December 2011

In this Edition

NASCO Year-End Review

NASCO Industry Leaders' Roundtable Rapidly Approaching

2011 Federal Legislative Summary

State Priority Legislative Report

NASCO Year-End Review

It’s hard to believe that 2011 is gone and 2012 already here! We’re asking ourselves the same question you’re probably asking yourself – where did the time go? Hopefully 2011 was a productive year for you and your businesses. By all accounts, 2011 was a successful year for NASCO, as we continued to advance the goals of our organization and the private security industry among key stakeholders in and around Washington.

In February, NASCO held its annual Industry Leaders’ Roundtable in New York City. This meeting was the first time we brought together industry association presidents from across the country to discuss the most pressing issues facing the private security industry in their states. The goal, among other things, was to get a sense of the obstacles and challenges facing each state and use that information as a catalyst in determining how NASCO might be able to assist.

In May, NASCO members and security executives from across the country converged on Washington, D.C. for the NASCO Contract Security Washington Summit at the famous Occidental Hotel. This two day summit featured topics on a wide-arrange of issues including, labor and employment trends, a political briefing on the 2012 general election and legislation at it pertains to the Federal Protective Service (FPS). Congressman Jeff Denham from California also spoke on day two of the summit.

One of the larger undertakings this year was our paid media campaign aimed at educating opinion leaders and the media about the importance and role of the private security industry. For three months beginning in May, NASCO ran a series of paid print and online advertisements focused in publications inside the Beltway, such as the Washington Post, Politico and Congressional Quarterly. The campaign resulted in increased awareness of our issues, greater media coverage on issues important to NASCO and a measurable uptick in the number of visits to NASCO’s website.

In September, NASCO held its annual Private Security Breakfast at the Peabody Hotel in Orlando.  Nearly 100 people attended the breakfast, including NASCO members, executives from non-member companies and industry experts from across the United States. Without question, the highlight of the program was past NASCO Chair, Heather O’Brien, introducing her father, Larry O’Brien as the 2011 recipient of the Edgar B. Watson Award.   It was a special moment for both and equally enjoyable for those in attendance.  In acceptance of the award, Mr. O’Brien thanked all of his colleagues and friends over his career and joked at the end that usually when people have this many nice things to say about you, it’s usually a eulogy.

Also in September, we created the NASCO Government Security Contractors Caucus a subset of the general NASCO membership to provide broader representation on issues specifically as they relate to the Federal Protective Service (FPS) and other federal government use of security contractors. To date, the Caucus has welcomed Coastal International Security, SekTek and Securit.

Our work has just started. The coming year will present a whole new set of challenges that we must meet head-on in order to protect and advance our industry. With the help from our members, we are confident we can continue to do great things.

Here is to a successful 2012!   

NASCO Industry Leaders’ Roundtable Rapidly Approaching

If you haven’t done so yet, please mark your calendar for February 7-9, 2012 for the NASCO Industry Leaders’ Roundtable at the Palms Hotel & Spa in Miami Beach, Florida. The Industry Leaders’ Roundtable brings together NASCO members, statewide association leaders and security executives from across the country to discuss the most pressing issues facing the private security industry.

While we are still in the processing of finalizing the agenda, we have confirmed Robert Perry from Robert H. Perry & Associates, who will discuss recent trends and the future outlook of mergers and acquisitions in the private security industry.  Additionally, we have invited Adam Putnam, Commissioner of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and we plan to have a discussion on labor and employment issues, specifically as it pertains to the meal and rest break issue.

A detailed agenda will be circulated the first week of January. In the interim, people who wish to book their room can do so by calling the Palms Hotel & Spa at (305) 534-0505. We have reserved a limited block of ocean front rooms for attendees at a price of $299 per night. In order to get the group rate, make sure to reference you’re with the "NASCO" group.

We look forward to seeing you there in what should be a great meeting!

