Staff of National Public Safety.
By Daniel Hewitt
Though not widely discussed, the presence of a new security force in Ocean Beach has some OBceans alarmed.
National Public Safety has been retained by the Ocean Beach MainStreet Association to “keep Ocean Beach family-friendly by enhancing public safety in specific geographical locations” … this after the OBMA dumped Elite Services USA (the red shirts) for general ineffectiveness.
National Public Safety patrol car appears very much like an actual law enforcement vehicle.
As a security force, neither outfit has much leeway to effect actual change in terms of cleaning up the streets. Security guards in California are private citizens, and have no powers of arrest beyond that of any other private citizen and they’ve no power to temporarily detain anyone [editor: although they can make “citizen’s arrest” and detain someone until police arrive – much like super-market security can do].
Discarded Elite security staff.
So within the context of Ocean Beach, they lean on California Penal Code 647 – “disorderly conduct, including loitering on public property, drunk in public, and illegal lodging on private property” – Elite Services encouraged business owners to put up “Private Property” and “No Trespassing” signs and would be seen conversing with some of the natives, but little beyond that. The main difference between Elite Services USA and National Public Safety is in image – both cultivated, and real.
National Public Safety staffers dress in brown uniforms that give them the general look of law enforcement, travel in Crown Victorias – also brown and marked to look like law enforcement, and they also employ ex-military and ex-police within their ranks. Thus far, it seems their primary mode of enforcement is one of intimidation. They wear guns on their side, which at any given time brazenly increases the number of firearms on our streets, and not in a citizenry-sense, for these armed, uniformed strangers are not beholden to the community of Ocean Beach, but it’s merchant association. What could go wrong?
The two main Elite Services employees who worked Ocean Beach could be described as “grandfatherly” and “a big red teddy bear” rather accurately. They weren’t exactly welcome, but they weren’t walking around packing heat, either.
Without delving into the national debate about firearm safety and security, especially in regards to the public and/or public places, this writer ascribes to the notion that the less guns on our streets, the better.
There’s a world of discernible difference between a sworn San Diego Police Officer and a private hireling with a Glock and a gripe. So while NPS hires have been patrolling the Farmer’s Market and other neighborhood streets this past week, not everyone was aware that the old security firm was being replaced with much more militarized outfit.
When NPS went door-to-door on Newport Avenue leaving literature (see attached) about the change, no mention was made to the fact that new patrols would be armed with lethal force. The lack of transparency from the jump is troubling, and leads to questions about the process that led to the selection of National Public Safety.
Was there one?
NPS patrol car in residential area of Ocean Beach.
A Google search for “National Public Safety” is a public relations nightmare – everything a company doesn’t want the public to see when they look for them online. It reads like a litany of laughable, lamentable gaffes and goofs, and then you remember that these goons are gendarme’ing our streets.
Their Facebook page’s most recent update is “Selfie Day” picture and spans back to 2011 with entries such as “so bored just sit in my office and watch YouTube” … on www.ripoffreport.com, a chilling tale about withheld paychecks, skimmed wages, and ultimately, a complaint filed with the California Board of Labor – one which the ex-NPS employee won – and reports that at least 25 other individuals had filed complaints against NPS.
On Manta.com, a site that aggregates information on small businesses, NPS is estimated to have approximately 56 employees. Nearly thirty labor complaints filed against a company that employs under 60 employees, some of whom are armed with lethal force and sharing the streets with our families and children.
On Officers.com – a site that bills itself as “Law Enforcement’s leading source for News, Training, Jobs and Online Forums for local, county, state and federal law enforcement police and officers” there is a thread dating back to 2009 decrying NPS’s unprofessionalism from actual police officers who roll code and stick bodies in the cage – the sort pictured in this YouTube video that shows an NPS employee involved in the wrong end of a drunken hit-and-run incident before leading SDPD officers on a short chase on our highways – hardly safe, in any sort of public sense.
In fact, one struggles very hard to find any sort of positive or good mention of National Public Safety on the Internet – whether fraudulent or otherwise.
