On May 27, 2020 private security regulators in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Peru and Switzerland gathered in a webinar to exchange lessons learnt and reflections on how COVID has impacted on regional cooperation and international support in private security regulation. In many communities in Latin America, private security forces take a central role in managing and responding to crisis, despite the fact they are not regulated and subject to the same oversight as military or police forces. 

The discussion illustrated that although COVID-19 has not fundamentally changed the private security industry and its regulation, it has exacerbated existing challenges and gaps notably in regard to training of staff, staff working conditions, and digital work processes. Participants stressed the need to establish a clear overview of the impact of the crisis on the private security sector. To this end, participants discussed establishing a platform for exchange for practitioners from the region, as well as setting up a diagnostic process to assess how the sector is being affected. In Spanish.