Technology Desc

Aley Moyer

THE CALIFORNIAN 2026 Q4 – TIME THEFT IS QUIETLY DRAINING YOUR MARGINS – HERE’S HOW BIOMETRICS CAN DETER IT

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Time Theft Is Quietly Draining Your Margins – Here’s How Biometrics Can Deter It

Stephanie Petersen, TEAM Software by WorkWave, CALSAGA Network Partner

Buddy punching. Rounded-up break times. A guard clocking in ten minutes before actually arriving on site. Individually, these moments seem minor. Across a workforce of hundreds or thousands of distributed employees, they add up to real money lost – money that security and cleaning companies operating on razor-thin margins simply can’t afford to lose.

Time theft isn’t a new problem, but for manned guarding firms managing distributed teams across dozens of client sites, it’s becoming harder to ignore. Rising labor costs, tight margins, and increasing client demands for proof of service mean every unverified hour on a timesheet is a liability. The good news is that biometrics now makes it possible to verify not just when someone clocked in, but who actually did.

What Is Time Theft, and Why Does It Hit Security Firms Especially Hard?

Time theft happens whenever an employee is paid for time they didn’t actually work. In the security industry, this often takes the form of buddy punching (one employee clocking in or out on behalf of another) or early/late punches that pad hours worked.

For a distributed workforce spread across multiple client sites, these discrepancies are notoriously difficult to catch with traditional time and attendance methods. Supervisors can’t be everywhere at once, and manual oversight only goes so far when margins are already stretched thin, often sitting at just 15-20% gross profit. Every unverified hour chips away at profitability and makes it harder to prove service delivery to clients who expect accountability.

How Biometric Verification Helps Eliminate Buddy Punching

Facial verification technology addresses time theft at its source. Instead of relying on a PIN, badge, or signature that can be shared or falsified, biometric time clocks confirm that the person clocking in is actually who they say they are.

This isn’t just about catching bad actors. Biometric verification builds a more accurate, defensible record of hours worked. For security companies, that means:

  • Verified proof of presence for every shift, strengthening compliance and client trust.
  • Reduced non-billable overtime caused by inaccurate or inflated time records.
  • Fewer payroll disputes, since the data is accurate from the first punch.

TEAM Software is bringing this capability directly into WinTeam, consolidating biometrics alongside time punching, scheduling, and guard touring into one mobile experience. Rather than juggling multiple apps, supervisors and workers get a single, streamlined tool built specifically for the realities of frontline security work.

Why This Matters Beyond Payroll Accuracy

In addition to protecting against theft, biometric verification feeds every other part of the business. Clean, verified time and attendance data improves job costing, strengthens compliance tracking, and gives operations leaders the visibility they need to make proactive decisions about staffing and profitability. When your time data is trustworthy, everything downstream, from payroll to client reporting, becomes faster and more reliable.

Companies that have modernized their time and attendance processes with automation have seen payroll processing time cut by as much as 90%. For an industry where administrative hours directly compete with time spent on client service, that’s a meaningful shift.

See Biometrics in Action

Reading about biometric verification is one thing. Seeing it work is another. TEAM Software recently hosted a webinar, “The Future of the Frontline: Deterring Time Theft with Biometrics and Kiosk” that walked through exactly how this technology is helping security and cleaning companies close the gaps that traditional time tracking leaves open.

Time theft, buddy punching, and inaccurate time data often go unnoticed until they show up in your margins. If you’re not sure what they’re costing your organization, this is worth 30 minutes of your time.

Watch the webinar now and see how biometrics can help protect your margins, strengthen compliance, and give your frontline the modern tools they deserve.

Stephanie is a product manager at TEAM Software by WorkWave with over a decade of experience shipping complex software. She leads WinTeam Mobile, helping security and janitorial companies turn chaotic field workflows into reliable systems, including the biometric timekeeping tools built to help them protect their margins.

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Aley Moyer

THE CALIFORNIAN 2026 Q4 – HOW DATA-DRIVEN DECISION MAKING IMPROVES SECURITY OPERATIONS

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How Data-Driven Decision Making Improves Security Operations

Carissa Gappa, TEAM Software by WorkWave, CALSAGA Network Partner

The security industry is in the middle of a meaningful shift. Data that used to sit in spreadsheets or get buried in end-of-day reports is now driving real-time decisions in the field — and the operators using it well are seeing the difference in their service quality, their people, and their client relationships.

At TEAM Software by WorkWave, we see this play out most clearly at the supervisor level. Supervisors bridge job site activity and back-office outcomes, juggling compliance, scheduling, payroll, and client expectations across multiple sites. When data works for them, it reduces decision fatigue and frees them to focus on the work that moves the needle. When it doesn’t, they’re stuck reacting to problems good systems could have prevented.

Here’s where data-driven decision making is making the biggest impact.

Proof of Work, Without the Back-and-Forth

One of the most persistent challenges in security operations is verification. Did the right guard show up? Was the post covered on time? Without reliable data, these questions lead to disputes, manual follow-up, and eroded trust.

Industry-specific analytics change that equation. Proof-of-presence tracking, schedule adherence monitoring, and quality checkpoints give supervisors fast, reliable visibility into what happened and when. Verification becomes a quick check rather than an investigation, and clients receive the transparent, documented accountability that builds long-term confidence; an important differentiator in a competitive market.

