April 07, 2011 9:05 PM
By STEVE CLARK, The Brownsville Herald
Mulling the reason for his company’s success, Daniel B. Flores, president and CEO of American Investigations & Security International, says he couldn’t have done it without an excellent and dedicated staff — though he credits his parents for teaching him the meaning of hard work and the value of education.
Had it not been for mom and dad,I don’t know where I’d be today,” he says. More than two decades ago, Flores left behind a lengthy career in law enforcement to launch American Investigations, which, among other things, provides security services for clients such as Walmart and automobile dealerships such as Tipton Ford and Tipotex Chevrolet — Flores’ original clients.
Tipton Ford is my original and oldest client,” he says. “They gave me an opportunity 21 years ago. Mark Roberts at Tipotex Chevrolet is my second oldest client. Those guys helped us build the foundation.”
American Investigations now has 60 to 70 security officers in the field at any given time, and roughly 200 officers total. The firm handles security for 22 Walmarts and Sam’s Clubs in the Rio Grande Valley, Corpus Christi, Laredo, Eagle Pass and Del Rio.”Just yesterday I got a call from Walmart,” Flores says. “We got awarded another store — a distribution center — outside Laredo. That would make it number 23 with those guys.”
As a licensed training academy, AISI is able to do its own training in house. Levels of training vary. The guy in the crisp uniform and AISI vehicle keeping an eye on the Walmart parking lot or the car dealership is a Level 1 or 2. Their job is to “deter and report,” Flores says, not chase down criminals. These officers, who are unarmed, make up the majority of the AISI security force. Level 3 and 4 officers carry weapons. Within the force is a small, elite cadre of weapon-carrying Level 4 officers who make up what’s known as the “Safety Response Team.”
The firm’s SRT officers worked with the Secret Service to secure Air Force One during a visit by President Bill Clinton in 1998; handled an appearance by Vice President Al Gore at South Texas Community College; and worked with the Department of Public Safety during Gov. Rick Perry’s 2002 visit to the Port of Brownsville. AISI also works with national security firms to ensure the safety of executives who travel to Mexico.
“We’re the firm here in South Texas that takes them into Mexico,” Flores says. “We’ll take them to Reynosa. We’ll take them to Matamoros, wherever they need to go. We don’t advertise it. We keep our business very quiet. My job is to keep you safe.”
AISI also has a lucrative private investigations division — usually workman’s comp, accident or infidelity claims. It’s a facet of the business that GPS technology has made a lot easier, Flores admits.
“On our infidelity claims that come to us, we’ve done away with following the person,” he says. “That has changed because of technology. We used to follow people around for hours, then we would lose them. You’re going to blow your cover pretty soon or you’re going to lose them.”
Flores, whose company also offers patrol and civil process services and does about $3 million a year in revenue, was chosen as 2011 Small Business Person of the Year by the Small Business Administration’s Lower Rio Grande Valley District. He’ll receive the award at an SBA luncheon April 28 at the University of Texas-Pan American.
Flores says his interest in law enforcement began with his uncle Joe Brewster, chief of detectives of the Laredo Police Department in the 1960s, who during trips to the family farm would fire up his police cruiser’s siren to the delight of the children and the consternation of the roosters. But Flores — who as a child worked as a migrant farm worker alongside his parents — lays the credit for his success in life squarely at the feet of his mother and father.
“At the end of the school year we’d take off and we’d go to Michigan, Colorado,” Flores says. “We went to Montana, Indiana. I’ve picked cucumbers, onions, grapes, tomatoes, cherries, and strawberries. I was up at 5:30 in the morning with mom and dad working the strawberry field. It was very hard work.”
But when a school bus would pass by whatever field they were working, Flores’ father would make the driver stop so his children could get on.” He had no idea where we were going, but he knew it was a school bus going to school,” Flores says. “He’d put us on a bus and I’d go to school and I’d register my brother and sister. Then he’d be waiting for us, because he knew the bus was going to bring us back.”