2011 Federal Legislative Summary

At the federal level, NASCO was very busy in 2011 working in a multitude of fora on a variety of issues that are of interest to the contract security industry.   In the area of criminal background checks, NASCO Counsel Steve Amitay worked with members and staff of the House of Representatives on legislation, to be introduced in 2012, that will amend the Private Security Officer Employment Authorization Act (PSOEAA) to allow for private “screening entities” to conduct FBI checks on security officers in states where FBI checks are not conducted at the state level.    NASCO also became part of a coalition of business and employer groups and background screeners formed to prevent the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) from making it more difficult and legally challenging for employers to use of criminal background checks in the employee screening process.  

In the area of security officer training, NASCO and several NASCO members actively participated in a DHS/DOJ effort to produce a 30 minute “Suspicious Activity Reporting” (SAR) training video for private security.   The video is due out in early 2012 and DHS/DOJ is hoping to work with NASCO to publicize the video.   In another federal training effort, NASCO was the only non-governmental group asked by federal government’s Interagency Security Committee, chaired by DHS, to provide input on comments on a proposed new “Minimum Standards for Armed Security Officers in Federal Facilities.”

Concerning the use of contract security officers by the federal government, NASCO was active on many fronts in 2011.   NASCO and its members continued to work with the GAO on their report "Federal Facility Security Staffing Approaches” which was released in August and was very supportive of federal agency use of contract security.   NASCO also created an affiliated “Government Security Contractors Caucus” to enable non-NASCO members to join NASCO members in providing input on federal security contracting issues while also increasing NASCO’s federal profile.  The Federal Protective Service (FPS) “Contract Guard Program” remained a major focus of activity in 2011.  In Congress, NASCO Counsel Steve Amitay testified at an August House Homeland Security Committee Subcommittee hearing on FPS, and NASCO and its members provided input into a subsequent House FPS Reform bill introduced by Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA).  Input from NASCO was also requested and provided for a Senate FPS Reform bill introduced by Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Ranking Member Susan Collins (R-ME).   More directly with FPS, in September NASCO Counsel Steve Amitay started meeting regularly with FPS officials on behalf of NASCO and the Security Contractors Caucus to discuss and start working on ways to improve the FPS Contract Guard Program. 

In 2011, NASCO also continued to participate on the DHS Emergency Services Sector Coordinating Council (ESSCC) and specifically provided input, as a member of a “Credentialing Working Group”, on a seminal Report on “Crisis Re-entry” for emergency services personnel and  “Template Joint Standard Operating Procedure” (JSOP) for states to adopt nationwide.   In the phased responder re-entry system set out in the JSOP, “security personnel” are in the Tier immediately after law enforcement/firefighters/military.

2012 will be an equally active year for NASCO in and around our nation’s Capital and we look forward to representing our members.

In the meantime, save the date for June 5 to June 7 for our NASCO Washington DC Summit for 2012.

State Priority Legislative Report

All things considered, 2011 was a relatively quiet year on the legislative front. As is the case every year, there were some wins and losses.

In Connecticut, SB 913 was passed and signed by Governor Dannel Malloy, which will require that employers of 50 of more employees provide mandatory paid sick leave to their service workers. That law took effect January 1, 2012.

On the other hand, there were several key legislative victories for the private security industry, most notably, the failure of AB 350 to pass in California. Existing law in California (Displaced Janitor Opportunity Act) requires contractors and subcontractors that are awarded contracts or subcontracts by an awarding authority to provide janitorial or building maintenance services at a particular job site or sites, to retain, for a period of 60 days, certain employees who were employed at that site by the previous contractor or subcontractor. AB 350 would have extended the existing provisions to licensed security, among other property service industries, and renamed the Act to the Displaced Property Service Employee Opportunity Act.

You can read the final state legislative report for 2011 by clicking here. A new report will start to be compiled beginning this month, but archived state legislative reports can always be accessed on the NASCO website under the members’ only section.

Looking ahead in 2012, NASCO will continue to expand its state legislative reporting to include general labor and employment legislation tracking. We think this will be a vast improvement on what we’ve been currently providing members, and as always, we welcome any feedback or suggestions on how we can make this report even better.