Staying Ahead of the Unexpected

Something unexpected happens every day in security operations: last-minute call-offs, unplanned shift extensions, special events requiring rapid redeployment. Managing these manually is exhausting and can lead to errors. For example, a supervisor fielding a 5am call-off while covering three other sites has little margin for a slow response.

Data-driven workflows, and increasingly, AI-assisted tools that automate approvals and open-post filling based on availability, qualifications, and proximity, take that burden off supervisors’ plates. The system handles the logistics; the supervisor handles the judgment calls, freeing them to coach guards, communicate with clients, and build relationships that drive retention.

Timekeeping That Actually Ties Out

Timekeeping reconciliation is a constant source of friction with missed punches, overtime variances, rejected entries, and scheduling discrepancies that slow everything down. The consequences are real: payroll errors damage trust with guards, and invoicing delays strain client relationships and cash flow.

Analytics that surface discrepancies in real time change the dynamic. Instead of discovering a problem at the end of the pay period, supervisors can address missed punches and variances as they happen. The result is cleaner payroll, faster invoicing, and a back office that isn’t playing catch-up with the field.

What This Means for Client Relationships

A security partner that can prove coverage, respond to unexpected changes without disruption, and invoice accurately and on time is a fundamentally different kind of vendor than one that can’t. The right data changes the story you can tell clients about the value you deliver.

In an industry where contracts are won and lost on trust, the ability to back up performance with clear documentation is a genuine competitive advantage. Clients who can see proof of work and trust that billing reflects reality are far more likely to renew and expand the relationship.

The Bigger Picture

Supervisors juggle some of the hardest jobs in security. When data proves work was done, handles the unexpected, and keeps timekeeping clean, they spend less time firefighting and more time leading — making the entire operation more resilient, professional, and valuable to the clients it serves.

The companies that embrace this shift earliest will have a meaningful edge in a market where accountability and transparency are no longer optional — they’re expected.

See how TEAM Software helps security companies manage their workforce with better data ?

Carissa Gappa, Senior Product Manager at TEAM Software by WorkWave. Carissa has spent the last two decades championing customer needs, analyzing cross-industry data trends, and bringing together people, process and technology to solve real industry problems.

 

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Aley Moyer

THE CALIFORNIAN 2026 Q4 – AI WON’T REPLACE YOUR OFFICERS. BUT IT CAN BOLSTER YOUR BACK OFFICE.

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AI Won’t Replace Your Officers. But It Can Bolster Your Back Office.

Jordan Wallach, Belfry, CALSAGA Network Partner

What five years of building software for security guard companies has taught us about where artificial intelligence actually helps, and where it doesn’t.

Every operator I talk to, whether they run 40 officers or 4,000, eventually gets to the same math problem. You win a new contract, and the field grows. Uniforms, training, scheduling, another site to keep covered. But you can’t grow the back office at the same rate; the margins in this business don’t allow for it. So the same three or four people who were managing 60 officers are now managing 90, then 120, often with no more hours in the day and no real increase in headcount. Eight, ten, sometimes more officers for every person handling scheduling, timekeeping, payroll, and billing behind them.

That imbalance isn’t new. It’s the defining constraint of this industry, and it’s the reason so many owners I meet are, frankly, exhausted by the parts of the job that have nothing to do with why they got into it. They didn’t start a security company to spend their evenings reconciling time sheets. They started it to protect people and property, and to build something their officers and their clients could count on.

For a long time, technology didn’t help much with that. Most of the software this industry inherited was never built for it. It was adapted from field service, adapted from general workforce management, stitched together from three or four disconnected tools that didn’t talk to each other. Scheduling in one place, payroll in another, a spreadsheet somewhere holding the whole thing together. I’ve sat in enough back offices to know that “the system” often meant three systems and a lot of manual re-entry in between. In California specifically, where licensing renewals, meal-and-rest-break compliance, and multi-agency reporting add real weight on top of everything else, that gap has always been more costly than it looks from the outside.

So when the industry started hearing “AI” everywhere over the last couple of years, I understood the skepticism. Most of what gets called AI in business software today is vague… a chatbot bolted onto a dashboard, a feature nobody asked for, a headline with very little underneath it. And in an industry built on accountability, where a client’s first question after any incident is “who was responsible for this, and can you prove it,” handing anything to a black box was never going to sit well. It shouldn’t.

The question worth asking isn’t whether a piece of software uses AI. It’s much narrower than that: does it take work off a specific person’s desk, does it operate under rules that person controls, and can they see exactly what it did and why. Framed that way, AI stops being a headline and starts being a tool. One that either earns its place in a back office or doesn’t.

We’ve spent the last year building toward that narrower bar with Belle, the AI teammate inside our own platform. One version of Belle watches shifts in real time and reaches out to officers on the exceptions that used to sit on a dispatcher’s desk all day: a missed clock-in, a post that’s gone quiet, a shift nobody’s confirmed. It operates under rules operators set themselves, and it escalates the moment something needs a human decision. It doesn’t get to decide what “resolved” means… the operator does. A second version answers plain-language questions about a firm’s own operational data, so a question that used to mean a report request now takes seconds.

