April 07, 2010 7:38 PM
Sean Gaffney
The Monitor
McALLEN, TX — The security guard paused at the bus ticket counter, scanning the line to see if something was amiss.Everything seemed in order, so he continued on with a slight limp past the counter, through an employees’ only door and down a private tunnel leading outside to where passengers boarded buses McAllen’s Central Station on Wednesday afternoon.
In late 2009 a security guard at the station was arrested, accused of stealing a wallet as his boss, former Alton Police Chief Baldemar Flores, was embroiled in his own public controversy. Since then the city has swapped Flores’ Rapid Security for the Brownsville-based American Investigations and Security International and after three months, the new company is performing well, said Mike Perez, McAllen’s city manager. “No complaints,” Perez said. “We’ve had no issues with them at all.” City commissioners awarded the security contract to American Investigations in early January, four months after McAllen began a search to replace Rapid Security. While American Investigations was not the lowest bidder, they scored the highest on the rankings, according to commission documents.
The city expects to spend just over $658,000 on the firm this year. The lowest proposal was from San Antonio’s Vets Securing America, according to the documents. Perez said American Investigation scored highest because they had all their paperwork with the state in order and because they had sufficiently documented background checks of their officers and the company’s leadership.
American Investigations is owned by Brownsville’s Daniel Flores, chairman of the Brownsville Crime Stoppers board, who was also honored earlier this year by the city’s chamber of commerce. Flores did not return a message seeking comment. He has owned the company for more than 20 years, according to the city. The company’s staff of 150 guards is large enough to accommodate McAllen, which uses from a half dozen to more than 15 security guards at the city’s parks, the convention center and the bus station among other places, Perez said.
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