Our investigation found regulators in California and many other states frequently license armed guards who are poorly trained, mentally unstable and prone to violence.
security guards
The problem with turning to armed guards after mass shootings
In the wake of mass shootings, businesses, school districts and towns often turn to armed guards. But armed security guards can introduce a new kind of danger.
After Orlando
This week’s attack on a nightclub in Orlando, Florida, was the largest mass shooting in American history. On this hour of Reveal, we go to Orlando to hear from the LGBT community targeted by this violence.
Orlando shooter Omar Mateen was a licensed security guard
Authorities have identified Omar Mateen, 29, as the gunman who left 49 people dead at a popular gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
Efforts to regulate security guards finding little traction
About 90 security guard-related bills have introduced in state legislatures, but none of the bills that would have created substantial changes were enacted.
Man shot after urinating on wall sues security guard and his firm
A man hospitalized after being shot by a Sacramento, California, security guard outside a convenience store now is suing the guard and his prior employer, claiming the guard used excessive force.
Former armed guard charged with murder says evidence was fabricated
Former armed security guard Lukace Kendle, who previously was found incompetent to stand trial, got a judge’s approval to represent himself against murder and attempted murder charges in the 2012 shooting of two unarmed black men in a Miami strip club parking lot.
When bad cops become bad security guards
Reveal discovered armed guards with histories of civil rights violations, excessive force and corruption that did not trail them from their former lives as police, sheriff’s deputies and corrections officers.
California security firms stay in business after licenses are revoked
Dozens of California security companies have continued operating after regulators discovered abuses of power or evidence of mismanagement or fraud, according to a Reveal investigation. The state’s lax oversight and enforcement of the guard industry will be discussed at a hearing today in Sacramento.
California lawmakers to hold hearing on armed security guard industry
A newly released report, which confirmed many of the findings of Reveal/CNN’s Hired Guns investigation of the armed security guard industry, will be the topic of a hearing Wednesday in the state’s Capitol.