The clearest proof point we have is a customer, not a claim. Jason Fellows built LincRo Security Solutions in Minneapolis past 120 officers without ever hiring a dedicated dispatcher. Belle has responded to 2,719 missed clock-ins on his account, and roughly 86 percent of those ended with the officer back on the clock without anyone picking up a phone. As Jason put it to us: “We can rest easy knowing Belle is watching the schedule for us. We let her do her thing, and if she escalates something to me or my team, that’s when we step in and start making calls. Until then, we know she has it covered.” That’s not a headcount reduction. That’s a firm that grew without needing to build a function it couldn’t afford, and a team that gets to spend its attention on the handful of things each day that actually need a person’s judgment.

I’d offer California operators evaluating any AI claim from any vendor, ours included, a short list of questions worth asking before you believe it:

Is it actually built on your industry’s data? Consider: shifts, posts, billable hours… or is it a generic layer dropped on top of software that wasn’t designed for how you operate?

Does it work under rules you set, with a clear, visible handoff when something needs a human, or is it a black box you’re asked to trust on faith?

Will the vendor show you real usage numbers from a real customer, not a projected outcome?

And does the pricing reflect the work it’s actually doing for you, rather than a flat tax on the size of your team?

None of this is really about AI. It’s about the same thing this industry has always needed from its technology: tools built specifically for how security firms operate, that give owners and operations managers back the hours they didn’t get into this business to spend on paperwork. That was true when we started Belfry five years ago, built entirely around this industry after months spent listening to owners, operations managers, supervisors, and officers about what was actually getting in their way. It’s still the mission behind everything we build now: automate the busywork, never the judgment calls that actually need a person.

Jordan Wallach is co-founder and CEO of Belfry Software, an all-in-one operating platform built for security guard services companies. He can be reached at [email protected].

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Aley Moyer

THE CALIFORNIAN 2026 Q3 – OVERCOMING OPERATIONAL INEFFICIENCIES IN SECURITY ACQUISITIONS

Overcoming Operational Inefficiencies in Security Acquisitions

David Libesman, TEAM Software by WorkWave, CALSAGA Network Partner

Imagine you have just acquired a mid-sized security firm. On paper, the numbers look solid. But as you integrate operations, you find the same persistent inefficiencies: guards clocking in late without prior notification, patrols missed due to poor scheduling, and overtime costs eroding your margins.

In the competitive security sector, these inefficiencies are silent profit killers. As you consolidate businesses and scale operations, what begin as small operational gaps can quickly become systemic issues. The solution lies in shifting to a model of Precision Service—and Decision Intelligence (DI) is what makes that shift possible. You can move from reactive chaos to predictive precision, ensuring every operational decision supports scalable, sustainable growth.

What Is Precision Service?

Precision Service is the operational standard every security firm should be working toward. It means delivering exactly what the client needs, exactly when they need it, with the most efficient use of available resources.

Client expectations have evolved. Where “good service” once meant a guard showed up for their shift, today’s clients demand transparency, agility, and data-driven accountability. Precision Service transforms your model from a static checklist into a dynamic, intelligent workflow.

For consolidators managing a portfolio of acquired companies, achieving this level of precision is central to unlocking value. It enables you to standardize operational excellence across every site—whether that’s a local bank branch or a large-scale manufacturing facility.

Operational Excellence: The Right Resources at the Right Time

One of the biggest hits to profitability is scheduling mismatches: putting an employee on shifts that quietly build toward overtime, burnout, or a compliance gap you don’t catch until it has already cost you. WinTeam’s Intelligence Hub surfaces these signals as they build, not after the fact.

The Problems Tab flags what matters: manually edited punches, unexcused absences, recent overtime, and double-time shifts. Together, these point to two margin drains most firms don’t see coming: operational fatigue (burnout risk building before someone walks out) and compliance gaps (overtime patterns that put you at risk).

When these signals show up, a branch or regional manager gets what they need to act, adjust the schedule, check in with the employee, or close the gap before it turns into a callout, a walkout, or a violation. For firms running thousands of shifts across multiple sites, catching this early adds up to real, measurable savings.

Actionable Insights: How to Adopt DI Today

Integrating Decision Intelligence into your operations is a strategic evolution—not an overnight overhaul. Here is how to begin:

  • Audit Your Data Integrity: Intelligent decisions depend on reliable data. Ensure field supervisors use mobile tools to capture granular, real-time details—not just that a shift was missed, but why it was missed.
  • Move Beyond Rearview Reporting: Dashboards that only reflect last month’s performance are not enough. Push your operations leaders to surface leading indicators that forecast next week’s overtime exposure or coverage gaps.
  • Start Small, Then Scale: Begin with a focused use case—such as understanding unexcused absence patterns or overtime and double time. Once you have demonstrated measurable ROI, deploy standardized integration playbooks to roll the capability out across your portfolio.
  • Choose Partners, Not Vendors: Work with technology providers who have genuine expertise in the security industry. You need platforms built to handle the complex variables of security operations—delivering site-level insights and enabling automated, compliant decisions at scale.

The Competitive Edge

Acquiring businesses is one thing. Running them efficiently at scale is where long-term value is created—and where the most successful operators set themselves apart.

