Starting your own security office

Originally posted by fester_hicks View Post

Names Jason, 35 yrs old and I'm in Shawnee, KS ( a sub. of Kansas City, KS).

Can anyone tell me how you might go about opening up your own security office? I know the answer should be obvious to me but right now, it's not!

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I'm seriously entertaining the idea because of a lack of security at apartment complexes hereabouts. The police here in Shawnee refuse to see that the criminal element is moving out of the inner cities into the suburbs. You would be amazed at the people who flee Kansas City, Mo and hide out in the suburbs because alot of KS officers won't pick them up on small warrent violations because they do not wanna deal with extredition, thats straight from a Shawnee Police Dept. officer.

Having worked both sides of the KS-MO state line in law enforcement, I can assure you that this situation of folks with minor charges "skipping" across the state line has existed forever, and in fact it exists everywhere that a state line bisects a major metropolitan area either because typically you either cannot arrest and extradite people on minor charges from other states, or because the cost of extradition hearings, etc. would be prohibitive and, frankly, silly to incur.

As for starting a security company, you'll need a Kansas business license, of course. Then, you need to comply with Kansas statutes, Chapter 75 (it's not clear to me if you need a license for a "private patrol operation"), and with any special licensing requirements in any county, city or town where you offer services. Shawnee does not appear to require a license, whereas Lawrence does (a bit out of your area, of course). I saw nothing on the OP city website about security licensing. But...Johnson County has a rash of towns, and you'll have to check with each one...and the county itself.

You'll need insurance, of course - of several different kinds. Then there's the vehicle(s), and their maintenance, gas, etc.

...and then you'll need to go out and get some clients. Based on what you posted here, I feel I should offer you one word of advice: Don't go out and try to get clients by knocking the competition or the quality of their services.

You can figure it will cost you maybe $15,000 or more per month to field each one-man unit 24x7, depending on wages, payroll taxes, vehicle expenses, prorated costs for uniforms/equipment, auto and business liability insurance, radio or cell service, etc. If you just offer "nighttime" services, the cost would be less, of course.

I wanna start up a small company that will deal specifically with apartment security. I believe there is a good market here for it. The bigger companies come out this way but it's usually on the way to a larger job and their patrols last all of 5 minutes when i know they are scheduled for more ( i have seen the contract).

Any help or ideas would be great here.

JASON/FESTER

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