SENATE MEMORIAL 117

53rd legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2018

INTRODUCED BY

Michael Padilla

 

 

 

 

 

A MEMORIAL

ENCOURAGING STATE AGENCIES TO SUPPORT LEGISLATION TO MAKE IT A FELONY TO ATTACK OR INJURE A CERTIFIED NEW MEXICO STATE SECURITY GUARD AND RECOGNIZING PRIVATE SECURITY GUARDS AS TRUE FIRST RESPONDERS.

 

     WHEREAS, the private security guard industry in New Mexico is one of the fastest-growing industries in the state; and

     WHEREAS, it is imperative that public officials become aware of the multitude of issues affecting New Mexico's private security guard industry; and

     WHEREAS, the private security guard industry is part of the invisible infrastructure that surrounds people and plays a quiet, yet vital, role daily in the lives of New Mexicans; and

     WHEREAS, private security guards check identification and scan personal belongings at many state facilities to protect people and their assets; and

     WHEREAS, private security guards are found in many places, including department stores, shopping centers, hospitals, bus terminals, state buildings, federal buildings, museums, factories, laboratories, movie sets, film locations, state universities, bars and nightclubs and highly sensitive areas protecting national secrets, such as Los Alamos national laboratory; and

     WHEREAS, private security guards protect financial transactions at banks and automatic teller machines; and

      WHEREAS, private security guard services provided in New Mexico are as dangerous and hazardous to the safety and security of private security guards as they are to true first responders; and

     WHEREAS, in state law, it is a third degree felony to commit aggravated assault upon a peace officer; and

     WHEREAS, the private security guard industry in New Mexico is just as hazardous an occupation as that of a correctional officer; and

     WHEREAS, as of 2009, security guards had suffered sixty-three fatal workplace injuries and an estimated eight thousand nine hundred twenty nonfatal workplace injuries that required at least one day away from work, according to the bureau of labor statistics of the United States department of labor; and

     WHEREAS, a bureau of labor statistics report states that the rate of fatal workplace injuries to security guards was more than twice that of workers in general; and

     WHEREAS, security guards play a pivotal role in the safety and security of many of New Mexico's governmental offices as well as a key role in protecting federal institutions;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that state agencies be encouraged to support legislation to make it a felony to attack or injure a certified New Mexico state security guard; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that private security guards be recognized as true first responders, affording them the recognition they deserve in such an unpredictable, hostile and sometimes fatal occupation; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the governor, the superintendent of regulation and licensing, the president of the New Mexico professional security association, the secretary of taxation and revenue, the secretary of workforce solutions, the director of the film division of the economic development department and the secretary of public safety.

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