BIG, burly and no-nonsense – the word bouncer has all sorts of connotations.
To those in trouble they are often guardian angels, defusing violent situations and keeping order in busy bars where large quantities of alcohol have been consumed.
But to others they are power-mad heavies intent on ruining people's nights.
It is this view that former door supervisor Will Gant says is to blame for a disproportionately high number of crimes where bouncers are named as the offender, in comparison to incidents where they are named as the victims.
In 2012, police received 93 reports of crimes where a doorman was accused of being the offender, compared to 36 where they were listed as a victim.
Mr Gant, 26, who worked as a door supervisor at Oceana while studying a Newspaper Journalism masters at Nottingham Trent University, believes the majority of crimes reported against bouncers would not result in a conviction.
"It's quite common to eject worked-up people from nightclub who have had quite a lot to drink – and for them then to say they are going to report you for assault because we've had to physically force them out, which we are allowed to do," he said.
"So while the figures are probably true I think a lot of those reports will then be retracted or not lead to a conviction."
Like every door supervisor, Mr Gant, who now lives in South East London, had to go through training and a criminal record check, as set out by the Security Industry Authority, which regulates the security industry.
When it was established under the Private Security Industry Act 2001, the reputation of bouncers was greatly improved.
However James Loach, a former doorman who has now set up his own security company, believes there are still problems in the industry, caused by a lack of training and poorly paid positions.
He was arrested a handful of times while working as a doorman and each time was released without charge when police had reviewed footage of the incidents.
"The majority of doormen in Nottingham do a very good job in a difficult city," said Mr Loach, whose company AXR UK, based at NG2 Business Park, provides training as well as security.
"But there are a lot of operators in Nottingham and when that happens it's very competitive so you have firms doing the job for less money which can cause problems.
"It's about knowing your roles and responsibilities and I do think the licence trade needs to be looked at.
"A lot of time doormen are given responsibility for the venue but they should not be there for that.
"What they should be there for is to make sure the night goes off as successfully as possible."
At the moment training lasts for four days, with multiple-choice tests at the end of each day, but Mr Loach believes this should be more rigorous.
Notts Police revealed the figures under the Freedom Of Information Act.
They also showed that in 2011 a doorman was listed as the offender in 80 crimes and 88 in 2010.
Again, the number of times they were listed as the victim was much lower – 23 in 2011 and 27 in 2010.
But Mike Knight, chairman of the city centre's Club, Pub and Hotel Watch, said it was customers who cause problems, not door staff.
He said: "Doormen cause us no concern at all.
"Any job like that where you are keeping out people who have had too much to drink is very difficult."
