HOUSTON ASIS Meeting Minutes

3/27/2002

Chapter 012

Pamela Duncan, Secretary

The Chapter met March 27, 2002 at the Doctor’s Club. Chairman Mike Mason CPP presided. 74 members and 10 guests attended.

Opening Invocation and Pledge: Mike Crocker CPP

Business Issues:

Nominations: Our vice-chairman, Pete Van de Gohm, resigned last month. He accepted a position with the Bayer Corporation and moved to Pennsylvania. Rick Davis, Nominations Committee Chairman, confirmed one nomination for Mike Crocker and opened the floor for further nominations. There were no further nominations and Mike was elected Vice-Chairman by acclamation.

Treasurer: Bob Cascino was unable to attend. Copies of the report were distributed.

Golf Tournament: The Golf Tournament will be held May 13 at the Windrose Country Club at 1:00. An Italian buffet will follow the tournament. Complete details are available on www.asishouston.org.

Miscellaneous:

The first semester for the Masters Level Course on Security Management is being completed.

March 28 is the deadline to apply for a $93 million DOT grant for port security. Mike Mason has more information.

There is $22 billion in federal grants being released for bio-terrorism first responders.

Speaker: Cliff Grumbles, Executive Director, Texas Commission on Private Security

Following 17 years in law enforcement, Mr. Grumbles joined the TCPS in 1989 as a field investigator. He was recently selected to be the Executive Director.

The Commission is a State agency tasked with the licensing and regulation of companies and individuals in private security. There are basically six different types of companies: Investigations, Guard, Alarm, Armored Car, Courier and Guard Dog Company. Employees who work for licensed companies must register, depending on the type of work they do: private investigators, commissioned and non-commissioned officers, alarm installers, alarm salespersons, alarm monitors, security salespersons, guard dog trainers and handlers, company owners, qualified managers and branch managers and security consultants.

There has been a 35% increase in applications since September 11. TCPS currently oversees 4,446 companies including training schools. This involves 148,369 renewable registrations, including approximately:

20,000 commissioned officers

96, 500 non-commissioned officers

6,000 alarm installers

4,000 private investigators

700 body guards

Three field offices are located in Austin, Houston, and San Antonio. The Houston and San Antonio offices only do field investigations. Twelve field investigators cover the entire state with the main focus on unlicensed activity. It is a criminal offense to provide a service without a license. Harris County is very aggressive about prosecution. Charges can be filed not only in the county where the activity occurred, but in Travis County as well. The Commission may impose civil penalties, fines and suspend licenses. Fees and fines pay for the operation of the agency and there is no additional cost to the State or citizens. The Commission routinely puts $4-5 million back into the State General Fund after operating expenses are paid.

During the last legislation the Act was codified, becoming Chapter 1702 of the Texas Occupations Code. A Letter of Authority was also expanded to include non-commissioned officers and is now required for a specific businesses with a proprietary guard force for their location only and no other, that meets the following criteria:

Works in a location that is open to the public; and

In the course of employment:

Regularly comes into contact with the public; and

Wears a uniform with any type of badge commonly associated with security personnel or law enforcement or a patch or apparel with “security” or the name of the employer on the patch or apparel.

Continuing Education requirements are being considered, particularly for private investigators. Other general training requirements may include terrorism profiling and cyberterrorism.

After a question and answer period, Mr. Grumbles was awarded a plaque in appreciation of his time and presentation.

The next meeting will be April 24, 2002 at the Doctor’s Club. Further details on the program will become available shortly on the web page.