Top Guard security firm has lost the Norfolk city contract to AlliedUniversal Security
NORFOLK VA July 29 2020— The private security company that’s guarded Norfolk’s libraries, tourist attractions, and City Hall for the better part of two decades has lost its bid for another five-year contract, after a Virginian-Pilot investigation exposed failures that plagued its guards for years.
For years, the city paid Norfolk-based Top Guard Inc. $2.5 million a year to protect three dozen city properties, including Scope, City Hall, Nauticus, the USS Wisconsin, Community Services Board offices and library branches.
But city officials said last week they have awarded the new five-year contract to Allied Universal Security Services, which has more than 180 offices around the country, including one in Chesapeake. The company does security for the City of Richmond, Fairfax County, and the Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina.
The city chose Allied Universal from 10 bidders and will pay it $17.6 million over the life of the contract for nearly 180,000 hours of work, including $3.4 million for the first year, which starts Sept. 1. That’s nearly 6% more than the $16.6 million Top Guard bid to do the same amount of work, according to data provided by the city.
The switch to Allied Universal came after The Pilot last month published an investigation into Top Guard’s failures. City spokeswoman Lori Crouch said the investigation was not the reason they decided to ditch Top Guard. A five-person panel of city employees chose Allied Universal because of the company’s training program and electronic guard tracking system, she said. Crouch declined to make anyone on the panel available for an interview.
Top Guard executives didn’t respond to multiple requests for an interview. But spokeswoman Ha Koehler with Virginia Beach-based public relations firm On Point Communications said Top Guard was “disappointed” city officials had chosen an out-of-state company, which has headquarters in Pennsylvania and California, over one based in Norfolk. But, Koehler added, Top Guard is still available to help if the city needs “local support.”
One site that won’t be under Allied Universal’s guard: the city courthouse. On July 14, City Council members voted to pay the Norfolk Sheriff’s Office $200,000. Sheriff Joe Baron will use that money to hire the four deputies needed to guard the courthouse on nights, weekends, and holidays.
Before the sheriff’s office took over on July 1, courthouse security was a bifurcated affair. Deputies would guard the eight-story, $123 million building during the day when judges, lawyers and litigants were dispatching cases. But every night, deputies handed over the job of watching the building to relatively inexperienced and underpaid private security guards contracted by the city.
And for years, the problems with Top Guard piled up: guards sleeping on duty, failing to patrol the courthouse, napping and watching TV in judges’ chambers. At one point, the circuit court’s chief judge banned Top Guard employees from the top floor of the courthouse, where judges’ private offices are.
The problems with Top Guard stretched beyond the courthouse to many of the city’s three dozen other properties. City officials documented nearly 100 incidents between 2015 and January when The Virginian-Pilot made a public records request for the document. The 97 issues documented with the private guards included at least 22 cases of not showing up for duty, 18 of not doing their job, nine of suspected theft, nine of being on their phone instead of working, and five of sleeping on duty.
On Oct. 2, 2019, a city worker found a loaded gun on the floor of a City Hall bathroom, one apparently left by a Top Guard employee.
In a March interview, the city’s director of general services, Nikki Riddick, called the incident “horrible” and “totally unacceptable,” but her criticism was limited to the individual who left the gun behind. In fact, she praised Top Guard’s “swift action” in replacing and firing the guard.
Riddick said the company had done a good job overall and fixed problems quickly when they’ve cropped up.
The city started contracting with Top Guard in 2004. Since then, officials have awarded the security company three five-year contracts, stretching through the end of last year. Officials gave Top Guard a six-month extension through the end of last month and a second extension until Aug. 30 as they decided which company they would use for security for the next five years.
The Virginia Pilot