By adopting Decision Intelligence, you are not simply adding software to your stack. You are building an operational foundation that powers smarter scheduling, stronger compliance, and more reliable service delivery across every site in your portfolio. When you can consistently promise—and deliver—faster and more transparent service than the competition, your operations become a true engine for growth.

Are you ready to make the shift?

David Libesman is a visionary SaaS executive with an entrepreneurial spirit and track record of developing, monetizing and growing data analytics & AI product strategy and business. David is well-versed in driving strong sales through enterprise channels, as well as building, developing and retaining high-performing teams. He aims to bring best of breed AI and analytic capabilities to boost growth and profits for TEAM Software customers through data-driven strategies.

 

 

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Aley Moyer

THE CALIFORNIAN 2026 Q3 – THE HIDDEN COST OF BUDDY PUNCHING IN SECURITY — AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT

The Hidden Cost of Buddy Punching in Security — and What to Do About It

Stephanie Petersen, TEAM Software by WorkWave, CALSAGA Network Partner

In the security industry, labor is your largest cost and your most critical asset. You’re billing clients based on hours worked, staffing sites around the clock and managing a workforce spread across dozens of locations, often with minimal on-site supervision. That operational reality creates a specific vulnerability: time theft.

Buddy punching — when one employee clocks in or out on behalf of a colleague who isn’t present — is one of the most common and least visible forms of time theft in the security sector. A guard running late asks a coworker to punch in. A shift ends early and someone returns the favor. No single incident looks significant. But across a large, distributed workforce, the cumulative impact is substantial.

Studies consistently show that time theft affects 2–5% of total annual payroll. For a security company with $1,000,000 in payroll, that’s $20,000 to $50,000 disappearing every year.

Why Security Companies Are Especially Vulnerable

The structure of the security industry makes this problem harder to solve than it sounds. Your officers work where your clients are, not where you are. Supervision is limited by design. Shift changes happen at all hours, often in locations where installing dedicated verification hardware isn’t practical or permitted.

Traditional time tracking depends on employee honesty. There’s no moment of identity confirmation, no audit trail and no guaranteed way to know after the fact whether the person who punched in actually worked the shift. For an industry where verified presence is literally the product you’re selling to clients, that gap carries real liability.

What a Best-in-Class Biometrics Solution Looks Like

The right biometrics platform doesn’t require expensive hardware at every post or a complicated rollout that disrupts operations. Here’s what to look for:

Device flexibility. The strongest solutions run on smartphones and tablets your workforce already carries.

Facial verification with match confidence scoring. One-to-one facial matching compares the person punching in against the employee’s enrolled profile and returns a percentage match confidence. Punches that fall below your configurable threshold are surfaced as exceptions. Together, these features help deter buddy punching and give you a scored, photo-backed audit trail rather than relying on trust alone.

Offline capability. Security officers work in parking structures, remote facilities and buildings where connectivity is unreliable. A biometrics solution that requires a live connection to function isn’t a real solution for this industry. The right platform captures and stores verification data on the device, then syncs automatically when connectivity is restored. No punches lost, no gaps in the audit trail.

Kiosk mode for shift changes. High-volume shift transitions require fast verification across multiple officers at once. Kiosk mode allows a single shared tablet to verify a group quickly from a secure database, keeping shift handoffs moving without sacrificing accountability.

Punch photos as a flexible alternative. For jurisdictions with complex biometrics laws or when employees opt out of facial verification, punch photos provide a meaningful backup — capturing a photo record at every clock-in that documents who was on site and when.

The Business Case Beyond Payroll

For security companies, accurate time tracking is both an internal efficiency issue and a client relationship issue. Contracts are built on verified presence. Audits happen. Disputes arise. A detailed, timestamp-verified record of who worked which shift, at which site, at what time is both a compliance asset and a competitive differentiator when bidding on and retaining contracts.

The security companies that invest in biometric verification are protecting payroll while also building a more defensible, more trustworthy operation.

Biometric verification is now available within WinTeam Mobile. If you’re ready to learn how it can work for your operation, reach out to start the conversation.

Stephanie is a passionate product manager with over a decade of experience shipping complex software. She specializes in owning ERP products for security and janitorial operations, turning chaotic workflows into functional systems designed to perform in the field and deliver measurable impact.

 

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Aley Moyer

THE CALIFORNIAN 2026 Q2 – AI ISN’T YOUR ATTORNEY COURT RULES THAT AI-GENERATED DOCUMENTS & QUERIES ARE NOT PROTECTED BY PRIVILEGE

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AI Isn’t Your Attorney
Court Rules That AI-Generated Documents & Queries Are NOT Protected by Privilege

Jaimee K. Wellerstein, Esq., Bradley + Wellerstein, CALSAGA Legal Advisor

Across the country, AI is becoming an increasingly popular tool for all kinds of issues.  However, it’s ubiquity does not mean that it’s suitable for all purposes, and new court rulings are making it a much riskier proposition in any legal-adjacent matters.

In US v. Heppner, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that documents generated through any public AI platform were not protected by attorney-client privilege or the work product doctrine.  The Court granted access to documents generated with AI by the defendant.

