| SRS security contractor doesn't fear overhaul
talk AIKEN - For nearly 21 years, private contractor Wackenhut Services Inc. has provided security for Savannah River Site, but a speech made last week by Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham raised questions about what role the company will have with the Department of Energy in the future. While outlining a sweeping plan to upgrade security at the nation's most sensitive installations, Mr. Abraham raised the possibility of federalizing some or all of the department's security forces. He also mentioned the prospect of creating an elite unit similar to the military's special forces to guard high-priority facilities. Those options could push out Wackenhut, which employs 885 people at SRS, including 691 guards. However, other options mentioned by Mr. Abraham could create opportunities for both Wackenhut and its competitors. Those include the creation of one all-encompassing security contract for DOE facilities and reducing the number of sites that require high-level protection. He also called for an increased number of highly trained security personnel to meet the increased threat of terrorism. All are part of an ambitious $110 million program to revamp physical and cyber-security measures at the Department of Energy. However, there is no firm timetable for making a choice from these options, said department spokesman Joe Davis, who said the department is "working on all these issues now." Reached by telephone last week at the company's headquarters in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., Wackenhut Corp. President James Long expressed optimism. "I see tremendous opportunity in what the secretary's speech laid out," Mr. Long said, citing Mr. Abraham's ideas of creating all-encompassing contracts for security and reducing the number of high-security facilities. "There are many things that are going to be good for the private security industry, and not many things that are not going to be good for the private security industry." A federal force is not the answer for improving security at DOE laboratories and nuclear weapons sites, Mr. Long said. Retaining workers who are often responsible for performing mundane, repetitive tasks such as processing people and material through checkpoints requires flexibility and innovations only private companies can provide, he said. "Private industry can much better respond to the motivational needs necessary to do the kind of work that needs to be done to protect these facilities," Mr. Long said. That's why the government moved away from using federal security forces at its energy facilities several decades ago, he said. "In the end, I believe they will see that moving back to federalization doesn't make any sense for those very reasons," Mr. Long said. In the face of this uncertainty, Wackenhut, which also guards DOE facilities in Nevada, Tennessee and Washington, D.C., will position itself "the same way we have for the last 40 years," adapting and changing as new challenges arise, Mr. Long said. Locally, Wackenhut has much to rest its hat on, having swept the recent Security Police Officers Training Competition, where it bested elite military units and security forces from across the country, SRS Wackenhut spokesman Rob Davis noted. "I think we have validated our training program and demonstrated we have a highly trained and effective force at the site," Mr. Davis said. And while some unnamed DOE facilities have reportedly flunked "force on force" exercises meant to test security, SRS is not among them, Mr. Davis said. "The actual reports are classified, but I can tell you that we have done very well," he said. "I can assure you that has not been an issue here." Neither has turnover. While Mr. Abraham mentioned new initiatives aimed at retaining security workers, SRS Wackenhut saw an employee turnover rate of just 1.9 percent last year, far below the national attrition average of 17.5 percent for all companies its size, Mr. Davis said. Mr. Long said there are certain law enforcement roles that should be handled only by the government, and others where privatization makes more sense. "It would be absurd to privatize the Federal Bureau of Investigation or drug enforcement operations, but I also believe it makes no sense to do the things on the mundane end of that continuum with federal employees," he said. Reach Stephen Gurr at (803) 648-1395, ext.110, or stephen.gurr@augustachronicle.com.
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