Per Mar Security Services employees man the hallways and grounds and check in visitors.

Per Mar Security Services employees man the hallways and grounds and check in visitors.

The Ankeny school district's switch to private security at the high school and Northview Middle School has been smooth so far, officials said last week.

Per Mar security employees began their work at the schools in late March, following spring break. The two Ankeny police officers who had been assigned to the schools are transitioning into full-time detective positions with the department.

Randy Evans, business development manager for the Des Moines Per Mar office, praised his company's partnership with the district and the police department as a major factor in the initial success of the new program."Our role, in the presence that we've been able to establish, far exceeds what was expected," Evans said. "We're off to a wonderful start."

Ankeny Superintendent Matthew Wendt said the new program provides more coverage. With five of the six security guards stationed at the high school, there are enough people to patrol the grounds and check visitors entering the building, as well as walk the hallways with students.

"I'm very confident in the services that are being provided," Wendt said. "I feel that way not only as a school superintendent, but as a parent."
Chad Bentzinger, on-site program manager for the Ankeny security team, said Per Mar staff members meet weekly with school leaders.

The new security squad checks exterior doors to make certain they are secure and patrols the parking lots, in addition to watching over students in the halls. One member is stationed at the public entrance to the high school during the school day to check in visitors.

"It's a continuous operation at all times," Bentzinger said.
Evans said the security officers were selected by both Per Mar and Ankeny district leaders.

Three of the six security officers are armed; all have gone through a statewide program for school employees, along with security training. Evans added that many have a military background, one is a sworn law enforcement officer and another has a teaching degree.

School leaders said they began discussions about a year ago about how to provide additional oversight as the district opens new buildings. The new high school and middle school campus opens in August; Ankeny Centennial High School opens in August 2013.
Wendt said officials knew the local police department was short-staffed, and there would be significant costs to add more school resource officers.

Another factor was that most of the issues in the secondary schools don't require the presence of law enforcement to be resolved, he said.

"We quickly realized there was a significant difference in the services being provided and the services we actually needed," Wendt said.

Ankeny district officials said during the 2009-10 school year, there were 24 incidents of misconduct at the high school - ranging from simple pushing or shoving to what could be considered a fight or violent behavior. There were 19 such incidents at Northview. Of all these incidents, only eight involved any form of injury to a student, officials said.
Ankeny Police Chief Gary Mikulec said he supports the move, noting his department is short-staffed and the majority of problems at the schools don't require police intervention.

Mikulec said there are perhaps just four to six fights a year that result in assault arrests. Police handle a total of 50 to 60 cases a year stemming from other situations, including drug and alcohol offenses and thefts.

District officials said any searches of students and their lockers will continue to be handled by school personnel, with the assistance of police if needed.
Officials have said the security-program change is being made for roughly the same cost as the current year's security budget.

The contract with Per Mar for the 2011-2012 school year will be $139,700 to provide 24-hour security, including staff in the schools, campus monitors, and coverage for athletics and activities.

The district's security personnel budget, estimated at $136,000 for this school year, included $64,000 for half of the Ankeny Police Department's two school resource officers' salaries, $57,000 for part-time campus monitors at the high school, and $15,000 to pay police officers to handle event security as needed. There is money left in the 2010-11 security budget to cover the cost of the integration period for Per Mar through the end of this school year.

G8/G20 security firm charged for licence violations

G8/G20 security firm charged for license violations

Ontario provincial police have laid charges against the private security firm and many of its top executives hired by the RCMP to do screening and metal detection at checkpoints during last summer's G20 summit in Toronto.
Contemporary Security Canada (CSC) is accused of a string of provincial offences under Ontario's private security guard legislation, including three counts of offering services while not licenced, hiring an unlicenced guard at the G20 and G8 and two counts of failing to ensure proper uniforms.
During the probe, the OPP made the unusual move of executing a search warrant on RCMP headquarters in Ottawa on Nov. 24, 2010 and seized documents about the bidding and tendering of the contract.
It all stems from the RCMP's controversial tendering of a $21-million contract for two weeks of work doing metal detection, spot checks and x-ray screening inside summit security zones.
Lecia Stewart, of a public relations firm working on behalf of CSC, said Friday she was "disappointed and surprised the OPP are going ahead with this" given CSC's flawless delivery of service at the G20. She rejected suggestions CSC did anything wrong, insisting that given their specialized skills and experience delivering private security at 25 Olympic venues, they felt entirely up to bidding on the Toronto G20.

Ex-RCMP ties

CSC and its partner company Aeroguard both worked on the G8 and G20 contracts and won the $87-million contract to do private security at the Vancouver Olympic Games, despite the fact CSC — an American company — did not exist in Canada until just before the Olympics.
CSC vice-president Jane Greene was one of the executives charged Friday, accused of selling services when not licenced. Greene is also Aeroguard's president and CEO. The two companies call themselves "joint-venture partners."
Some in Ontario's private security guard industry question whether the presence of Terry Smith played any role in the RCMP awarding the contract. Smith joined Aeroguard in Dec. 2009 — a partner company of CSC. Before that he had been chief coroner in British Columbia and had spent 35 years in the RCMP, rising to the position of officer in charge of the Surrey Detachment.
The RCMP has denied any favouritism — nor has the CBC found any evidence of favouritism.
Greg Cox, an RCMP spokesman, told CBC News on Friday that the RCMP had "no prior knowledge" of Terry Smith's connection to the winning bidder.
Smith is not facing any charges.

Reached at his home in British Columbia, Smith told CBC News "I am not involved with CSC — I work for Aeroguard."
Smith acknowledged he's aware of the CSC contract dispute at the G20, but he wouldn't discuss his precise business relationship with CSC.
"I had no involvement," he told CBC.
CSC had no staff and was not licenced to operate in Ontario when it bid on the RCMP contract for the G20 and G8 summits, but still won the contract over three other companies which bid millions of dollars less.
RCMP spokesman Cox said the "procurement process on this file was conducted in an open and competitive manner requiring that the successful bidder meet local licencing requirements at time of operation."

Competitors felt shut out

The original tender for the G20 contract was put out on April 6, 2010, three months before the summit.
That alone raised suspicions, said Dwayne Gullsaby, head of Toronto-based Securitas, which decided not to bid.
"Given the lack of detail in the RFP [request for proposal] and the one-week turnaround time [in which bids were being accepted], I felt this opportunity had already been teed up for somebody, if you will," Gullsaby told CBC News.
It was as if "a company had already been identified to provide these services." he said.
By April 22, the RCMP narrowed the bidding to four companies, including CSC, the only one not qualified to work in Ontario. CBC News contacted the other three competitors — Garda, G4S and Federal Security Agency — and they all confirm their bids came in the $8 million to $16 million range, below the $18 million CSC originally bid [later billing for $21 million.]
"The money the taxpayer paid for the private security portion of the G8/G20 security is outrageous," said Ross McLeod, head of the Association of Private Security Agencies based in Ontario.
He says CSC inflated its billing rates to almost double the industry standard.
"How does an unlicensed company with unlicensed employees get the contract?" Ross told the CBC. "It just boggles the mind.
"The contract was let by the RCMP and that's ultimately where the questions have to go."
The RCMP has told CBC News they selected CSC over the other bids because of its experience and specialized skills at large events.
The RCMP disqualified Garda from the bidding saying their x-ray machines were not up to the job, even though Garda is qualified and contracted to run airport screening at many Canadian airports.
The RCMP also disqualified G4S by saying they had unsatisfactory references, even though the company won contracts and did work at previous international summits in both London and Pittsburgh.

Private Security Agencies