Pasadena to Consider Regulating Guards

Despite the city manager’s recommendation against it, the Board of Directors on Tuesday asked for more information to assess whether Pasadena should regulate private, uniformed guards and the companies that employ them.

“If we had an ordinance on the books it wouldn’t have prevented (Robert Earl) Holloway’s death, but we need to explore the issue more fully,” City Director William Paparian said.

The board in June asked for information on city laws pertaining to security guards in the wake of resident complaints of city inaction after Holloway’s death in January. Accused of trespassing at the King’s Villages housing project in Northwest Pasadena, Holloway, 28, died Jan. 18 of strangulation after fighting with five security guards.

Both the district attorney and the state attorney general declined to file criminal charges against the guards or their employer, Gold Security Patrol.

On Tuesday, City Manager Philip Hawkey told directors that state licensing laws regulating private security firms prevent the city from passing laws of its own.

“The city by ordinance does have some limited jurisdiction . . . just an inventory of who is doing work and the patrols they would follow,” Hawkey said.

But even such limited city regulation could discourage reputable security firms from doing business in Pasadena, Hawkey said. In addition, such a law could expose the city to lawsuits if a mishap or death occurred at the hands of security guards, Hawkey said.

Nonetheless, city directors asked for a survey of the number of guard firms in the city and the companies’ opinions of possible city regulations. The regulations could include requirements that security firms provide the names of their guards, the state licenses held by the guards, the routes to be followed by guard patrol cars and the radio frequencies used.

Director Chris Holden also asked for an analysis of the city’s ability to create tighter restrictions on security guards at housing projects such as King’s Villages. The city in 1982 purchased King’s Villages from the federal Housing and Urban Development Department and sold it to Goldrich, Kest & Associates, a private management company.