The Defense argued that the AI-generated documents were created before the case and were shared with his attorneys, and that they were generated based on input from his counsel, in an attempt to shield them from production.

The Court ultimately ruled in favor of discovery on several grounds:

  1. The AI Documents were not communications between a client and their counsel, but rather made between the client and a public AI tool. This was compared to “asking a friend for legal advice” in the ruling.
  2. The AI Documents were not confidential because the client shared his prompts with a 3rd party commercial platform which is publicly accessible and whose terms of service explicitly states that it collects data on both prompts and outputs and may disclose it to 3rd
  3. The AI Documents were not created for the purpose of obtaining legal advice from counsel. The AI Terms of Service expressly disclaim the ability of the AI tool to give legal advice.

What This Means for Security Companies

While this case did not arise in the security industry, the impact is directly applicable.  Businesses and employees are relying more and more on AI for the generation of documents and, in some cases, advice.  Anything generated by public AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Grok should be treated as though it is discoverable, even if later discussed with counsel.  That includes requests for dealing with sensitive legal issues, documents generated by them, notes, prompts, and all other data related to use of AI.  Those prompts that ask “How do we document this termination to avoid being sued?” are now potentially subject to discovery.

Lessons Learned for Security Employers

Employers should strongly consider Privacy & Use policies for public AI tools with their employees to ensure that AI is not misused or fed potentially sensitive or confidential information.  This includes review of confidential legal documents.

Employers should expressly discourage the use of public AI tools for anything legal or legal-adjacent to avoid a potential waiver of privilege by providing confidential information to a public tool.

Review the existing privacy policies of any AI tools in use, whether public or private, to determine if the information will remain confidential or can be shared with 3rd parties.  Any tools which share with 3rd parties for any reason should be treated as a risk and not provided any confidential or sensitive information.

Conclusion

Ultimately, employers should remain vigilant about the use of AI in the workplace and emphasize the importance of avoiding a waiver of privilege by feeding sensitive or confidential information into a public tool.  While the development of training and policy language is critical, ongoing diligence about the proper use of AI tools remains the only effective safeguard.

Employers should rely on direct discussion with counsel for any sensitive issues, from contract revision to employee concerns, to ensure any discussion and documentation remains protected by privilege or client confidentiality and should avoid feeding any such queries into public AI tools.

Jaimee K. Wellerstein, Esq. is the co-managing Partner. Representing employers in all aspects of employment law, Ms. Wellerstein collaborates with her clients to develop proactive business and legal strategies to try to avoid workplace conflict and employment disputes. She provides legal advice and counsel to numerous businesses, including conducting individualized training programs for both management and employees.

 

Ms. Wellerstein performs internal audits of her clients’ employment practices to ensure compliance with the rapidly-changing world of employment laws, and guides investigations of employee allegations regarding harassment, discrimination, and employee misconduct. When litigation cannot be avoided, Jaimee K. Wellerstein aggressively defends her clients against employment law claims in the state and federal courts, as well as at administrative hearings, arbitrations, and mediations. Having defended numerous representative and individual lawsuits on behalf of her clients, Ms. Wellerstein is a skilled litigator and negotiator with a broad spectrum of experience upon which to draw.

 

A frequent speaker on numerous topics, including employment law and contract law, Ms. Wellerstein regularly conducts training seminars and programs for managers and employees in all areas of employment practices and policies.

 

 

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Aley Moyer

THE CALIFORNIAN 2026 Q2 – BEYOND SAFETY: DESIGNING FOR EFFICIENCY IN MODERN SECURITY OPERATIONS

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Beyond Safety: Designing for Efficiency in Modern Security Operations

Johann Hauswald, PlixAI, CALSAGA Network Partner

For years, innovation in private security has focused on one priority: frontline safety. That focus isn’t going away, but it’s no longer enough.

The firms pulling ahead today aren’t just asking, “Are our officers safe?”  They’re asking, “Are we operating efficiently at scale?”  Not as a tradeoff, but as a force multiplier.

The Challenge: Capturing What Matters

Officers generate hours of activity every shift, yet much of what happens on-site remains difficult to document consistently. Recording is often manual, reporting is time-consuming, and critical moments can be missed entirely.

This isn’t unique to private security. Research on body-worn cameras in policing shows that while cameras improve transparency and evidence collection, their impact depends heavily on how consistently they are used and how easily footage can be accessed and reviewed.

In practice, many organizations still face:

  • Incomplete or inconsistent incident documentation
  • Time lost reviewing footage or writing reports
  • Limited visibility for clients into what actually happened

A Simple Shift: Automating the Moment of Capture

One of the most practical ways technology is improving both safety and efficiency is by removing the need for manual recording decisions altogether.

For example, body-worn cameras can automatically begin recording when an officer enters a designated site or geofenced area – and stop when they leave.

But the real value isn’t just automation – it’s integration.

  • Scheduling systems (where officers are assigned)
  • Dispatch tools (call-offs, site changes, coverage gaps)
  • Tour and patrol systems (checkpoints, routes, activity logs)

…recording becomes aligned with operations, not just location.

That changes the equation:

  • Coverage becomes consistent across assigned shifts – not just when a button is pressed
  • Every site interaction is tied back to a specific post, time, and officer
  • Supervisors get a complete, auditable record across systems – not fragmented data

Recording Isn’t the Goal – Connected Insight Is

As research has shown, body-worn cameras generate large volumes of unstructured video, creating a new challenge: how to efficiently extract value from it.