Their Yelp.com page offers more personal testimonials about back wages not being paid, bounced checks, and perhaps, the only positive mention of NPS on the World Wide Web – a review that advises one to check their website for recommendations and testimonials from, for example, the Coronado Fire Department.
When visiting nationalpublicsafety.com, the one testimonial from the City of Coronado Fire Department begins with … “Dear Open House Participant” and is nothing more than a form letter sent to non-governmental agencies that may or may not want to participate in the *2010* Fire Department Open House. Their website is filled with broken links and gives off the stench of a neglected presence – indeed, with all the negative publicity, it seems that NPS has abandoned their public image to the wolves – yet they won out and now patrol our streets with lethal force.
Further digging reveals a suit filed against Douglas Frost, the CEO of National Public Safety, for impersonating a police officer. From the top-down, NPS seems nothing short of shady.
How did the OBMA end up selecting NPS to patrol our streets, and if something goes wrong, where does the accountability lie? Are NPS officers going to selectively “protect” OBMA businesses and interests over non-dues paying businesses and the citizenry? Something is … missing.
This, coupled with the seemingly set-in-stone surveillance cameras coming to the beach areas seem to be death knells for what Ocean Beach has rallied against in the past – how do we go from a sleepy little beach community with a certain, irresistible je ne sais quoi to a gentrification battleground, replete with around-the-clock surveillance at our ultimate draw, the Ocean, and hired, armed guards patrolling our streets during our family-friendly events, and an air of “okayness” about it at all. Something’s rotten in OB – will we take it?
{ 31 comments… read them below or add one }
I saw one of these NPS dudes making a “citizens arrest” about a month ago next to Arizona. The guy he was pinning to the ground until the cops showed up was a homeless dude that I have seen around the neighborhood a bunch. I saw the same homeless guy the next morning, so whatever he was being detained for wasn’t enough to keep him for long. It was pretty horrifying seeing someone in military style uniform (I honestly thought he was homeland security at first) pinning someone down in the middle of an alley in broad daylight, a bunch of people from Arizona came out and started filming until the cops showed up. In the end I’m not sure what the outcome of this incident was but I’m really not personally comfortable with a private entity having the ability to hire and patrol public places. Something about it just seems wrong.
Agree 100%.
This sounds like something right out of Carl DeMaio’sidea of a libertarian paradise.
We can’t afford cops because TAXES!, so merchants take up a collection and hire private security company.
Private security company thinks regulations requiring paychecks and such are just so much government interference, so they screw their employees, who must endure lengthy delays to collect wages because TAXES! means minimal wage law enforcement.
Tell us how you really feel, Doug.
I concur with Doug.
Excellent article and photos Daniel!! Great job! I interrupted the officers one day for a photo but it didn’t turn out good… You nailed it!! I like others in town thought the officers were federal… I thought they were fish and game who wear green uniforms… Wondered why they were on the street cause no fishing going on there. But sure enough — NPS, in very official looking uniforms.
they were hired by Denny Knox
Denny was just pressured to make the hire by the extremists in her midst. She just had to bow to people on her board. She doesn’t make the decisions but her board does, she just carries out their directives, like any good executive. Now, she probably makes recommendations to her board so we don’t know what she advised them to do.
Great piece Daniel. Thanks for bringing the thoughts many of us have had about this new unit into words.
However, in recent articles in the OB Rag, we’ve seen how OB’s crime stats are lower than many other communities, that surveillance cameras are not the answer, no one – not the police or the businsses of OB have shown that OB needs all this stepped -up militarized crime-fighting techniques and tactics.
Are we to blame the homeless on every problem OB has? Guess so.
Ditto on that Dan.
Actually the homeless are to blame for the fall in student population at OB Elementary, they’re to blame for the cop cameras, they’re to blame for forcing OB’s merchants to hire private goons, I mean guards. The homeless are to blame for all the short term vacation rentals and for the gentrification too. The homeless take over our parks, our beaches, our streets, our grass, our benches, our sidewalks, our public spaces, our rivers, our canyons, our freeway underpasses, those islands of dirt and trees between major highways, makeshift caves on the cliffs, medians along our roads – therefore, the great need to videotape and watch every corner of public arena.
