Changes at SRS could affect Wackenhut

AIKEN, S.C. - The head of the company that protects the former nuclear weapons plant along the Savannah River says he thinks private companies will continue to provide security at sensitive federal sites.

Wackenhut Corp. President James Long expressed optimism about the future of his company and others following a speech last week by Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham at the Savannah River Site near Aiken.

Abraham listed several options for Wackenhut and SRS security as part of $110 million program to revamp physical and cyber-security measures at the Department of Energy.

Among the options is creation of a federal security force for some of the agency's most sensitive sites.

That could push out Wackenhut, which employs 885 people at SRS, including 691 guards.

Other options, however, could mean more opportunities for private security firms. Those include the creation of one all-encompassing security contract for Energy Department facilities and reducing the number of sites that require high-level protection.

"I see tremendous opportunity in what the secretary's speech laid out," Long said of the idea of 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."

Wackenhut also guards Energy Department facilities in Nevada, Tennessee and Washington, D.C. Long said he doesn't think a federal force would be right for performing many of the mundane tasks of processing people and material through checkpoints.

Long said it is hard to keep well trained workers in those positions when the federal government operates the security force.

"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," Long said.

Wackenhut has a history of keeping its workers, SRS Wackenhut spokesman Rob Davis said.

While Abraham mentioned new initiatives aimed at retaining security workers, SRS Wackenhut had a turnover rate of just 1.9 percent last year, far below the national attrition average of 17.5 percent for all companies its size, Davis said.

"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.

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Information from: The Augusta Chronicle, http://www.augustachronicle.com/