Akal Security In the News
Private company filling judicial security duties, June 9, 2005
At the Courthouse Private company filling judicial security duties
Akal employees' roles have grown in light of attacks at courthouses
HoustonChronicle
Section: Local & State
By HARVEY RICE
June 9, 2005
Court security Officer Adrian Perez was finishing his lunch at the federal courthouse in Corpus Christi one day last year when he heard a frantic call on his walkie-talkie that a man was firing a shotgun.
Perez says he ran to the lobby, where he saw a man fire a .410-gauge shotgun and begin to reload. He says he calculated that he could reach the man and tackle him before he chambered another a shell.
He nearly miscalculated, barreling into the gunman just as he raised the shotgun to fire.
For his quick action, Perez received the U.S. Marshal Service's Harry Belluomini Memorial Court Security Officer Award, named for an officer killed in the line of duty in 1992.
Perez, 42, is one of the blue-coated, private employees who are sworn as special deputy U.S. marshals to provide courthouse security.
The officers are in charge of security at the federal courthouses in Houston and the rest of the Southern District, including Corpus Christi, Galveston, Victoria, Brownsville, McAllen and Laredo.
Unlike deputy U.S. marshals, security officers work for Akal Security, a private company based in Espanola, N.M.
security officer mike charrierAkal site manager M.N. "Nick" Dawsen said the idea of using a private company to protect federal judges and courthouses came in response to a series of threats to federal judges in the 1980s.
"The idea was to get trained people quickly," Dawsen said.
Akal hires only former law enforcement officers such as Dawsen, a 12-year veteran of the Houston Police Department, and Perez, a Nueces County deputy sheriff for 10 years.
When security concerns arose because of attacks on judges and their families in other parts of the country earlier this year, Akal employees were responsible for increased security for Houston judges, Dawsen said.
The officers roam the courthouse halls, patrol outside the building, assist judges in the courtroom and use metal detectors to screen visitors.
"The judges know who we are by how we appear and know who to look for," Dawsen said.
Security officers have full arrest powers and occasionally have turned over to Houston police intoxicated visitors or "people trying to get to judges' chambers to give them a piece of their mind," Dawsen said.
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
