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[LSNN] Talking Gruppe 6


Ribsey

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Credit: Nikki Kalawai Facebrowser page.

 

Talking Gruppe 6

Emilia Russo

 

Following a discussion with IRONGATE Solutions' Director Adriaan Pretoria, LSNN spoke with the Chief Executive Officer of Gruppe 6 Corporate Security. 

 

Gruppe 6 have the distinction of being the state's most perceivable security company. Whether it's their headquarters on Elgin Avenue in Strawberry, the common sight of their liveried vehicles or their forest green uniforms on patrol. However they are also notable for their detractors who tend to label them as militants who overstep their duties. For an inside perspective of the situation, LSNN invited Hawaiian born Nikki Kalawai to its offices for a discussion and insight into the company.

 

On a fundamental level Nikki claims that the company is in "the best state it's been the last few months" and their contracts are growing daily. She claims this is from an increasing advertising campaign, making them more "easily reachable than ever before, people have understood that there's one trusted company out there that they can work time". 

 

A sentiment that appears to have grown exponentially among the LS population is that Gruppe 6 in particular are mall cops and/or failed police/military applicants that are not to be trusted. 


"Our protection officers are trained to not give in to such provocations. Additionally, having the will to become a police officer is not a bad thing, this stimulates people more to dig into the field work. We're always happy when our employees resign and join the police department.  Their will to become a police officer is a positive side to the whole work aspect. It means they are interested in what they do, and do it with pleasure. We're trying to avoid hiring people who are just here for the pay. Of course we recruit enough supervisors to make sure the whole 'into the work' aspect doesn't get out of hand. It has happened before, and it will keep happening. We're doing our best to keep it to a minimum, it's just one of the things that happen in the security field."

 

Leaning further into this point, Nikki shared Gruppe 6's need for a large amount of protection officers to maintain their 24/7 availability across 50 clients, ranging from the city government, auto shops, trucking yards, residential homes and businesses such as the Busch Corporation and CBet. At the time of our meeting the company had 38 officers in its employ. These are overseen by a patrol operations director, sales managers, firearms instructor and recruitment staff. Gruppe 6 maintains a simple hierarchy, something Nikki implies as essential when quizzed on the comments made by Adrian Pretoria:

 

"We all have to agree that a security company with 5 people will have more control in them. They're mainly people who know each other on a personal level. , their control between each other is much easier. We employ a lot of people, our recruitment team is working heavily on the recruitment aspect. Having 30-40 people in your lists is not an easy thing to maintain.


Consider filtering out bad candidates, then supervising them to make sure they're doing their job right, combined with training them as well it's not an easy task."

 

Pressing her on Adriaan's view of the sector's current status, she said:

 

"The easiest thing to do in the security field is to step into the shoes of a fallen company. Gruppe 6 could've taken over the Executive Security spots within a day. We didn't.

While we did gain a few venues, we never directly aimed at it. Gruppe 6 has never aimed at competing in the night club venues. Gruppe 6 aims at offering a reliable, trusted, affordable service for the normal person, for their home, or business. This is why we have never considered Executive Security as a 'competitor'. Their patroling aspect has proven a failure and they scrapped it, focusing only on their venues. With that said, statistically, yes, a 5-10 man team is easier to manage and keep a good track of. A 5-10 man team however cannot service even a single of our patrol clients.

 

It's different view points. Gruppe 6 is the only company with equipment that nobody else has."

 

Given their presence, Nikki's follow-up expressed confidence in the future of the company by affirming that "we have about 70% space to grow at the moment". Furthermore Gruppe 6 appear to be prepared for expansion, as Nikki puts "with the equipment we have, we have the space already to accommodate a lot more staff". However Nikki ensures to mention that the company's focus is on balancing quality and quantity due to the need of 24/7 coverage, otherwise this leads to services which are paid despite not being fulfilled, taxing the company's reputation in the long-term and leading to failure. 

 

"We try not to recruit everyone who pops up at our station."

 

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Gruppe 6's new livery on display at their headquarters at 250 Elgin Avenue in Strawberry.

 

Digging further into unfavorable topics, Nikki was pressed on the arrest of then-CEO Richard Hampton at the start of 2020. Through a Freedom of Information request his charges were revealed to be Fraud, Forgery, Tampering with Evidence and Obstruction of Public Duty. She had this to say:

 

"I cannot speak much about this because I have not been in the position I am at right now. Barry Bogan has bought out the shares together with the at-the-time called Diamond Corporation. Gruppe 6 has had a dark two months at that time, in which I was already holding a director position in the company.  The leadership was not doing well enough and showed lack of interest. This has caused them to step down, at which time I have bought out all shares from both parties and acquired 100 percent share ownership. About the Richard Hampton case, I'm not familiar too much. All I know is that it's related to a FD event. And about an employee of G6 being arrested for carrying a firearm there.

 

The charges were later dropped by a judge."

 

Worth nothing here that while heading SecuroServ at the time Nikki later bought the company from its previous owners, The Diamond Corporation.

 

Of the accusation that Gruppe 6 knowingly works with businesses that express racist or anti-Semitic, Nikki expresses "we're in the security field we end up kicking people out off properties, detaining criminals until the police arrival and so on." According to her, the company serves a variety of people and enforces a strict zero tolerance on racist sentiment. The Patrol Operations Director, Galen Hawkins, a former warden of a state prison, handles any complaints against field employees. Nikki claims that his professionalism and experience is ideal for his position and together with herself, they decide on how to proceed with each complaint. Their standard approach is to only act upon accusations once they have been proven, otherwise a verbal warning may be issued to the accused security officer.

 

To minimize issues among the company's ranks Gruppe 6's recruitment has a policy in which it abstains hiring those with any criminal charges on their record, especially those that would prohibit them from obtaining a weapons license as outlined in Section II of the LSPD's PF License Usage Regulations. They also conduct regular background checks on all employees to ensure their records "are not compromised without us knowing". While Gruppe 6 has (and continues) to hire employees without a current weapon license, they are all subject to the same policy.

 

With all this being said, does Nikki see any challenges in the future for Gruppe 6 and its future? 

 

"Gruppe 6 continues as is. We continue at increasing our staff and our clients. Our clients directly dictate the officers' pay - the more clients, the higher pay. We are absolutely self-funded. This also motivates officers to keep their performance at best. We do not see any challenges at the moment. The market is all clear for us without any competition in our field.

 

The future is as open as a field."

 

 

 

Further Reading:
View into the Security Sector

 

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Edited by Ribsey
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