SLED’s Enforcement Officers play a key role in protecting the general public and law-abiding security licence holders from people and companies that break the rules or operate while unlicensed.
The Enforcement Officers are charged with ensuring licence holders abide by the rules set out in the Security Industry Act 1997 legislation and its associated regulations.
They also focus on individuals and corporations carrying out security activities without a licence.
Enforcement Officers conduct regular audits of all security licence holders, including security training Approved Organisations (AO), to ensure they are complying with all relevant legislation and licence conditions.
If they find a licence holder breaching the legislation or their licence conditions, they apply a graduated enforcement model to address the non-compliance.
For minor breaches where there is no history of non-compliance with the legislation, they can provide advice and education and issue warnings and cautions.
For more serious breaches, or where there has been repeated non-compliance, Enforcement Officers can issue fines or court attendance notices, and can recommend an AO or a trainer lose their approval.
SLED Enforcement Officers have a range of powers they can use to assist them in these audits.
These powers include the ability to enter premises where they believe security activity is being carried out without requiring a warrant and obtain evidence of non-compliance.
Enforcement Officers can require you to provide any registers, books, records or other documents on the premises for inspection. They also have the power to make copies of any documents and take any photographs, films, audio, video or other recordings required for their investigations.
Enforcement Officers can also request a licence holder provide information and/or records in writing within a reasonable timeframe.
Licence holders must comply with all instructions from Enforcement Officers, whether written or verbal.
Enforcement Officers have the power to issue fines and court attendance notices to licence holders who fail to comply with their instructions.
You may be liable for a maximum $11,000 fine if you obstruct, hinder or interfere with an Enforcement Officer or fail to comply with their directions.