Who was the cop who told us that we don’t have any expectation of privacy on the beach, therefore, we have no right not to be recorded.
“How did the OBMA end up selecting NPS to patrol our streets, and if something goes wrong, where does the accountability lie? Are NPS officers going to selectively “protect” OBMA businesses and interests over non-dues paying businesses and the citizenry?”
Thank you for pointing out your failure to participate in the process leading up to the retention of private security.
One good thing about this…. article…. is that you make it abundantly clear you’re making no attempt to be objective or obtain factual information. So, no worries about any concern this may be actual journalism.
In short, the Rag continues to confirm it’s status as an irrelevant bait-click tabloid with nothing of substance to offer.
To the contrary, I think Mr. Gormlie does the OB readership quite a service calling attention to a development that many of us were not aware of. I’m going to guess that you are as guilty of the same failure of non-participation in the process that you accuse Mr. Gormlie of. I’ll venture further that you weren’t even aware of the OBMA installation of NPS on our public streets until you read it here. At least Mr. Gormlie’s click bait “tabloid” does the civic service of informing (the opposite of click bait tabloid) the rest of us that a private commercial group is being allowed to put a private armed patrol on public streets instead of only inside their individual places of business. The private installation of private armed patrols in public space allows private business to incentivize against the improvement of public police forces that are accountable to the citizenry and their elected government.
The word you are looking for is clickbait. These are pages that take forever to load because they are filled with tracking cookies, social-media links, and headlines like ‘Five ways to kill belly fat, #3 will make you puke’. The Rag is nothing close to clickbait.
The OBMA has a history on this issue… like that portable Police Trailer that was never supposed to stay there.
Every day, on the Ocean Beach and Ocean Beach Social, Facebook pages I see citations of stolen bikes, “trolls” inside people’s yard spaces, complaints about homeless persons on our streets (like the post from Old Hippie above), people defecating in alleys or yards, beggars accosting the tourists that visit here, etc. Yet, when an established private security company is hired, with the aid of a Grant from the City, to keep these issues under control, the response is outrage. Makes no sense, to me! These same issues affect the businesses of our OB community that need customers to survive, as well as protection from thieves, I might add. The Merchant’s Association is addressing those needs and, indirectly, the very complaints complained of on the OB Facebook pages. At least be consistent with your complaints!
I believe the old Hippie’s comments were meant to be tongue in cheek.
You have forgotten the stabbings during the summer on two Saturdays, early night.
OBMA ….Well Done.
Cameras are good, and there should be more.
If anyone that break the rules and laws, and get caught by a camera, or cameras, it makes OB a safer place. If anyone is against that, you are contributing to more crime.
Right, so, people who are against unconstitutional surveillance of public spaces, and against OBMA installing their own private army of dubious repute on our streets, are contributing to more crime.
Unconstitutional? Can you show me precedent for this, specifically?
It was a 2 to 1 majority in that poll on the rag. But the majority are just sheep, right? Better create a petition and go get ignorant 19 year olds who hate the man to add to the coalition.
This isn’t CCTV, this isn’t 1984.
I don’t know it, but I know there is precedent, and quite recent. I am certain that multiple federal judges have ruled mass surveillance is illegal and unconstitutional, in terms of mass Internet surveillance (a web search would likely turn up these citations fairly easily). But I imagine that it’s not hard to similarly categorize mass video surveillance. From the OB Rag’s reprint of the ACLU article, “Four Problems with Public Video Surveillance,” “There have long been well-established rules governing the audio recording of individuals without their consent (there is a reason surveillance cameras never have microphones). It makes no sense that we don’t have equivalent laws for video recording.” That statement alone is fairly damning of the legal status of indiscriminate mass public video surveillance. (And I don’t know why you blithely dismiss that “this isn’t 1984”, as “1984” includes many forms of total surveillance. Nor do I understand what you mean by “This isn’t CCTV.” First, it is CCTV. Second, so what if it isn’t CCTV? Are you trying to say CCTV is bad, and whatever you think the proposed OB video surveillance is, it isn’t CCTV, but something good?) Please do go an read the entire ACLU piece: https://www.aclu.org/whats-wrong-public-video-surveillance. Finally, a simple read of the 4th Amendment is conclusive in my mind, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects,[a] against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” In sum, government agencies have no constitutional right to conduct warrantless searches of persons (which I suspect is the basis for those rules against mass audio surveillance).
