Why The Media Rarely Reports Security Officer Attacks and Deaths
Charlotte N.C. May 24 2017
Chaos, bloodshed and tragedy rained down on New York City at 8:46 am on a clear and sunny day September 11, 2001.
No one knew nor could they have known that two commercial jets loaded with passengers would be hijacked by Islamic terrorists and crashed into the World Trade Center towers killing everyone aboard and thousands of workers and customers who were in the towers or outside on the grounds of the complex.
Another plane flown by a suicidal terrorist slammed into the Pentagon in Arlington County Virginia and a forth crashed into a field in Pennsylvania on that horrible day in history.
Of the 2,996 people killed and more than 6,000 wounded, many were private security officers and private commissioned peace officers whose job it was to protect the World Trade Center around the clock.
As bodies were recovered and identities announced to the public, there were no specific announcements naming the private protectors who had given their life and no headlines that told of the heroics performed by those security officers on that day.
It wasn’t until months later, that several survivors told of how several security officers had re-entered the towers to help search for and rescue the hundreds that were still trying to make their way out.
Proprietary security officers who had been working for financial groups and banks and some of the nation’s largest and most recognized companies along with contract security agencies who provided physical security for the complex were lost that day but no one seemed to know it.
One such company, Summit Security had 11 of their security employees killed while a large financial firm said that they had six of their security employees killed in the attack.
It took the media, almost a year before there were any news reports about private security officer lives being lost on that horrific day and there were no awards or plaques, no ceremonies, no recognition.
Still today, the exact numbers are sketchy with some reporting the loss of life to be as low as 37 and a few reports that have the death toll to be close to 250.
During such a large historical attack where the loss of life remained in the headlines for months and years, you would think that some agency, reporter or organization would have a confirmed death count for those working in the security profession who were killed on September 11 2001 but apparently, there is none.
State and federal agencies report that dozens of security officers are assaulted and/or injured daily across the county and between 75-125 security personnel die on duty every year.
Hometown newspapers and local TV news stations might pick-up and report the news on the day of or the day after the incident and it may make it onto their website but the news is not sent to nor picked up by the six to eight major news players such as the Associated Press, Reuters, Politico, New York Times or the Washington Post unless it has something specific about the attack, injury or death and it gets picked up by a major news entity and then sent out in various news feeds and regurgitated repeatedly through the web.
Stories are pushed front and center only after hundreds and thousands of reprints, re-posting and redistribution and if no one is doing that with a security officer related story then it probably
won’t rank high enough to be seen beyond the original market where it was initiated.
News stories also grow based on the times that they are shared, posted, or seen across various platforms including blogs, social media; news feed channels and other sources.
Unlike public servants such as firefighters and law enforcement, private security officers are still looked at as employees of private companies and mainstream media is still struggling with giving private officers the recognition and media coverage that they deserve.
Until this happens, search engine optimization must be done through posting incidents of security officer injuries and deaths on social media platforms, news blogs and company websites to raise the awareness, profile and the attention level of the public and the media.
