Private security at the RNC: too many to regulate

By Alexandria Staubach

Today the Milwaukee Common Council voted to effectively suspend during the Republican National Convention local requirements that typically govern private security personnel.

A substitute ordinance “deems security personnel who hold a private security permit or license, a private detective permit or license, or a reasonably similar credential issued by any United States state, territory, or municipality as in compliance with the provisions of the Milwaukee Security Personnel License ordinance.”

The substitute ordinance modifies requirements that have been on the books only since March 2024, when the Common Council voted to require security personnel to obtain a license and execute a bond agreement.

Under the March rules, to obtain a license an applicant must not:

• Have an arrest or conviction record involving a misdemeanor or similar violation in another state
• Have been convicted in Wisconsin or elsewhere of a felony, unless pardoned
• Be a user of drugs or alcohol to an extent dangerous to himself or herself or to other persons or to an extent that could impair a person’s ability to direct or perform private security activities responsibly
• Have a physical, emotional, or mental condition that might adversely affect the applicant’s ability to responsibly direct or perform private security activities.

Private security firms have proliferated in the United States recently. There are “roughly twice as many security guards employed in the U.S. than there were 20 years ago,” according to an investigation by TIME. In 2021, Allied Universal, an international security company, was the third largest employer in the United States behind Walmart and Amazon.

The industry is largely unregulated. Variation from state to state is near limitless. No national body governs private security, and 21 states have no training requirements for private security personnel who are unarmed, says a 2021 report from the National Association of Security Companies.

In Wisconsin, unarmed private security personnel are not required to complete a mandated number of training hours, while armed private security personnel are required to complete 36 hours of training.

Meanwhile, the District of Columbia requires 98 hours of training for armed private security personnel, New Hampshire requires 4 hours, and Kansas requires none.

Per today's new temporary ordinance in Milwaukee, accepting “reasonably similar credentials” from any state or any municipality is necessary because “convention organizers estimate that as many as 1,000 private security personnel may be present,” and if each were required to be locally licensed, the volume of applications would “hamper the License Division’s ability to perform its regular business.”

The new ordinance does not identify how credentials will be verified for out-of-state private security personnel or what “reasonably similar” means.

The substitute ordinance will be in effect from July 13-20 “or as further required for the completion of the Republican National Committee’s presidential nominating process.”