“But the majority are just sheep, right”? So, you are asserting that a simple majority of any group in any context is always right?
The proven solution to indigent homelessness is government putting people in homes and connecting them with social services. It is much cheaper than leaving people on the streets and servicing them with emergency services, instead. A private merchants’ association deciding to put a private armed force on our public streets is not going to do anything about the homeless any more than the municipal police force that we already pay for, can. You have a thief in your store, you call the police. You have business and want an armed guard inside, great, that’s your business. But owning a business does not to my mind give one a right to install a private armed force on the public streets that belong to us all. Drumming up a laundry list of the occasional societal ills on our public streets does not warrant anything more than municipal police force we already have and that is under the control of our elected government.
Read and weep. It seems the outfit’s license is hanging in the balance. Didn’t the OBMS do due dilligence before hiring these police academy drop outs?
http://www.bsis.ca.gov/public/g__1508531_2013_12_06_dec.PDF
It seems you need to enhance your research skills. A settlement from a few years ago isn’t going to affect anything regarding this.
THUMBS DOWN OBMA NPS
I’ve lived here since 1962, am not a kid. I am in lower OB daily, it’s where I live, and I am very much against this. I’m not here to get in a bickering battle, but I have to say that it really seems when you have paid vigilanism, which is what this really is, you are just inviting a tragedy, particularly when it includes guns. A strong “no” from this corner.
By the way, I quickly reviewed the “Stipulated Settlement” (dated 20131206) linked within the article, and it didn’t look like anything too terribly condemning of NPS. At most, all I could tell from my quick look was that Frost and Lopez, of NPS, had responded to a house alarm and show up on the lawn in plain clothes with guns drawn. The complaint is only that both guards should’ve been in uniform or at least wearing patches identifying themselves as private security. I think a neighbor saw a couple guys with guns and understandably became frightened and called the cops. So, yeah, NPS bad move, but not the end of the world just because they weren’t in uniform. Regardless, I’m still no fan that OBMA as a commercial body has been allowed to put a private armed patrol on OB streets at large. If OBMA members want armed guards in their places of businesses, great, go for it, but the streets don’t belong to OBMA members and they shouldn’t be allowed to put private armed guards on public streets that belong to all citizens.
Somebody needs to ensure the safety of OB. I mean… cameras and police are not enough. Hence, private security. And the benefit is that it keeps local people employed.
I checked out their website. Plenty of accolades and a well documented hiring procedure, including background check.
Nothing says safety and community like an armed private security company, police station on main street, and surveillance cameras…
Sadly, this presence may be needed in our day and age. Communities should not have to deal with this, but it is a reality.
And I’m only sharing this link cause it is relevant in the present day United States
http://www.artofmanliness.com/2015/11/30/what-to-do-in-an-active-shooter-situation/
The OBMA participates, willingly, in fear-mongering. It seems they and their what I assume Republican taskmasters (business owners of OB) have given in to paranoia and the need to have gun-toting Brown shirts (obvious historical reference) protecting me while I shop for orchids at the Farmers Market. I cry BS and foul.
While OBMA may be within their right to have their members protect their properties a couple of things are problematic.
First this is a densely developed city with sidewalks ajoining these businesses. Do these guards have the right to eject people from a sidewalk or other public land just because it is near a business they patrol for?
Secondly, GUNS? What the hell for? This is outrageous they are not escorting large amounts of cash and no citizens carry guns, the only reason they might need a gun is to protect themselves from a mob of citizens who attack them for unjustifiably beating another citizen.
