(WNYC/Bill Swersey)

June 28, 2006 —One of the fastest growing sectors of the US economy is the private security industry. Even before September 11, requests to private security firms for uniformed protectors were on the rise. This is also true for the City Government which contracts for close to 1000 guards beyond the almost 37,000 police officers on the city's payroll. But it turns out that the largest security firm employed by the city may have problems, problems that haven't stopped the city from repeatedly hiring it to guard key facilities. WNYC's Bob Hennelly has this investigation.

REPORTER: The Fire Department's main training center is on Randall’s Island, on the East River. Equipment worth millions of dollars sits here, so guards watch over the facility 24/7. The uniformed guards carry guns, but the patches on their shoulders are not that of FDNY or NYPD. They are of an eagle landing -- the logo for Tristar Patrol Services. 1000 Tristar guards can be found throughout the city - at the entrance to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, the offices of Administration for Children's Services or the Manhattan Municipal Building.

Since 2002, Tristar has been the go-to guard service for any city agency needing security. The citywide contract has been renewed twice—and just last week they were asked to work until August 2007.

But WNYC has learned that Tristar is under investigation by the New York Secretary of State which regulates private security companies. The state Attorney General is suing the company for $375,000 in back taxes. And the New York State Department of Labor has confirmed Tristar is under investigation for violating wage and hour laws.

[sound of Tristar Headquarters, reporter asking question] “How are you today…Is this Tristar Headquarters? “

REPORTER: After weeks of not getting phone calls returned, WNYC went to Tristar Headquarters just off of Westchester Square in the Tremont section of the Bronx. The facility is a pastel cinderblock hiring hall and a suite of offices.

[sound of interview-reporter asks question] “Is Mr. Zimmer in today?"

REPORTER: Earl Thomas is Tristar’s personnel director. He wore a tie and a handgun in his waistband.

[reporter identifies himself] “I’m with WNYC Bob Hennelly –how are you?”

He would not answer questions about the company’s owner of record, Gary Zimmer.

A lawyer for Tristar says the firm operates in compliance with the law, has a license in good standing, and got the public contracts after the City fully vetted the company.

But one government official, New York State Comptroller Allan Hevesi, was concerned that state agencies, relying more and more on private guard services, were not getting what they were paying for. So in 2002 he conducted an audit of all private guards companies doing work for the State.

ALLAN HEVESI: “We found that the operating presumption of people going into a variety of facilities is that they are secure because there is a security company that is hired, people to watch the doors and look for bad guys. In fact they had been violating a number of standards. They had not trained their employees who were the security guards. They had not paid them what they were supposed to be paying them. They had sort of snookered the people who ran the facilities and were hiring them into believing that there would be a level of security when there was not.”

REPORTER: Hevesi’s auditors found problems across the board with private security firms. The audit found that none of the companies examined could document that they were in compliance with either the contract or state regulations. This included Tristar. As a result of Hevesi’s audit the office of General Services terminated Tristar from the contract protecting state buildings. But Tristar guards continued to protect some of New York City’s most critical facilities.

ALLAN HEVESI: "This is a post 9-11 world and you have got to have trained people who meet standards from licensed companies that are reputable that are what the law calls responsible as they bid for these contracts and we were trying to get the agencies to focus on that and the agencies have other missions and so they do this business pro forma hire these companies private vendors pro forma without doing any checking.

REPORTER: But in the case of Tristar, all you need to do is Google the company and you'll find a 1994 New York Times crime briefreporting serious criminal charges against Tristar Owner Gary Zimmer and his brother Richard dating back to Tristar's early days.

Tristar got its start in the Bronx in Co-op City, a massive co-operative housing complex built in the late 1960s along the Hutchinson River. The city-within-a-city is made up of 15,000 middle class apartments in 35 high rise buildings.

Brothers Richard and Gary Zimmer served on the Co-op City police force and Gary went on become a Port Authority cop.

Stemming from the 1994 incident, both brothers were indicted on charges of attempted kidnapping, burglary, assault, and criminal use of a firearm. Richard eventually pled guilty to attempted burglary and got five years probation. Brother Gary pled guilty to assault and got three years probation. Richard left the Co-op City police and Gary, as part of his guilty plea, was forced off the Port Authority police force. Both convictions disqualify an individual from continuing to hold a security license. But in 1999, Gary went before an administrative law judge to get a license to keep Tristar going.

In granting Gary’s application for a security license, the judge based his decision on a version of the story that was far less serious than what Gary himself had admitted to in the criminal case three years earlier. In those criminal proceedings Gary admitted under oath to assaulting the victim in the case.

By 2002 The City of New York awarded Tristar a three year competitively bid ten million dollar contract to serve any city agency looking for private guards. The contract was extended in August of 2005 because the city had not yet completed its re-writing of a new bid solicitation. Even though Tristar is currently under a law enforcement investigation and two labor related probes the City’s system for vetting vendors did not raise one red flag. Last week the City extended Tristar’s contract for another year.

Last October the state's administrative services agency cleared Tristar to once again bid on state work. Hevesi’s office approved an $800,000 state contract for Tristar.

REPORTER: "It has come to your attention that they have been approved for another contract. What is your take on that?"

ALLAN HEVESI: “Well there is two responses. One, if they get a good report card from agencies that are supposed to be judging them to be responsible and have integrity and that is what goes into a superficial file they are going to get approvals including from our staff and that is unfortunate and that points up the problem that we need more due diligence.”

REPORTER: To accomplish that, Hevesi is proposing a new vetting system for potential state vendors called “Vendrep”. The aggressive search engine would help state officials discover any old newspaper clippings or relevant court decisions. In addition industry analysts say that as long as private security contracts are awarded based solely on who has the lowest bid, companies and the public will get what they pay for. Hevesi says it’s time to give private security guards the boost in professional standing that airport screeners gained post September 11th.

PHONE MENU: “Coin processors, telemarketer business, armored car carrier ..." (continues and fades)

REPORTER: For now the job of regulating 133,000 private security guards in New York State belongs to the Secretary of State's office which also regulates dozens of other professions, as this automated agency phone menu illustrates.

PHONE MENU: "... notary public, security guard, real estate appraisers ..."

REPORTER: And the office has just 40 inspectors to keep an eye on all of them.

For WNYC I’m Bob Hennelly.

RELATED LINKS

• 2 Held in Attempt to Kill Car-Towing Rival - New York Times, Jan. 28, 1994
• Plea Proceeding - People v. Richard Zimmer and Gary Zimmer, Dec. 13, 1995
• Administrative Law Judge Decision - Nov. 29, 1999