The next wave of innovation is about connecting these layers:

  • Footage tied to incident reports automatically
  • Activity linked to specific sites and shifts
  • Searchable history across video, logs, and reports

This shift – from recording to understanding – is where efficiency gains begin to compound.

Efficiency That Supports Safety

Efficiency in this context isn’t about doing more with fewer people at the expense of quality. It’s about enabling teams to:

  • Respond faster
  • Document more accurately
  • Provide clearer, defensible reporting

Studies suggest that body-worn cameras can contribute to incremental improvements in operational efficiency, but the real impact comes from how organizations integrate them into workflows.

And increasingly, that’s what differentiates firms – not just whether something was handled well, but whether it can be proven clearly and quickly.

Looking Ahead

As the industry evolves, the most impactful technologies will be those that quietly remove friction from day-to-day work.

Because in modern security operations, success isn’t just about whether incidents are handled safely – it’s about whether teams can operate consistently, efficiently, and with full visibility into what’s happening on the ground.

Johann Hauswald is the Founder and CEO of Plix AI, a startup developing AI-enabled body cameras and safety analytics software for private security and field-operations industries. Plix is backed by Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), and the founders of Samsara and Verkada.

Johann earned his Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan, where he specialized in AI at the edge and computer vision. Before founding Plix, he was a postdoc at Stanford working on large-scale video analytics and edge inference systems and previously co-founded a venture back AI company building conversational AI systems. His work sits at the intersection of AI, safety, and real-time video intelligence, advancing how organizations detect and respond to incidents in the physical world.

 

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Aley Moyer

THE CALIFORNIAN 2026 Q2 – 2026 SECURITY INDUSTRY LABOR TRENDS: WHAT LEADERS NEED TO KNOW

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2026 Security Industry Labor Trends: What Leaders Need to Know

Jill Davie, TEAM Software by WorkWave, CALSAGA Network Partner

For security leaders, the labor landscape is always shifting. But understanding these shifts goes beyond merely keeping up; it is essential for staying profitable and operational in a high-stakes industry. As we look toward the remainder of 2026 and beyond, the data tells a compelling story.

A Cooling National Market — But Not for Security

The broader U.S. labor market has stabilized considerably. Quit rates are holding low, signaling reduced worker confidence and less market mobility. Despite this cooling, a labor shortage persists — as of late 2025, there were still 7.1 million open jobs against 7.8 million unemployed workers.

Looking further ahead, structural headwinds make this shortage unlikely to resolve on its own. An aging workforce, slowing immigration and a labor participation rate projected to drop from 62.4% in 2025 to 61.4% by 2035 suggest that competition for reliable personnel will remain fierce across all sectors.

The security industry, however, is operating in a league of its own. Our hire rate is 2.1 times the national average — 7.6% versus 3.6% nationally. While that reflects strong service demand, it also signals a constant need to replenish staff. Voluntary separations tell an equally challenging story, with the industry quit rate averaging 3.5% over the last 12 months compared to a national average of just 2%. We are bringing people in; keeping them is the harder battle.

The First 60 Days Are Everything

The data on early turnover is stark. By day 30, 18% of newly activated employees are already gone. By day 60, that number climbs to 26.4%. The good news is that employees who make it past the 45-day mark are significantly more likely to stay long-term — making the early employment experience one of the highest-leverage investments a security firm can make. A structured onboarding process that actively engages new hires from day one through at least day 90 is no longer optional. It is the single most effective tool for stopping the leak.

Wage Pressure Is Real — and Outpacing Inflation

To compete for talent, security firms have had to move pay rates consistently upward. Average hourly wages have climbed from $18.45 in December 2023 to $19.30 in December 2024 to $20.08 by the end of 2025 — a 4.0% increase in the last year alone. Notably, full-time and part-time wages have converged at that same $20.08 mark, reflecting a growing premium on scheduling flexibility.

These increases are outpacing inflation, which means margin compression is a real and growing concern. Regional variation adds another layer of complexity — average wages range from $26.16 in New Hampshire to $11.19 in Puerto Rico. Understanding your specific market benchmarks is essential to staying competitive without overspending.

Technology as a Retention Tool

One of the more encouraging findings in the 2026 data involves the impact of financial wellness technology on retention. A case study of 3,000 employees found that offering Earned Wage Access — which allows employees to draw pay as it is earned rather than waiting for payday — drove a 60% adoption rate and resulted in 16% higher retention among users. Benefits and technology that address the day-to-day financial realities of hourly workers are proving to be powerful differentiators in reducing turnover.

The Road Ahead

The security labor market in 2026 is resilient but under pressure. Demand is high, costs are rising and the easy hiring environment of previous years is behind us. Firms that integrate back-office management with field operations, reduce non-billable overtime, automate compliance and invest in the worker experience from day one will be best positioned to build a workforce that sticks.

The trends are clear: the future belongs to those who value their people and use data to prove it.