These guys are out there just to keep the riff raff from scaring customers. There is no imaginable way they should be using a gun to do it, it is simply intimidation.
I hope the coffers of OBMA are deep and wide to settle the inevitable lawsuits coming when one of these guys decides the tool he will use to solve a problem is a gun. (Which is the whole problem with gun proliferation)888
How did these Goons wind up in Ocean Beach! This is a very Shady oufit and they need to be booted out of Ocean Beach. The internet is full of horror stories about NPS and its owner, Douglas Frost, and anyone who did a proper background check never would have hired this outfit.
As an example, NPS and Douglas Frost have been Defendents sued in San Diego County Civil Court approximately 50 times for ripping off employees, customers and Vendors. Their workers often claim their paychecks bounce, they were evicted from their offices, their cars and/or motorcycles have been repo-ed at times and one of their drivers has even been in a hit and run on Aero Drive while in a NPS car. ( check it out on youtube.)
here is just a sample of some of the civil cases these con-artists have been Defendents in:
Superior Court of California, County of San Diego
Court Index Home Previous Page New Party Name Search
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Select the Case Number below if you would like to see case details. If you did not see the case you were looking for, select the Browser back arrow or ‘Previous Page’ option above to go to the previous screen and modify your selection criteria. Otherwise, you can choose the ‘New Party Name Search’ option above to start a new name search.
Last Name requested: NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY First Name requested: Search Result Page: 1
Case Number Party Name Matches Opposing Party Case Location Case Type Date Filed
SE020940 NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY CARCOA QUALITY BODY & PAINT East County Civil 05/04/2005
37-2016-00029496-CL-BC-CTL NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY QUICK TRIP INC San Diego Civil 08/25/2016
37-2013-00308134-SC-SC-CTL NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY ROMEO’S CAR WASH Kearny Mesa Civil 04/16/2013
37-2013-00305736-SC-SC-CTL NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY ACE SERVICE CENTERS INC Kearny Mesa Civil 01/28/2013
37-2012-00084742-CU-UD-CTL NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY KEITH R ANDERSON TRUSTEE OF THE KEITH R ANDERSON 2003 TRUST DATED 12/23/03 San Diego Civil 11/06/2012
37-2012-00006570-SC-SC-CTL NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY THE CHECK CASHING PLACE, INC Kearny Mesa Civil 11/13/2012
37-2010-00067373-CU-EN-EC NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY CHIEF DIVISION OF LABOR STANDARDS ENFORCEMENT AUTHORIZED DELEGEE OF THE DIRECTOR OF INDUSTRIAL RELA East County Civil 04/28/2010
37-2008-00010974-SC-SC-NC NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY MOORE, MARVIN D North County Civil 02/05/2008
SE026527 NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY SECURITY INC FLORES, CHRISTIAN East County Civil 03/12/2007
37-2013-00305964-SC-SC-CTL NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY SECURITY SERVICES EVANS TIRE AND SERVICE CENTERS Kearny Mesa Civil 02/04/2013
37-2008-00097029-CU-WT-CTL NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY SECURITY SERVICES ANGELA BRADSTREET CALIFORNIA STATE LABOR COMMISSIONER DIVISION OF LABOR STANDARDS ENFORCEMENT DEPAR San Diego Civil 11/26/2008
IC776071 NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY SECURITY SERVICES INC SMITH, TAIROU San Diego Civil 10/11/2001
IE022340 NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY SECURITY SERVICES INC DRONGOWSKI, GREGORY J East County Civil 05/28/2004
37-2016-00029496-CL-BC-CTL NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY SECURITY SERVICES INC QUICK TRIP INC San Diego Civil 08/25/2016
37-2016-00028804-CL-R3-CTL NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY SECURITY SERVICES INC LEXINGTON INSURANCE COMPANY San Diego Civil 08/19/2016
