requested.
- Debrief: what would we change \u2014 a venue manager on site after 20:00, the fire exit not propped open, the music down at 22:00, a police call at 22:30 rather than 22:45.