Jill Davie started her career at TEAM Software as a summer marketing intern in 1996. At the time, TEAM was a start-up with 12 employees

After earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and Marketing from Iowa State University, Jill joined TEAM full time in 1998 as a Sales Associate. Over the next 20 years, she assumed various leadership roles in Sales, Marketing, Communications, Customer Success and Professional Services as the company grew significantly. Jill also served on TEAM’s Board of Directors from 2014 through 2021 when it was acquired by WorkWave. During her board tenure, TEAM transformed from founder-owned, to employee-owned to private equity owned. They also acquired five companies across the globe, expanding their domestic and international market leadership.

Currently, Jill serves as the SVP & GM, Cleaning & Security responsible for Customer Success Management, Professional Services and Customer Engagement. She is passionate about operational excellence, engaging directly with customers and attracting and retaining top talent with a people-centric culture.

 

 

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Aley Moyer

THE CALIFORNIAN 2026 Q2 – THE PHYSICAL SECURITY INDUSTRY IN 2026: THREE SHIFTS EVERY PROVIDER NEEDS TO KNOW

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The Physical Security Industry in 2026: Three Shifts Every Provider Needs to Know

Carissa Gappa, TEAM Software by WorkWave, CALSAGA Network Partners

The physical security industry in 2026 stands at a critical juncture. Compliance mandates, technological advancement and evolving client expectations are converging in ways that will separate the providers who thrive from those who fall behind. Success will no longer hinge on deploying more guards or installing additional cameras. It will hinge on smarter, integrated operations that deliver measurable value in real time.

Tech-Enabled Guarding Is Now the Baseline

The traditional “guard with a clipboard” model is giving way to “guard with a tech stack.” Large providers are bundling AI cameras, remote monitoring and mobile workflows to meet heightened client demands — and to outpace smaller competitors who lack the capital for such investments.

Clients increasingly expect digital proof of service rather than paper logs. They want GPS-verified guard tours, incident reports with photo evidence and real-time alerts when something goes wrong. When a client asks what happened at a specific site at 2 AM last Tuesday, they expect a complete answer in seconds — guard activity, access control events, camera footage and incident response unified into one cohesive record.

Platforms that connect back-office operations to field activity are making this possible, giving providers the operational efficiency their business demands while delivering the transparency clients now expect as standard.

California Is Setting the Compliance Bar — and Others Will Follow

Starting in 2026, California Privacy Protection Agency rules require risk assessments for automated decision-making tools and opt-outs for biometrics. By 2027, cybersecurity audits kick in for firms exceeding $100 million in revenue.

For security providers operating in California, privacy-by-design is no longer optional. Consent tracking, purpose tags and audit-ready reporting need to be built into your systems now — not retrofitted later. If you are using AI for scheduling optimization or facial recognition for guard verification, you need documented consent, clear purpose statements and the ability to produce audit trails on demand.

More importantly, this is not just a California problem. According to the International Association for Privacy Professionals, comprehensive privacy laws are under consideration in more than 20 states. What California implements today, other states adopt tomorrow. The firms building compliance infrastructure now will have a decisive advantage when that happens.

Clients Want Real-Time Proof, Not Monthly Reports

Benchmark data shows nearly 90% of security professionals want to accelerate incident response, but most still rely on traditional written reports and manual summaries. This creates a critical visibility gap: 28% of security leaders feel “behind the curve” against new threats, and 23% of professionals admit they lack the time to focus on the high-impact incidents clients care about most.

That model is losing contracts. Enterprise clients no longer wait for monthly reports; they want to log into a portal and see live data, documented evidence, and response times instantly. This shift transforms you from a service provider into a technology partner providing continuous visibility.

The firms winning contracts today offer live SLA dashboards and automated incident timelines. If producing a report requires three people and two days, you simply cannot scale.

What’s Driving These Changes

Four forces are pushing the industry toward integrated platforms: AI and automation, stricter regulation, labor shortages and private equity pressure. AI is already handling automatic scheduling, real-time resource allocation and predictive dispatch — reducing the burden on operations teams while improving service consistency. Labor challenges are not going away, with 42% of providers citing turnover as their number one problem. And PE-backed firms are raising the bar on operational KPIs and technology infrastructure, forcing everyone in the market to keep pace.

The gap between tech-enabled providers and everyone else will widen. Technology integration, regulatory compliance and client transparency are no longer competitive advantages. In 2026, they are the baseline requirements for survival.

Carissa Gappa, Senior Product Manager at TEAM Software by WorkWave. Carissa has spent the last two decades championing customer needs, analyzing cross-industry data trends, and bringing together people, process and technology to solve real industry problems.

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Aley Moyer

THE CALIFORNIAN 2026 Q1 – WHY POST ORDERS MATTER MORE THAN YOU THINK

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Why Post Orders Matter More Than You Think

Courtney Sparkman, OfficerApps, CALSAGA Associate Member

Most security problems do not begin with bad intentions. They begin with unclear direction from managers and supervisors.

In the security industry, post orders are often treated as a formality. Something written once, handed to an officer, and rarely revisited unless something goes wrong. Yet, post orders quietly define how a security officer’s authority is exercised, how judgment is applied, and how a security company presents itself to the clients it is supposed to protect.

A story from hospital security shows exactly what happens when post orders exist without a process behind them.

