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A lifetime member of
ASSIST
HERB KELPIN
I was asked to write an article giving my prospective on the industry and how it has progressed since the beginning of ASSIST. A lot has already been written but let me say that the foundation was laid by Hal Monk, Vernon Gilbert, Cliff Bailey, David Pelham, J.P. Jones, Bob Hickman, Don Marsh, Howard Vaughn, Buddy Hanson and a lot of these guy’s wives. They should all be proud of the accomplishments ASSIST has made over the past 42 years. I know I missed some names and if you are not deceased, no longer in the business like me or still around, I am sorry. The professionals I mentioned started the ball rolling with an association called ISAT (Investigators and Security Association of Texas).
ISAT accomplished passing 4429bb that created the state board in 1967. The bill was nine pages long. The first executive director (Mrs. Cowan) had a one-room office and worked three days a week. My first meeting was in the fall of 1969. It was the meeting when the name of the association was changed to ASSIST. A few months later the chairman of the legislative committee, Bob Hickman, asked me if I would co-chair and I agreed. Bob Hickman is the most unsung hero of ASSIST. He deserves a lot more recognition then he has received. Bob lost most of his business because of the time he spent with ASSIST. He had to drop out and that left me with being chairman of the legislative committee.
The cities found new tax revenue by requiring security companies and their employees to obtain a city license. There were 28 municipalities in Harris County and all were jumping on the licensing bandwagon. We were given citations just for driving through from one city to the next even if we didn’t have business in that city.
In 1971 we accomplished passing legislation that stated that if a company had a state license that would supercede the cities and they could no longer require a license. In 1973, we were able to get a bill passed in the house and the senate that allowed the state board to issue handgun commissions to security officers. However, when it reached the governor’s desk, it was vetoed from pressure he received from Committee of National Security Companies (CONSCO).
In 1975, we were able to bring CONSCO on board and got the bill passed and signed. The gun bill brought hundreds of companies out of the woodwork to get licensed so their employees could be licensed to carry a handgun. That helped the state get rid of a lot of unscrupulous companies. I was honored to receive the first commission (000001) issued by the board Nov. 6, 1975.
We held legislative committee meetings in various locations, one with three boats tied together in the middle of Inks Lake. The Inks Lake meeting was the one where Don Marsh got in trouble with parks and wildlife for buzzing the lake in his airplane (about 100 feet) to let us know he was on his way and to not start the meeting without him. We held quarterly conventions every year throughout the state; Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Harlingen, Corpus Christi and El Paso. They were attended by the governors, lieutenant governors, senators (state and U.S.), chiefs of police, attorney generals, various legislators and of course all the members of the state board.
In the 1970s and 1980s, we probably like today, spent more time fighting legislation that would hurt us. One memorable meeting with the legislature was one where the police did not want security to wear uniforms that resembled theirs. That was understandable but there had to be another solution because there were hundreds of police, sheriff and constables in Texas. We held up a pink and white pokey dotted shirt with security patches and said, “This is all we got left.” That got a big laugh from the committee and they agreed to kill the bill.
We were able to get rid of the problem of small-town constables that had from three to hundred reserves just so they could work security jobs in the city, taking not only business from security companies, but also legal extra jobs from regular police officers. We were never against police working extra jobs, but only if they were working, not having an employee/employer relationship and being in the employment of another police officer. We were able to pass legislation correcting that problem.
Respect between the police and security has changed for the better largely in part by the LEAPS program and ASSIST. Keith Oakley has played a big part in bringing the two sides together.
When I started my company in 1966, I paid my officers $1.65 an hour. I always called them “security officers” because minimum wage was $1.40 and the ones being paid that were known as “night watchmen.” The only jobs we could get were construction sites, apartments and maybe a few office buildings. There were no educational requirements and we would interview them in the morning and have them in uniform and on the job that night with no training or background checks.
Have things changed? In my next-to-last job, I was contracted to the U.S. Navy Submarine Base in Groton, Conn., to interview, hire and oversee the training of 150 security officers to protect the entrances and harbor. All applicants had two years plus of college (many had degrees, and were ex-military or police). The hiring process took a week to 10 days and the training took a month. The pay was in the $20 range. This is a far cry from construction sites, apartments and a $1.65 a pay rate.
I had always promised my wife Inez, that when I retired, I would take her to Hawaii. After leaving Connecticut, I was sent to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii for three months. Inez came along and we even had the grandkids fly over. I will never be able to top that experience ... so I am now retired and honored to be a life member of ASSIST.
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