The following information was recently received in one of the regular security e-mail newsletters I receive ( Security Beat).

"According to the New York Department of State, there were 104,000 licensed security guards in the state on Sept. 10, 2001. Today there are 127,006. Even before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the security business was thriving. But the 9/11 attacks produced a real surge in demand, David Zeldin, the owner of Long Island-based Investicorp Inc. and past president of the Associated Licensed Detectives of New York State (ALDONYS), the industry's trade group, told The New York Business Review. "We've always gone up by 8, 9 or 10 percent a year, all through the years. Now in the last two years, we have seen our business go up 15 to 18 percent a year," Zeldin said. The growth in the security business has leveled off, but if another terrorist attack in the United States occurs, "it will go through the roof," ALDONYS vice president William Vassell told the publication. Across the country business and industrial leaders are realizing that they need to do more in the security field because they are now targets, Vassell added. "

I found this information extremely interesting. Not that I was surprised by it, but that it is a confirmation of the role active physical security plays in the protection of property, people, and other assets.

I have written numerous times about the importance of the security officer in our industry, and the fact that even with major technological advances continually made in the industry, technology alone cannot provide the basic security needs to maintain a safe environment.

With the continuing growth in security officer numbers, there remains the need for the employment of effective training and management skills by security organizations, both proprietary and contract. Without effective security line and management personnel, numbers alone are meaningless.