While I also suspect the motives of the officer, I'm not sure that I necessarily disagree that some standards for companies like security companies are inappropriate. While a part of me agrees with the free market argument, I think one could argue there are some special cases where waiting for the free marking to work things out is a bit dangerous.

Something like security companies seems difficult to allow companies to fall below a certain level and just let the market work it out. Shouldn't there be some standards about who can and can't be a security officer? Otherwise, you are saying anybody can run a security company, hire some seedy folks off the street real cheap, then wait for the market to find they are the worst company! Eww!

How about lifeguard companies? Do you want to wait for the market to shun the companies that employ lifeguards without any kind of CPR certification? I'm not sure i do.

Well, there's two issues here. Maybe three.

The first, is that I'm at a bit of disadvantage regarding your example. I know that there are classes on CPR and lifesaving, but am otherwise ignorant about this topic.

Second: I don't know that there are state laws actually regulating lifeguards either (are there?) much less regulating the companies that might employ them. I can understand there being state laws regarding, say, state beaches. But I'm thinking about the example of a neighborhood pool, often watched over by a teenager on summer break.

Third: I guess part of this debate is a question as to how much one believes in the power of free markets to select good solutions. At some point, the consumer has an obligation to drive market solutions with a bit of research and intelligent decision-making. So there's this litnus test about (a) how likely we think consumers are to take responsibility seriously, (b) how effective even a conscientious consumer can be in this area, (c) how strongly we feel about the consequences of bad decisions, and then of course, there's also... (d) how good regulations are at insuring quality.
I mean, we're all aware of how much training and certification a lawyer or doctor receives, yet there are serious questions of quality in each of these areas. Sometimes regulation works, sometimes it doesn't.