37-2016-00012515-CL-EN-CTL NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY SECURITY SERVICES INC MANEAUX, DAUNTAE San Diego Civil 04/15/2016
37-2015-00037456-CU-BC-CTL NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY SECURITY SERVICES INC FORD MOTOR CREDIT COMPANY LLC San Diego Civil 11/05/2015
37-2015-00018864-CL-EN-CTL NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY SECURITY SERVICES INC SULLIVAN, PATRICK San Diego Civil 06/05/2015
37-2014-00041249-CU-WT-CTL NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY SECURITY SERVICES INC SPINAZZOLA, JESSICA San Diego Civil 12/05/2014
37-2014-00029329-CL-EN-CTL NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY SECURITY SERVICES INC JONES, ELISABETH San Diego Civil 08/28/2014
37-2014-00027599-CL-EN-CTL NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY SECURITY SERVICES INC FONTANOZA, MONICA San Diego Civil 08/15/2014
37-2014-00015564-CL-EN-CTL NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY SECURITY SERVICES INC JACKSON, AARON San Diego Civil 05/12/2014
37-2014-00013175-CU-EN-CTL NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY SECURITY SERVICES INC SMITH, HENRY San Diego Civil 04/28/2014
37-2013-00309134-SC-SC-CTL NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY SECURITY SERVICES INC RIVIERA LIQUOR HOUSE Kearny Mesa Civil 05/20/2013
37-2013-00035384-CU-BC-CTL NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY SECURITY SERVICES INC SANDT, WAYNE San Diego Civil 02/20/2013
37-2012-00084742-CU-UD-CTL NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY SECURITY SERVICES INC KEITH R ANDERSON TRUSTEE OF THE KEITH R ANDERSON 2003 TRUST DATED 12/23/03 San Diego Civil 11/06/2012
37-2012-00006570-SC-SC-CTL NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY SECURITY SERVICES INC THE CHECK CASHING PLACE, INC Kearny Mesa Civil 11/13/2012
37-2011-00100907-CU-PO-CTL NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY SECURITY SERVICES INC ROE, JANE San Diego Civil 11/09/2011
37-2010-00097610-CU-OE-CTL NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY SECURITY SERVICES INC WALL, JAMES San Diego Civil 08/09/2010
37-2010-00067373-CU-EN-EC NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY SECURITY SERVICES INC CHIEF DIVISION OF LABOR STANDARDS ENFORCEMENT AUTHORIZED DELEGEE OF THE DIRECTOR OF INDUSTRIAL RELA East County Civil 04/28/2010
37-2009-00004496-SC-SC-CTL NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY SECURITY SERVICES INC CALIFORNIA SMOG TEST ONLY Kearny Mesa Civil 06/12/2009
37-2008-00065057-CL-R3-EC NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY SECURITY SERVICES INC THE BURLINGTON INSURANCE CO East County Civil 06/23/2008
37-2008-00010974-SC-SC-NC NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY SECURITY SERVICES INC MOORE, MARVIN D North County Civil 02/05/2008
37-2007-00076024-CU-OE-CTL NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY SECURITY SERVICES INC BLAIR, CHRISTOPHER San Diego Civil 10/01/2007
37-2014-00309530-SC-SC-CTL NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY SECURITY SERVICES, INC FLORES, ARMANDO DIAZ Kearny Mesa Civil 08/11/2014
37-2011-00069926-CU-OE-EC NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY SECURITY SERVICES, INC SANDT, WAYNE East County Civil 09/02/2011
37-2007-00087070-CL-BC-EC NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY SEIRUTY SERVICES INC ADMIRAL INSURANCE COMPANY East County Civil 12/21/2007
37-2009-00095407-CL-EN-CTL NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY SERVICES INC MEDINA, B WADE San Diego Civil 07/31/2009
37-2012-00050508-CU-PO-NC NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY, INC MIKHAEL, ZAYN GEORGES North County Civil 02/01/2012
In addition to the cases above the owner, Douglas Frost , has also been sued in Civil Court on numerous occasions.
OB residents need to start a Petition Drive to Kick NPS out of Ocean Beach!
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