MOST people do not linger in O'Connell Street. Workers hurry to catch buses, shoppers bustle from one shop to another. Only tourists saunter casually along its foot paths.
The groups of young people loitering at the corners where O'Connell Street meets adjoining streets stand out. Almost certainly from the deprived streets which run be hind it, usually smaller and thinner than their contemporaries in nearby Grafton Street, smoking arguing in obscenities, the groups break up and reform. Individuals and pairs then saunter up or down the street, in and out of shops.
There they fall under the watchful eyes of O'Connell Street's small army of security men. In uniforms which range from the smart blazers and slacks suggestive of junior managers through slightly ill fitting semi military uniforms of shiny track suits, they all have one thing in common, shortwave radios.
They mutter constantly into the radios as they track the progress of suspected shoplifters, pickpockets and drug addicts along the street. "We're all on the one radio in O'Connell Street," said the uniformed security man in Burger King. "There's about 50 of us. We try and keep drug abuse down. You get to know the dippers and the druggies."
He has worked as a security man for five years, most of it in, a company which specialises in retail security. Before that he was in the Army. He received six weeks' training when he joined the company, and his skills include first aid.
Stephen is one of the five security men on daily duty in Easons. He works with the US based ADT security company, which employs about 120 in its retail division. Working six days a week, including Sundays, he takes home between £250 and £270 a week.
"When I did my Leaving Cert, I went to work as a sales assistant in a shoe shop. I went on holidays for two, weeks and when I came back a girl in the shop had been attacked. They gave me a radio and told me I was in security and that was it.
"Then I went into ADT for more money. I trained for two weeks on the door with another fellow. After that two weeks you can be put into a shop on your own.
Although his training was brief, his grasp of his duties and responsibilities is comprehensive. "You have to have full and constant vision. You have to see a crime occurring. You have no legal powers, you make a citizen's arrest. You can use reasonable force to apprehend a suspected criminal, like an arm lock.
"If someone is caught they're brought to a security room and we call the guards. If we catch someone when the guards are changing a shift, forget it. Recently I was waiting an hour and 15 minutes for a guard."
The job can be dangerous. "I had a syringe pulled on me four or five times, and I was stabbed with one once. I had to wait six weeks for the results of the AIDS test, and go back twice for checks. I was clear."
"ADT wouldn't put a woman in uniform on the door. It's too dangerous. They only use them as store detectives. A girl I used to go out with had her jaw broken.
"There are 300 known shoplifters operating in Dublin every day. You don't know all of them, but you know some of them."
If a known - or suspected - shoplifter or pickpocket is seen entering a shop or food outlet they are followed and watched until they leave, or not allowed in. Their movements are then radioed to the other security men on the street.
Across the bridge in Westmoreland Street a uniformed guard in a pharmacy has taken time off from his radio to direct two women to a tour bus. He directs them to the stop outside Trinity rather than the GPO.
In neighbouring Bewleys the security man is one of the relatively few to have completed the two year certificate course in the Dublin Institute of Technology.
Called Business Studies (Security) the course includes general business knowledge, security technology, information technology, law, criminology, penology and French or German. A Leaving Certificate with a minimum of five D grades is required for entry.
Detectives in the Garda as well as those interested in working in private security take the course, and this level of professional training is the direction in which the Irish Security Industry Association wants to go.
There are about 7,000 people employed in more than 500 security companies, according to Mr Padraig Cafferty, the ISIA chairman. Between 1,500 and 2,000 of them are in retail security.
"Our association is looking for licensing and regulation for the past 25 years," he said. "It's been bandied about through the different government departments through those years. Now the outgoing minister for justice has appointed a consultative group to look into the whole question of licensing and regulation."
He said about half of all those employed in the industry work for the 60 or so companies in the association. There are strict criteria for membership: the credibility of directors, systems of vetting staff, financial makeup and back=up for customers.
He is concerned about the image the industry has in the retail area, although only a minority of those working in the industry are employed there. "Some outlets do employ directly. I do have strong reservations about some of the people employed. We are trying to improve standards in a very competitive environment."
Meanwhile, back in Burger King on O'Connell Street, the exsoldier is joined by a fellow security man. Short, well built, dressed in a black nylon tracksuit, he bounces into the restaurant and swaggers to the counter. His fore arms are covered in tattoos. The exsoldier jokingly introduces him as "the chief". No, he won't talk to The Irish Times.
