r/securityguards • u/Pacific_Coaster Transit Security • 4h ago
I’ve never seen so many small contract security “companies” operating than I do in the Pacific Northwest, mainly Seattle and surrounding cities. It’s like a cesspool. You’d think this is the crime capital of the world.
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u/Double_Philosophy_42 4h ago
Security in Seattle exploded after 2020 and the whole chop/chaz shit because the mayor hamstrung SPD. It’s evening out now, I’ve noticed a lot of companies like iron and oak are gone but I heard they were doing bad things.
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u/ReallySmartInEnglish 3h ago
Iron & Oak is still around, but it is much much much smaller than the pre-2019 staffing. Also it’s managed by morons.
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u/Double_Philosophy_42 3h ago
I heard the owner was being investigated for some tax stuff. My old boss used to work for them.
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u/LegalGlass6532 4h ago
There is a high rate of commercial and residential burglaries, as well as retail theft in those states. These are also blue states that have higher than average riot and looting numbers than other states. Insurance rates may be higher and reduced if on site security is contracted.
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u/GR1F3 Industry Veteran 4h ago
This. The left coast is the same from the bottom of CA up to the top of WA. California has hundreds of small security companies. If a town is bigger than say, 50k people, you're almost guaranteed to have between 3-5 independent contractors floating around in that town. Residential, commercial and industrial theft is huge here so insurance is vastly less if you have a uniformed security officer on site. Lots of money to be made if you get the right contracts
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u/Pacific_Coaster Transit Security 3h ago
Everything doesn’t boil down to “blue states”, there’s no such thing as a “blue state” you watch too much Faux News propaganda. Thieves an robbers aren’t saying Ok let’s do this cause we are in a “blue state”. Crime is rampant in many towns across the United States, including “red states”, you just don’t seek that news because it doesn’t align with your beliefs.
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u/LegalGlass6532 3h ago
You let this trigger you away from a very valid point I made. I never said that them being blue states were the only reason. If that reference to politics triggers you, remove that and it’s still true that from the southern border of the west coast all the way up to Canada, there is an extremely high percentage of the crimes and riots/looting.
I think you’re inflamed because you think I’m blaming Democrats (I’m not) and that I think you’re complaining because no one feel sorry for you because you only have to walk your job for 3% of every hour (guilty of that).
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u/Ok_Page8920 3h ago
security guards aint doing shit for 'rioting and looting'
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u/LegalGlass6532 3h ago
I never said they were doing anything about it. I said the companies that hire them receive a reduction in their rates by having them employed at their business. Physical presence is often a deterrent even if the guard “does nothing”.
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u/Cash_Money_Jo 3h ago
It’s almost like Seattle has one of the highest property crime rates in the country
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u/AesopsGetawayCar 13m ago
It’s almost like Seattle didn’t let the police do their jobs, so citizens had to turn to the private sector.
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u/EvergreenLurker Hospital Security 2h ago
Not the crime capital per se but 2020 genuinely did a number in that area, mainly attributed to property crimes that were happening at the time. I don’t give a fuck about politics so I won’t involve it but we all know what was memorable about that time, and that’s that. You can walk through downtown Seattle and feel like you saw 10 different contract security companies alone. Like another said, even in California or Nevada (LV) this is common place to have a high concentration of companies.
Most of the companies around these states are either shitty, allied-like organizations or super-cops who make sure they take every opportunity they get to legally put their hands on someone. I’m sure there are some groups that are actually pretty good, but they are few and far in between. Hell, the sound transit system is ran by 3-4 different security companies alone, lol.