View our Security Guards: Undervalued and Underpaid series webpage for other briefs on working conditions in the private-sector security industry.

Security guards in the state of Maryland, including the city of Baltimore, were essential workers during the pandemic—ensuring public safety in buildings, hospitals, and transportation hubs—but their compensation and working conditions do not reflect their significant role. Security guards’ responsibilities have evolved to include de-escalating conflicts, managing crises, and enforcing health and safety protocols—and they do this all without the hazard pay, benefits, and training offered to workers in similar occupations. They also experience higher rates of assaults and fatal injuries while on the job compared to many other workers. Although the use of private security services has grown in recent decades, security guards lack appropriate labor standards and a sufficient focus from policymakers.

This factsheet describes the characteristics of the private sector security guard workforce in Baltimore, highlighting the need to improve labor conditions in the industry. With national revenues of $22.7 billion for unarmed guard services alone, the labor conditions of this industry’s workforce are foundational to broader questions of how cities achieve public safety–in Baltimore as well as throughout the country.

Download the factsheet.