Security Honor Roll

Sep 1, 1998 12:00 PM, KATE HENRY

           

Leonard Carson, CPP, has a unique perspective on the symbiosis between man and machine. In his distinguished 27-year Air Force career, Carson served the U.S. first as a pilot of B-52s and of helicopters during the Vietnam War, then as a security police chief at two large Air Force bases. Adept at both roles, his desire to work with people won out when he made the transition from flying to security police, and again when he entered private security after retiring from the armed services. "Flying is kind of antiseptic compared to working with people," he says. "You're working exclusively with a machine." Since retiring from the Air Force as director of operations for all the Pacific Air Forces security police, Carson has applied his technological prowess and people skills to the security operation he runs for Direct TV customer service provider Matrixx Marketing, South Jordan, Utah. By perpetually reassessing the company's needs, Carson has customized the security operation at Matrixx, improving morale, enhancing profitability, and streamlining policy and procedure.

Less is more In the past year, Carson has been instrumental in Matrixx's growth. He has: designed security into three new facilities; contributed to the phasing out of an old facility; successfully handled several highly sensitive investigations that impacted security procedure; conducted a security survey for Matrixx corporate headquarters; and developed a security plan for a newly acquired company. Carson also manages a team of full-time, part-time and contract security officers for the 2,500-employee, three-site company. Through strategic implementation of electronic security equipment, he has maximized his team's effectiveness. "In the last year, we moved out of a site that demanded a lot of our manpower," he explains. "We designed security right into the new location, cutting about 84 hours of time logged by our officer force through proper use of technology." The technology includes a magnetic stripe card entry system, revolving doors, and pan/tilt/zoom cameras that do "tours." Carson also implemented an incident report tracking system, which has computerized the process of incident reporting. Reports can now be sent electronically to executives, who love the convenience of it, says Carson. The system also looks for patterns, enabling the security department to conduct crime analyses, and enabling Carson to redirect officers and systems accordingly. But technological innovation did not come at the expense of staff; far from it. Believing that a good manager must be attuned to the individual needs of his people, Carson has implemented several people-focused initiatives that have increased the value of security officers at Matrixx.

Up with people Director of finance and support services Shane Brough recalls that Carson recognized a growing gap between the security department and employees that was presenting an "us versus them problem." According to Brough, Carson "developed a set of recommendations to close the gap and presented them to the executive staff and key employees. His recommendations resulted in a shift in how we conduct security operations, the placement of a security force member on the mid-level problem solving council, increased emphasis on customer service and the introduction of a new uniform for the security force." In another instance, when the company introduced a problem-solving process called Interact to facilitate employee-to-employee and employee-to-manager communication, Carson completed the training himself first. His staff then followed his lead, and to date, all but one of the security staff have completed the training. "Whenever there's a new program," Carson says, "there's always resistance. People say they like change, but they really don't. I think the best I can do is to be the first to do it, find out what it's about, and then I can talk truthfully about it." Carson approached the Interact program much in the same way he approached an Air Force assignment once: "When I was first a shift supervisor at an Air Force base, I had not grown up in the police and security business; I had grown up in the flying business, so I didn't know much about it. I took the time to actually pull the kinds of duty that the cops and security folks were doing. Normally it's not the job of an officer to pull guard duty at the lone front gates like that, but I did it to see what the people who were going to work for me dealt with." And what did they deal with? "Boredom, loneliness and irate people," Carson says with a wry chuckle, "but since I had done it, when a trooper would come to me with a problem, I had more sympathy." The Interact program has effected several improvements, according to Carson. "The security department learned what the company's employees think of us and how they see us," he says. "It taught the security officers to be more interested in what our customers have to say and more customer-oriented." Security officers now wear a new uniform - golf shirts and khakis - which is intended to help employees identify with security. Carson says the new uniforms are distinctive without being "para-military." A challenge that Carson has enjoyed at Matrixx has been helping the company's executives understand what security can do for the company. A case in point is the innovative Resource Protection Plan he instituted - it is a comprehensive, written policy outlining how, through security measures, the company can protect its interests. "I borrowed the term right out of the Air Force," Carson explains. "The plan outlines how to protect the company's high-value resources, funds and classified information. Also, how to establish checks and balances and inventorying, and it sets forth minimum security expectations for new sites." In addition to being "the best boss any employee could wish to have" in one employee's estimation, Carson is a man of varied interests. With a B.A. in political science and history and a master's in international relations to his credit, he is a knowledgeable Civil War buff. He also gardens, is a leader of his local church group where he devotes many hours to helping members of the congregation, and is vice chairman of his local ASIS chapter.

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