When Following Post Orders Becomes the Problem

A security officer working armed security at a large hospital was assigned to the main entrance. This was a busy trauma center in a rou\gh part of town where real security issues were constant and ongoing. There were mental health patients fighting in the ER. Strange people wandering into restricted areas. Vulnerable patients getting lost. All situations that required a security officer with presence, discretion, and sound judgment.

Then a new instruction came down. The officer was told to post up at the main entrance to keep hospital staff out. Not because of a threat or an operational risk, but because someone in middle management decided employees should use a different door to keep the entrance clear for patients and guests.

Doctors, nurses, facilities staff, and janitorial teams were redirected. Anyone who refused would have their name recorded for reprimand. The instruction made little sense to the officer because it pulled attention away from real risks and replaced it with administrative enforcement that added no security value. But the post orders were clear enough. This was now his post.

When Post Orders Collide With Reality

One day, a man in a suit approached the entrance leading a group of well-dressed executives. All wore employee badges. The man at the front, from his stature, was clearly important.

Following his post orders, the officer stopped the group and redirected them to the West entrance. When the man insisted on using the main entrance, the officer calmly explained the policy and informed him that names would be taken and supervisors notified. So he did exactly that. Every name. Slowly. Carefully.

When the security supervisor reviewed the list, one name stood out immediately. It was the name of the Chief Executive Officer.

The well-dressed man that the security officer stopped was the CEO of the entire health system who was escorting potential investors around the hospital. The CEO had never been informed of the policy change.

As you can guess, the policy was quietly reversed, and staff were once again allowed to use the main entrance.

Common sense eventually won. But only after wasted time, unnecessary friction, and reputational risk.

What This Story Is Really About

This is not a story about a bad officer. He did exactly what he was told. It is not even a story about a bad policy; poor policies exist in every organization. What it is, is a story about post orders created without a process.

Post orders do more than tell officers what to do. They determine whether officers are empowered to apply judgment or forced to enforce instructions that were never tested against reality. When post orders are written without a full understanding of the environment, officers are left choosing between common sense and compliance.

In this case, compliance exposed the weakness in the system.

Why Post Orders Require Discipline, Not Just Documentation

Effective post orders do not begin with the purpose of accomplishing some goal.

Every instruction in the post order should tie back to a clear security or operational objective. If an order cannot be explained in terms of risk reduction, safety, or operational control, it does not belong in the post orders. Administrative convenience and internal politics should never be enforced by front line security…although it happens more than enough.

Post orders also require validation before deployment. Any instruction that affects access, movement, or behavior within a facility must be reviewed with the stakeholders that ultimately owns the space. In the hospital example, the CEO was unaware of a policy that directly affected how his organization operated. That gap alone guaranteed failure.

Officers must also be part of the process. Experienced officers know immediately when an instruction will create distraction, conflict, or confusion. When there is no mechanism for that feedback to move upward, flawed post orders survive longer than they should.

Finally, post orders must be treated as living documents. Even well-intentioned instructions can deteriorate over time. This usually happens when client expectations change, threat profiles evolve, or most commonly when leadership turns over. Rules that once made sense quietly become liabilities when not revisited.

By scheduling regular reviews of your post orders, security organizations can address any necessary questions before embarrassment or incidents happen. Without regular reviews officers may bend a rule to do their job when the rule is the problem.

The Real Value of Getting Post Orders Right

When a disciplined process exists, post orders support and officer’s judgment instead of replacing it. As a result officers are not forced into robotic enforcement which leads to supervisors spending less time managing fallout and ensuring client satisfaction.

Post orders are not just miscellaneous paperwork, they are operational intent made visible. When they are wrong, everyone feels it. Sometimes at the front door, in front of investors, with a CEO holding his badge in the air.

Either way, the lesson is the same, post orders matter.

Courtney W. Sparkman is the founder and CEO of OfficerApps, the umbrella technology platform behind OfficerReports, OfficerHR, and OfficerBilling, a suite of purpose built tools designed exclusively for security guard companies. With more than two decades of hands on experience in security operations, sales, and executive leadership, Courtney brings deep industry knowledge paired with a practical, operator first approach to technology and growth.

Prior to founding OfficerApps, Courtney held senior leadership roles across the security industry. He had most recently served as Director of Business Development for Diamond Detective Services, where he led national growth initiatives, pursued public and private sector opportunities, and consistently won competitive bids through strategic prospecting, client presentations, and proposal driven sales.

Earlier in his career, Courtney served as Vice President of Operations and Sales at Cequr Security, a security guard company he co-founded with his father. During his seven-year tenure, he was directly responsible for client acquisition and retention, developing training standards, and implementing quality assurance initiatives. The operational challenges and lessons from that experience directly inspired the creation of the OfficerApps platform.

In addition to leading OfficerApps, Courtney is the publisher of Security Guard Services Magazine. The only magazine dedicated to the security guard services industry where he covers industry leadership, technology, and the future of manned guarding. He is also a speaker and author, frequently sharing insights on how security companies can modernize operations, scale profitably, and remain competitive in a rapidly evolving marketplace.

Courtney previously held a private security contractor license in the state of Illinois, earned through a rigorous background check and licensing examination. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and is currently a candidate for a Master of Science in Emergency Management from the University of Chicago.

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