
Although its operations are in California, Veterans High Risk Security Solutions (VHRSS) was born in Kabul, Afghanistan. Four armed services personnel – Henry Paredes (Navy, now CEO), Jessie Barretto (Army, now director of logistics), Gregg Edwards (Marines, now COO), William Stanifer (Air Force, now Director of Operations) –working as diplomatic security specialists, sat down at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul to discuss their post-service plans.
One of the group’s California natives brought up an idea: a courier transport service for the cannabis industry employing only tried and proven, highly trained military veterans.
In its few months of existence, VHRSS has evolved from a simple courier service to a one-stop shop for cannabis business owners’ security needs. CBT talks with Stanifer about the industry’s security issues, the risks business owners face when they don’t have proper security measures and little things they can do differently to help prevent crime and keep their employees safe.
Brian MacIver: How did VHRSS get started in the industry?
William Stanifer: Our first great adventure was … at the [CannaGrow] Expo in San Diego.. We didn’t know if anyone would have even talked to us! But we were well-received, everyone liked us, we had a good time. We knew very little about the [growing side] of this business. I mean, we are physical security experts, guarding U.S. embassies, doing diplomatic security, convoy escorts. …
That’s who we are. We plan on hiring U.S. veterans. We have a whole bunch of our friends still over there, and … they’re all waiting on us … to start pulling these guys out of Iraq, out of Afghanistan and get them back home, provide a livable wage for them and let them be around other veterans. ….
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Left to right: Gregg Edwards, William Stanifer and Henry Paredes of Veterans High Risk Security Solutions, exhibiting at CannaGrow Expo in San Diego, Calif., in May. |
MacIver: What are some of the services you offer to clients?
Stanifer: Currently, we’re doing security consulting. We could provide security systems, surveillance systems. We’ve also partnered up with a surveillance systems specialist company out of Oregon. We feel that will provide a one-stop shop for security. We can do static security, or what people would call physical security or facility security. We offer transport, and we can do background checks. One of our guys is a state polygraph specialist. We’re also … helping the growers who are doing these new facilities with a very-detailed … security plan that’s made specifically for their sites.
MacIver: What are some of the bigger, easily correctable security concerns you see when you visit a growing operation?
Stanifer: Mostly what we’re seeing is that they have a weak perimeter fence system, or no perimeter fence system, where someone can drive all the way up. Some of the growing operations out there also don’t have any surveillance systems, no camera systems. They don’t have any controlled entry features.
[The owner] should havenotified [the team] of anyone who is going to be a visitor that day, what time they’re supposed to be there and what kind of vehicle they’re supposed to be driving. … . The guard should be able to ask for I.D., match the car to the description, then make a call and the guy comes down, verifies that’s who he needs to see, signs him in … so [the visitor is] escorted the whole time he’s in [the facility or on site].
MacIver: How much of their budget should growers allocate to their building’s security?
Stanifer: We’ve actually broke it down. Depending on whether they have six acres, three buildings, three levels high, depending on their gross revenue, we’re talking maybe 3 to 5 percent. It’s actually a very small number, and that’s why we’ve been kind of baffled by [what we’ve seen].
MacIver: Are there any security differences between a dispensary and growing facility?
Stanifer: Oh yeah, they’re night and day. You have to treat them as two separate entities unless you have them enclosed into one site. [If you] have it enclosed in the same site, [you can] have a separate boundary between the dispensary and the growing operation, so if someone comes in they can’t just run it to the growing operation.
MacIver: What are some of the biggest security mistakes you see with dispensaries?
Stanifer: … If they have a guard, they almost always are unarmed. The second thing is there’s always only one and he’s like the doorman, the security guard and the parking lot guy.
[For] the dispensaries, what we’re recommending, is that you have a camera system outside. [Customers] hold up their I.D., they hold up their dispensary card to the camera. People ask “Why is that?” Because the chances of somebody robbing you after they just showed you their I.D. is pretty slim!
They also need to come up with entry security procedures. For example, the opening guy [normally] parks in a certain spot in a certain way. If something’s wrong, you park in the emergency parking spot. If something’s wrong and he’s parked in that spot, and you’re the second employee, you’re going “he parked in the emergency, something’s wrong.” These are no-cost type things, just a safe entry and exit procedure.
MacIver: Should dispensary and growing facility guards be armed?
Stanifer: Yes, but they must have experience. It shouldn’t be somebody who is just out of school and went through a 40-hour guard class and got his [open-carry license], and he’s never been in a tough situation. We do veterans, all special forces type guys. They’ve been in these very stressful situations; they know how to handle themselves.
MacIver: There was an armed robbery in Santa Ana last year where a dispensary owner was followed to his car, shot and robbed. What could have been done differently in that situation to prevent that from happening?
Stanifer: That’s where we come back to some of the basic security features. … His car was parked out front ... he was by himself. … There are security features that could have been put in place. … Stuff has to be random, routes need to be varied, you have got to use different vehicles, different personnel, so they’re not looking for somebody [specific].
… It has to be a lesson for other growers … it should send a signal to the rest of the community to let them know that what [they’re] doing isn’t working. You need to hire [security] professionals to do [security]. No one is hiring security professionals to grow their marijuana for them, I guarantee that.