The board of a 200-unit oceanfront condominium in Sunny Isles Beach asked FSO Guard to take over its 24/7 security contract with three weeks’ notice. The outgoing company had missed shifts, rotated officers so often that residents did not know who was at the desk, and had stopped answering the property manager’s emails. Residents had also complained about short-term rental guests wandering the pool deck at night and contractors coming and going without anyone checking who they were.
Client details are confidential. The building’s name, address and dates are withheld and some figures are rounded. The profile reflects condominium and residential tower assignments FSO Guard runs in Sunny Isles Beach and Miami Beach.
What we found on the site visit
A lobby with a front desk that had good camera coverage of the entrance and none of the garage. A garage with a resident gate that stayed open for eight seconds, long enough for a second car. A pool deck on the fourth floor open until 10 p.m. by rule and until whenever in practice. A contractor sign-in sheet that had not been filled in for a month. About a fifth of the units were rented short-term through platforms, with guests arriving at all hours and no registration process. The property manager was competent and exhausted.
The transition
We do not like gaps, so the transition was built to overlap. In the two weeks before the start date, our supervisor shadowed the existing desk on each shift, wrote post orders for the building, met the property manager and the board president, and photographed every door, gate and camera. The incoming officers were introduced to the building on a walk-through before their first shift. On the start date, the outgoing company’s last officer left at 8 a.m. and ours had been at the desk since 7:30.
Staffing and post orders
- Front desk, 24/7, one Class D officer. Greets, screens and logs every visitor, vendor and delivery; monitors cameras; controls the lobby doors and elevator access; answers the desk phone; holds and logs packages by the association’s rules.
- Second officer, 4 p.m. to midnight. Garage and pool deck rounds every 45 minutes with checkpoints, closes the pool deck at 10 p.m. with a walk-through, meets contractors in the garage, covers the desk for breaks.
- Night rounds. After midnight the desk officer walks the lobby level, garage entrance and pool deck once between 2 and 4 a.m., at a varying time, with the desk phone forwarding to a radio.
- Short-term rental guests. Registered by the unit owner in advance through the property manager, ID shown at the desk, a temporary fob logged with the unit number and dates, unregistered arrivals held in the lobby while the owner is called.
- Contractors. Pre-registered by the unit owner or manager, ID and company checked, badge issued, escorted to the freight elevator, logged in and out. No exceptions for “I was here yesterday.”
- Reports. Daily activity report and logs to the property manager each morning; a one-page summary and the supervisor at the monthly board meeting.
The first season
The pool deck complaints stopped in the first two weeks because someone now closed the deck at 10 p.m. and walked it. The contractor log went from blank to complete. Short-term rental guests, who had been arriving to a desk that did not know they were coming, were now expected, and the number of unregistered arrivals fell from several a week to one or two a month as owners learned that unregistered guests would wait in the lobby. The garage gate timing was shortened at our recommendation and a camera was added over the resident entrance.
Two incidents were notable. A former unit owner’s fob, never deactivated, was used to enter the garage late one night; the second officer met the driver on the ramp, checked the fob against the active list, escorted him out and the fob was deactivated the same night, together with 30 others belonging to people no longer in the building. And in September a tropical storm warning triggered the hurricane plan for the first time: the pool deck furniture was secured, the garage was checked for vehicles below the flood line, the evacuation log was kept at the desk, and two officers remained in the building through the night at the board’s request. The storm passed with little damage. The property manager said it was the first time the plan had been more than a document.
What the board received
Daily reports and logs, monthly summaries, the incident reports for the fob and the storm, a written security review after 90 days (gate timing, the garage camera, a fob audit process, lighting on the pool deck stairs) and, the thing residents mention most, the same faces at the desk. Three years later two of the original officers are still on the building.
What we would do differently
We would ask for the fob audit on day one rather than after the incident. Every building we have taken over since has had a stack of active credentials belonging to people who left years ago. It is now the first request we make of a property manager.
Related services
This assignment is our residential, HOA and condominium security service, staffed with Class D officers and run to the front-desk standard of our concierge security program. Buildings with a garage or grounds that need vehicle rounds can add mobile patrol. To arrange a visit to your building in Sunny Isles Beach, Miami Beach or anywhere along the coast, call 888.881.8099 or send a request. More assignments: all case studies.