I used to work for G4S and, in no way trying to sound like a major counter-factual authority, nothing revealed in this article about G4S is new.
The following story revolves around Royal Ascot 2007. First, some details that aren't relevant to my own "undercover work"
(I really called
it that, tongue firmly in cheek, because the day after I decided to go ahead with the idea a British newspaper did a big piece on a similar stunt they
did at ANOTHER G4S-run venue):
1) I got the job via a friend whose mother is/was (I don't remember if she still works for them) a regional manager or something for G4S. I filled in
an application form that I gave friend's mother, who passed it to the relevant people. I then got a phone call to check I was a real person, and told
to take my documents on the first day at Ascot, which was the day before the actual Royal Ascot event.
2) So I arrived on the job, naturally the entire venue was 'closed' and there were only employees there, went through the introduction spiel and got
my uniform (which I still own, and haven't parted with it for the sole reason that they made such a fuss about how people MUST give them back and yet
didn't even stop me as I walked home on my last day wearing it). I was told we all had to do the document-check thing at whatever point in the day
that we were called - they were doing it alphabetically - but I got my entire day's "training" and left for home without even having had to prove
my identity to get into the introduction lecture... Alarm bells were naturally ringing, and it was that night that I thought up the following
"investigation"
3) One last thing that says a lot about G4S - it took them four months to pay me the measly sum of £68 for my work at Ascot, and only when I was
seriously filing at Small Claims Court did they pay up, at the same time I heard from my friend's mum (one day while shooting the breeze at their
house, and she asked what the latest was - finance wasn't in her jurisdiction so she was unable to do more than she was doing to help me out) that my
site supervisor had recently been sacked for fraudulent activity, and the word was a load of pay details had been "lost"... this is the only thing
close to an explanation for why they took one month for every DAY I worked on the event to pay me...
Anyway, as I've said elsewhere on the forum: I'm a bit of a military history geek. Among various stuff I own relating to the topic is a replica
British No.69 Grenade:
en.wikipedia.org...
It's an instructional/educational replica - it has all the working parts and does everything the real thing does - except explode
So I thought
that, since the people supposedly watching the watchers ARE new-guy Rent-A-Cop like me, if they even bothered doing proper security checking tomorrow
(the day the event began, remember) and caught me with this, would they even know what it was? That idea stuck in my head and eventually (out of
curiosity and a dash of spite at G4S) I decided I'd try it.
Now, skipping through the details of the next day: There was no search, just a list read out of what we couldn't carry on-site (which was everything,
not just for security but so there were no bulging-pocketed security goons looking unprofessional and also if we lost anything they wouldn't take
responsibility) AND STILL no one had even looked at my paperwork to even prove I was the same guy who filled in the application form... or for that
matter, hadn't just walked in the day before to get out of the rain and ended up with a security job...
My task that day was to "secure" the entrance to [I forget the proper name] what's essentially the inner-sanctum top-tier enclosure at the
racetrack. By "secure" it meant greet and pander to badge-holders and "politely" bar entry to people without badges.
[I really need to add one more non-relevant detail: Even when faced with an actual Security Situation, we were expressly told - and these were the
actual words - "to remember that they've still paid money to come here". One example: You could be drunk as f**k and waving a broken bottle at
people, and in no way could I even try to intervene with anything more than a "That's not a good idea, sir" because
they hadn't paid a lot of
money to attend and then be treated that way by staff. Seriously.]
**I forgot ATS had a post limit, standby while I add the rest into another post**