(VANCOUVER, Canada) – A group of public interest organizations is calling on the government of B.C. to introduce major changes to Bill 15, new legislation to regulate the private security industry.

The group is deeply concerned that the new bill is missing key components that will ensure both competency and accountability for B.C.’s rapid growing security industry.

According to Susan O’Donnell, Executive Director of the B.C. Human Rights Coalition: “An explicit commitment to develop an industry wide code of conduct and to incorporate human rights curriculum into guards’ core training is missing from Bill 15. Without setting appropriate conduct and training standards, the government has missed an opportunity to ensure interactions between the public and security guards are respectful, fair and free from discriminatory practices.”

B.C. Civil Liberties Association, Executive Director Murray Mollard adds: “We know that the private security sector is rapidly growing. We also know that private security abuse their powers of arrest, detention, search/seizure and use of force. Bill 15 is not adequate to protect against these abuses. With Olympic organizers relying heavily on private security to police crowds before and during the Olympics, now is the time to get this legislation
right.”

The group has asked for the following mandatory provisions to be included in the legislation:

• Requirements for training and a Code of Conduct
• A specific complaints process
• Powers for inspections and audits
• Obligations for security personnel and companies to keep records and report critical incidents such as
arrests/detentions, searches/seizures and use of force
• A requirement that out-of-province security personnel employed in B.C. meet B.C. standards.

The group of organizations include the B.C. Human Rights Coalition, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, the

B.C. Coalition of People with Disabilities, the United Native Nations Society, Pivot Legal Society and Community
Legal Assistance Society.