Norfolk sheriff takes over 24/7 courthouse security after problems with private guards
NORFOLK VA July 14 2020 Sheriff’s deputies have taken over round-the-clock security at the Norfolk courthouse after a Virginian-Pilot investigation exposed failures that plagued private security guards for years.
City Manager Chip Filer is recommending the city spend $200,000 to hire four new sheriff’s deputies who would guard the courthouse on nights, weekends and holidays.
Until the end of last month, that was the job of Top Guard Inc., a Norfolk-based private security company.
Sheriff’s deputies took over courthouse security on July 1, and the City Council is scheduled to vote Tuesday on whether to approve the extra spending.
The switch from Top Guard to the sheriff’s office came after The Pilot last month published an investigation into Top Guard’s failures.
Nearly two weeks in, Sheriff Joe Baron said Monday that the supervisors who oversee courthouse security haven’t reported any problems about the takeover. The sheriff said it’s “common sense” that security will be better because two agencies aren’t constantly passing the baton back and forth. Moreover, everyone guarding the courthouse now reports to him, and he can set expectations and mete out discipline when they’re not met. Before, Baron had no control over the Top Guard employees working at night.
“Naturally, it’s smoother,” he said of the new arrangement.
For years, courthouse security was a bifurcated affair. Sheriff’s 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.
Top Guard was responsible for far more than protecting the courthouse. For years, Norfolk has paid the company $2.5 million a year to protect three dozen city properties, including City Hall, Scope, Nauticus, the USS Wisconsin, Community Services Board offices and library branches.
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 March, 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 as they decided which company they would use for security for the next five years.
It’s unclear what they decided. The Pilot has repeatedly requested the documents related to the new five-year contract, but city officials have yet to provide them.
In a February interview, Baron said he’d be happy to take over night and weekend security at the courthouse. But he would need funding to hire more deputies because the ones he has are busy with their other state-mandated duties: guarding the jail, serving civil processes like a protective order or a subpoena, and protecting the courthouse during the workday.
It looks like he’ll get that money Tuesday.
