Name: Brian H. Webber
Position: Rhode Island area manager for Pinkerton Security
Age: 27
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Background: Since joining Pinkerton as a security officer, Webber has risen to be the youngest person in the company to become an area manager. He is responsible for the Rhode Island area office of Pinkerton, with its 600-plus employees, and annual revenue of about $16 million. Webber also serves on the executive committee of the Providence Foundation’s Downtown Providence Security Network.
Education: Bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Northeastern University.
Residence: Scituate
PBN: There are 600 people employed in the Rhode Island area by Pinkerton Security. How many of those 600 employees do you figure joined the company after Sept. 11 or because of Sept. 11?
WEBBER: We saw an increase of business overall by about 30 percent and therefore we had to hire people to meet the need. We have a human resources department that actively recruits folks. We saw a bigger interest from the local colleges and universities. Johnson & Wales came in and we formed partnerships with people in their criminal justice program. These are programs for members of their criminal justice program looking to get some hands on experience in the field.
Since the terrorist attacks last September, has your business dropped off a little after that 30 percent increase?
It spiked dramatically after Sept. 11, but ultimately it started to taper back down to a more logical level of security, but it will never go back to Sept. 10 levels. Certainly a couple days and weeks after the attacks business was a little overloaded because of people overreacting and the anthrax threats. Now it’s tapered down to a more reasonable amount of security. What Sept. 11 did was legitimize the security business and open people’s eyes to the fact that security is not simply an additional overhead cost, it’s a necessity.
When people come to Pinkerton are they at the bookends of their careers? I think the general perception is that security guards are either young people looking to get onto the police force or they are retired police officers. Where do most of the employees come from?
It really is a huge mix. It’s a mix of college graduates looking to get onto the police force but that’s a very small percentage of our work force. We have a lot of folks who make a career out of security. There are many levels for advancement. We do have retirees too, but a bulk of the folks are middle-aged and are in it as a career. I understand that some people look at a security as an in-between job, but the industry has changed dramatically over the years. There’s a stigma attached to being a security guard. Every movie you see the security guard is that old retired guy who is the first to get shot or he’s sleeping with his feet up on the desk. And that’s not what security is about. It’s no longer the night, minimum wage job. Our average starting rate is $10 per hour with a full benefits package, 401K and an option to buy stock in the company. We have people in the field who make upwards of $50,000 a year.
How did you get involved in this industry?
When I was at Northeastern University I was involved in their co-op program where you go out in your field to get experience, and I was working for New England Power. There I got to learn the client side of the security industry and I had never considered security as a legitimate career opportunity until I really got to see how it operated from that standpoint. When I graduated I started at First Security Corporation, which was part of the acquisition by Securitas which owns us and Burns International, which is also a security company. In this company everybody has to start as a security officer even if you have an MBA or a doctorate. The philosophy behind this is that you can’t manage people if you haven’t walked in their shoes.
How did this philosophy work for you?
I went through a bit of an accelerated program, moving up after about five months. And I quickly learned that being a security guard wasn’t as easy as I had assumed it would be. I was up at a pharmaceutical company in Andover, Mass. called Genetics Institute that was very security conscious and had a lot of animal rights activists protesting. By being a security guard it gives me legitimacy with the employees so they can’t say to me, ‘you don’t understand. You’ve never been here’ because the fact is, I have.
What is the future of security?
For the industry as a whole I think we’re going to see more consolidation with larger national companies, and you’re also going to see companies that are full-service, offering every type of security from electronics to manpower to investigations. I think you’ll see clients doing that one-stop shop where they are going to make one phone call and all their security needs are taken care of, whereas now they need to use up to five different vendors.
Pinkerton and Burns have been part of Securitas for a few years now, operating sort of as subsidiaries. Was it the decision of Securitas to let Pinkerton keep its name because it’s so well known?
Actually at the end of this year we’re all going to be Securitas. But that’s not going to change the way we’ve been operating here. The challenge is that Securitas is a brand new name and Pinkerton has been around for 152 years and Burns has been around 96 years. We’ve already begun to roll it out slowly, introducing the Securitas name and logo, and it’s going to keep going in stages throughout the year. The last quarter of the year will be sort of a media blitz to let folks know there aren’t any changes in the quality of service just in the name.
What’s next for you with this company?
I want to continue to grow within the Rhode Island market. It’s virtually an untapped market with heavy competition such as Blackstone Valley Security, US Security, and Rhode Island Bureau of Investigation. There are a lot of players in a relatively small market.
We’ve spoken a bit about the threat of terrorism, what are some of the other concerns Pinkerton protects?
More than terrorism or thefts, workplace violence is the biggest issue we deal with. Workplace violence costs businesses billions of dollars each year. It doesn’t have to be somebody coming in with guns a-blazing. It’s typically the threat of violence and disrupting people’s work. The aftermath of Sept. 11 brought a lot of false anthrax threats to companies that we would sometimes trace back and find it was from a laid off employee or a disgruntled employee. Workplace violence has really spiked. Partially because companies didn’t want to report it before.
What does it say about a security company that your office is on the ground floor with huge glass windows right in the center of town?
We moved here from Johnston in 2000, and we chose to come down to the heart of the city to show a commitment to the Rhode Island market. The reason we’re ground level is from a recruiting standpoint we want people to understand our employee-driven ethic and that any one of our 600 employees could just come in and talk to me directly should the need arise. And my office is up front to really punctuate our open door policy. As far as our security, you don’t see it, and that’s the key to what we do. There are a whole host of electronics around that secure the site that you don’t see.
Tell me about your involvement with the Providence Foundation.
I’ve been a member for two years and it has allowed me a better understanding on how the city is operating. The best thing that has come out of it for me is the formation of the Downtown Security Network, which I’m on the executive committee of. We have outfitted several security providers and some of the schools and universities with Providence police radios that provide direct contact with the police. And this is just the first phase. We’re going to continue to implement programs. It’s exciting to help in some way with the renaissance of the city. And where security and police have historically clashed there’s a degree of partnership now.
What are some of the other programs planned?
We’re a bit of a ways away from cameras on every street corner but the city is looking at forming business improvement districts where folks are responsible for their area’s security and safety with trash and lighting. The city and the police can only do so much and I think that’s a reality. With the business improvement districts participants will be able to funnel their money and share funds, which will allow them to up the level of their security and improve the lighting. Lighting is one of the single largest crime deterrent there is. Yet if you walk down Westminster Street after dark it’s a ghost town.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask you about your age. You’re the youngest person in the country in your position working for you company. Does that present you with any challenges?
It comes up every now and again because the security industry is made up of some folks who have retired from law enforcement, but once we begin to work together it’s a non-issue. For folks that have a problem with my age, I can’t do anything for them other than do my job the best I can, and ultimately they end up coming around. I’ve never considered my age a handicap. You can be 60 years old in the industry for 40 years, but if you’ve been doing it the wrong way for 40 years it doesn’t add up to much.
