How To Expand The Department

Dec 1, 2002 12:00 PM, By DARRELL WILSON

In 1998, Truliant Federal Credit Union had a lone security officer as required under the Federal Banking Laws. Yet Truliant soon recognized that with growth came fraud, crime and other potential losses. I was recruited as its security director to form what is now a complete security department. In the past three and a half years, security has come to be measured as to its effectiveness. The security role at Truliant has expanded into one of expertise and effectiveness. Fraud losses have been cut 70 percent, repair costs for security equipment decreased by 300 percent plus, and the security department has job openings for new hires.

Effectiveness has been the key word at Truliant. Security has become a full-scale and functional department serving all departments within the Credit Union. In addition to security director, I also serve as a certified alarm installer, access control installer, and am certified as a Financial Fraud Investigator. Truliant was the first Credit Union to have a FEMA-certified responder in security. Our expansion of security took shape in the form of incident reporting, criminal investigations, monitoring of equipment repair, security training programs and performing the function as the compliance officer. In the next two years, we will provide in-house monitoring of Truliant's facilities and hope to forge a stronger relationship with law enforcement agencies.

Darrell Wilson is security director for Truliant Federal Credit Union, Winston-Salem, N.C.

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