The last several years have proven challenging for private security firms. An increase in crime—both against property and people—has driven demand for security guards and other safety and security professionals. Meanwhile, a tight labor market and challenging work conditions have kept these professionals in short supply. Now, more than ever, security firms need to be able to quickly and effectively train workers and retain good staff by helping them develop the skills they need to make a tough job easier.

 

Reduce Risk and Liability with Training 

Mike Hansen thinks about these challenges often. He’s a long-time project manager for MILO Live, a leading designer of state-of-the-art shooting range and live-fire training systems. He also lives and works in Las Vegas. He often thinks about the substantial challenges private security faces in such a city—and the consequences of a missed opportunity to stop violence before it starts—not only the tremendous suffering and loss of life but also the tremendous liability:

Settlements from attacks in public buildings often top $1 million per victim. After the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, FL—where an on-site school safety officer was notably unprepared to act during a critical moment—the Broward school district paid $26 million to 17 families of Parkland victims. In 2020, MGM Resorts agreed to pay out an $800 million settlement as a consequence of the 2017 Mandalay Bay shooting—in which a lone gunman opened fire on a 22,000-person event, killing 60 and wounding 413.

“You face a tremendous amount of liability,” Hansen explains. “Being able to maintain calm and make the right judgment call takes training, and you don’t just learn it going to a class one time—or even once each year—and covering the subject. It takes repetition, repeated exposures, developing ‘muscle memory.’”

Suppose a private security organization can add just seven minutes of firearms, judgment, communication, or situational awareness training per shift. In that case, their staff will benefit from 30+ hours of extra training each year. For context, that’s more hours of active training than most US states mandate for sworn law enforcement officers.

 

How a Live-Fire Sim Can Make that Happen

Even the modest goal of seven minutes of training each shift—is out of reach if you need to go to a qualifying range an hour away. MILO Live’s Ready Range modular indoor shooting range system is designed to make daily training as easy and discreet as possible.

From the outside, the containerized Ready Range live-fire/simulator module is unobtrusive. It looks like the sort of refrigerated trailer used to haul groceries. When used as a firing range, the ambient noise level outside the Ready Range is only 8dB over ambient (for comparison, a normal conversation is 65 dB). Full ballistic containment and lead mitigation is built into the Ready Range. It incorporates specially selected ballistic and sound-dampening materials, verified by third-party labs to create the “Zero Surface Danger Zone” (SDZ) required for range safety certification. Integrated vertical “media-free” bullet traps and an independent HVAC system (with appropriate down-range laminar flow and HEPA filtration) reliably capture and contain all lead particulate.

Inside, the Ready Range is a fully customizable shooting range with the option for simulation-based training. “A Ready Range with MILO Virtual installed means you can run fully immersive training scenarios with live ammunition in any setting,” Hansen explains. “For example, a casino security team can literally train in the casino without having to be in the casino. Training is effortless with a live-fire simulator in your parking lot. Everyone coming on or off duty could run a simulation or empty one magazine per duty cycle. You can constantly refresh training.”

High-profile hard-to-secure environments now benefit from our training systems in locations like the Pachanga and San Manuel/Yaamava Resort Casinos in California.