The most important partnership that any security operation can construct is that which is developed with local law enforcement. Accordingly, we assert that the relationship that the Hartford Guides organization has crafted with the Hartford Police Department is without peer in any jurisdiction of which we are aware.
This partnership, which has been crafted over nearly twenty years of working together on every level and has been reinforced at every opportunity, has produced a working environment in which the Hartford Guides staff and the Hartford Police confer multiple times daily for the benefit of the community. This has been particularly apparent in the operation of our on-street program (discussed below) but also is equally strong in our other security operations as well. The Hartford Police know and trust us and we know and trust them. Since 1992, the two organizations have been electronically linked through the city’s HARTLINK Radio System (discussed in greater detail below). When we request police assistance they immediately respond; when they request ours, we respond in kind.
The Commander of the Hartford Police Southeast Zone 7 (downtown) has been appointed by the Chief of Police to serve on our board of directors. It is this truly symbiotic partnership that we propose to provide to the Hartford Parking Authority.
Every Hartford Guides security officer, regardless of account to which assigned, carries with him or her while on duty, a company-owned HARTLINK capable portable radio. These radios are programmed by the City with a suite of channels (known as work groups) on the City’s communication system. These work groups directly connect the security officer not only to every other Hartford Guides security officer on duty but also to the Hartford Police dispatcher and a number of other municipal agencies. Moreover, every radio carried by Hartford police officers is programmed with the Guides work group, allowing direct and immediate contact by police patrols responding to a call from us.
As a consequence of our partnership with the Hartford Police Department and our management of SCAN the range and depth of our capacity to access important security related information extends beyond the confines of a specific security account. Information sharing and access to additional security related services are two additional value-added benefits of this structural and electronic linkage.
The powerful tool that is this linkage provides us with a capability not available to any other security service provider in Hartford. When combined with our unique partnership with the Hartford Police, we provide a level of safety and security that is simply not available elsewhere.
The important partnerships with public safety, principal private security organizations and key municipal agencies that is SCAN have been led, in one form or another, by top management within the Hartford Guides organization for over fifteen years. The Hartford Guides, Inc.’s chief executive officer and our security manager have each served as chairman of SCAN and we have been the SCAN program sponsor since 1999. We are not merely a practitioner, we are an industry leader.
One of the tangible benefits of our leadership to the industry as a whole is our sponsorship of HARTSCAN. This Hartford Guides led initiative is a city-approved work group programmed into a small number of HARTLINK capable radios positioned at a select few corporate security consoles. That the City of Hartford has entrusted to us management and operation of this classic example of public-private partnership is testament to our standing within the industry and with the City.
We are a nonprofit organization with strong ties to, and extensive experience working with, municipal government. We understand the not-for-profit sector and the intricacies of public-private partnership. We understand the nature of not-for-profit governance and the important role that a board plays in organizational decision making. In our view, this institutional awareness is not merely a value-added anomaly but a noteworthy strength when serving the not-for-profit sector.
Our board of directors is an intensely community involved body. The panel comprises former members of the Hartford Court of Common Council, agency chief executives, the First Selectman of a neighboring community, a widely respected small businessman, the chief financial officer of a large area nonprofit, the superintendent of schools in a neighboring city and the Hartford Police Lieutenant who is the Zone Commander for Hartford’s central business district. A listing of the board members and their professional affiliations appears under the Board of Directors tab.