Businesses Flood Security Firms With Protection Requests

Security companies in the San Fernando Valley said Thursday they were swamped with requests for additional personnel to protect businesses from looting.

“I have every single one of my 300 employees working,” said Kurt Strasser, president of Westridge Security Services Inc. “We’ve had to mobilize like never before. We ran out of armed and unarmed guards by noon.”

The Canoga Park-based company planned to have 38 vehicles patrolling in the Valley on Thursday night. Requests came from Panorama City, Sun Valley, Glendale, Burbank, Sherman Oaks, Woodland Hills, Tarzana, Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks.

In fact, the company formed an alliance with two other security firms. The three agreed to help one another in the streets if necessary, Strasser said, a rare action in the competitive security business.

Three-fourths of the calls came from businesses, Strasser said.

“They are terrified by what they’ve seen,” he said of business owners. “They are concerned because businesses are getting the brunt of it.” Requests have come for both armed and unarmed guards.

Unarmed guards must pass a written test and a background check to be licensed by the state. Considerably more is required of armed guards. They must pass a written test, a background check and a difficult firearms test, which usually requires special training.

Officials of Van Nuys-based American Home Security said its staff, which includes 25 armed guards, was working overtime.

“We’re getting a lot of calls for extra security, especially in the Studio City area,” emergency operator Tony Gallegos said. “People in the Valley are very scared. We are getting calls nonstop.”

The company covers all of metropolitan Los Angeles. But officials said patrols have been suspended in the South-Central Los Angeles area due to the violence.

“People are very frightened,” American Home Security owner George Weinstock said. “I lived through the Watts riots with my company, but it didn’t have this kind of media coverage. People were not aware of what was happening. This time, they are more in tune with the problems. This is more like the Manson killings, when people were worried if it was going to happen again. People are panicked.”

Not everyone who wanted to hire protection got it.

“We’re swamped with requests for extra service,” said Jack Boyd, president of Atlas Security in North Hollywood, which serves all of Southern California. “We’re getting calls not only from our clients, but from people who are trying to be our clients. We handled some new clients, but now we’re turning them down.”

Atlas Security has more than 90 security personnel, of which 15 are armed guards.

Because of the recession, many security companies have laid off workers, leaving them with fewer resources to call upon.

“Now there is a rush for security,” said Steve Bowman, operations manager for Mazer Security. “We didn’t have many people we could call on. It’s been hard for us to get guards. We’re out of guards. Everybody is out of them.”