HOUSTON ASIS CHAPTER MINUTES

AUGUST 27, 2003

The Chapter held a luncheon meeting at the Renaissance Hotel. Chairman Mike Crocker CPP presided. One hundred and four members and guests attended.

Opening Prayer and Pledge: Mark Steinfort

A moment of silence was given in honor of Joshua Higgins, a Security Officer for the Diamond Group at the Johnson Space Center who died while on duty last Saturday night. Joshua was driving from Ellington Field when his vehicle was broadsided by a truck. The driver was allegedly drunk and was traveling without headlights in excess of 100 mph. Joshua received a Purple Heart while recently serving overseas and had just been accepted to the Pasadena Police Department.

Committee Activities:

Certifications Committee: Karim Vellani CPP congratulated our newest CPP, Roger Piper from the Baylor College of Medicine. A new review class is being organized. Refer to the local chapter web page for more information.

Treasurer’s Report: Copies of the treasurer’s report were distributed.

Golf Tournament: Bob Cascino and Mike Crocker presented Dean Beth Pelz, University of Houston Downtown, with a check for $8300 for the Scholarship Fund. This amount is in addition to the generous donation of $1,000 by AIG. Dean Pelz spoke about the new Master’s program, which is the only one in the nation to offer a Masters in Security Management. In addition, she announced that five students from Taiwan will be coming to enroll in the program and they will also be studying for their CPP.

Annual Seminar: Richard Hill announced the seminar was well attended. Several speakers had to back out at the last moment and the committee worked very hard to replace them with qualified speakers.

Newsletter: Tom Hamilton recognized Robert Greenbaum as a new committee member. They hope to provide regular and featured articles about our profession. If you are interested in being involved, please contact Tom.

Foundation Dinner: Greg Walker announced there are a few seats left at the Chapter Table. Proceeds from this dinner go to the National scholarship fund. Mike Mallon was awarded a Cross scholarship to attend the CPP Review at the National Conference in New Orleans.

Legislation: John Kahn CPP distributed some new information about TCPS. Please take a moment to regularly review the special section on our local web page to learn of pending issues. This section will have a direct link to TCPS as well. Our webmaster, Bruce Rodriquez was acknowledged for his hard work in designing and maintaining our web site.

Placement: John Brady has put new postings on our local web page.

Houses of Worship: Lewis Eakins thanked Matt Silcox CPP for his support with the 3 surveys that have been completed.

Law Enforcement Recognition Award: Introduced by Mike Mallon and presented by Lt. Goralski, HPD.

Our honoree this month is Sgt. Roger Gunnells, a 22 year veteran of HPD, and is currently an intake supervisor with the Burglary and Theft Division. On 1/22/03, Sgt. Gunnells was working extra employment at Christus St. Joseph Hospital and placed his own safety at risk to save the life of a distraught patient.

The patient, a young woman, was brought to the hospital after losing consciousness during her sentencing in an assault case upon a police officer from an earlier suicide attempt. After arriving at the emergency room, the woman left the area and went to a second floor patio, climbed over the ledge, and sat on a metal awning that extended approximately four feet from the building at a 45 degree angle. The slippery surface and steep angle would make any rescue attempt a dangerous one.

Sgt. Gunnells first attempted to verbally encourage her to return to the patio, but instead, the woman moved closer to the edge. Fearing that the woman was about to fall to her death, the sergeant cautiously climbed over the railing and onto the awning. He took hold of the woman’s arm but she resisted and tried to pull away from him. As he struggled to keep her from sliding over the edge, Sgt. Gunnells slipped and fell onto his side. Although lying across the awning in a precarious position, he maintained a firm grasp on the woman’s arm. Moments later, a hospital security officer assisted the sergeant in pulling the woman to safety.

The Security Supervisor from Christus St. Joseph also spoke in praise of Sgt. Gunnells. He stated several prior unsuccessful attempts were made to rescue the woman until Sgt. Gunnells stepped in and risked his life.

Sergeant Gunnells was awarded a plaque in recognition of his determination and courage in a dangerous rescue that ultimately saved the life of a young woman.

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

Topic: “A review of new legislation and recent changes affecting TCPS”

The agency is now reporting to DPS. Human resource responsibilities, payroll, accounting and fingerprinting will be managed by DPS and licensing and renewals will stay with TCPS. Law enforcement agencies are increasingly appreciative of the role of private security since 9/11. Not only does private security assume many of the calls for service that would otherwise fall to law enforcement, but it is without the use of taxpayer dollars.

This legislative session was the first opportunity to address budget issues since 9/11/01. However, most of the concerns fell on deaf ears as the legislators were distracted with other issues, such as redistricting. TCPS generates its own revenue, but must give surplus monies that exceed its budget to the General Fund; last year in the amount of $5 million and this year there will be $3 million. The Legislature has not allowed TCPS to keep an increased percentage of the money it raises above the current budget, which would allow them to update and upgrade computer programs, hardware, training and maintain the staff to process the work. Also effective 9/1, several news bills will take affect that directly impact the agency. Senate bill 1252 amends the 1702 occupations code to include locksmiths and HB 1769 expands the 1702 definition for private investigation.

The work load has increased while the staffing has decreased. There used to be 46 full-time employees and as of 9/1/03, there will only be 14 FTE’s, including the Executive Director. Yet they are tasked with maintaining a database of 900,000; including 4200 companies, 140,000 individual renewals and 40,000 new applications a year. The staff must also handle the phones, which average one call per minute. In addition, the 3 offices were consolidated into one office located in Austin, and that office has moved twice. One of the major contributors to delayed application processing is poor fingerprint quality. Electronic capability increases the quality of the print and can usually be processed in 24 hours. However, funding is a problem. DPS only has a few sites that can accept electronic prints. DPS can accept Federal funding (TCPS cannot), so hopefully this limited association between the agencies will enable TCPS to process applications faster if DPS can get the screening machines and better computers.

Since 1998, TCPS has continually increased criminal investigations of companies working outside of 1702 and that has resulted in increased prosecutions. There has been tremendous cooperation in Harris County to prosecute this unlicensed activity, which is a Class A misdemeanor. The majority of those are unlicensed guard companies and private investigators.

Private Security has a large and critical role in Homeland Security. The public is protected when they go to a shopping mall, a major sporting event, or a large office building. We must educate the public that this security does not come out of their tax dollars. We must continually train and equip our officers to maintain this responsibility. It is important to remember it is a profession, not an industry.

Mr. Grumbles was awarded a plaque in appreciation of his time and presentation.

Our next luncheon meeting is September 24, 2003. Please refer to the local chapter web page for further details.