The new private security company tasked with patrolling the Promenade and Downtown areas began its official rollout on Friday, Dec. 1. Legion Corporation was awarded the contract after a request for proposals yielded submissions by over 20 companies and was narrowed down to just two. The decision came in a Downtown Santa Monica, Inc. (DTSM) board meeting just three weeks ago.
Following the abrupt departure of Covered 6 only a matter of hours after the contract had been signed at the end of September, DTSM voted to move ahead with a search for a replacement. The decision essentially reset the process back to square one albeit with a significantly tighter deadline for companies to bid on the contract following weeks of uncertainty.
However, a preferred choice quickly emerged and that was Legion Corporation, a Fresno-based company formed in 2012 by former Police Officer Joseph Shelley who served with the San Francisco Police Department for 11 years before transitioning to the private sector. The company has clients up and down California, Oregon, Washington and even in the UAE and the UK.
Shelley himself is softly spoken and his big gray beard and shaved head very much gives him the appearance of everyone’s favorite uncle. Only his behemoth-sized biceps and heavily tattooed left arm hint at a security service-based background. Growing up in Fresno, he says that he was drawn to music at an early age and that same urge to express himself creatively led to a tentative embrace of martial arts.
However, that quickly began to dominate his life as he left the guitar behind and dived headfirst into Muay Thai and by the time he was 13, Shelley was also a student of Aikido, learning every aspect of the martial art as fast as he could find anyone to teach him.
“I really fell in love with Aikido, Japanese culture and the whole history and philosophical aspects of it, because it’s very artistic,” Shelley said. The next step in this learning curve was his desire to learn about Buddhism, which to this day he says he still makes time to study. At age 17 Shelley joined the Marine Corps.
However, not long after completing basic training and graduating from boot camp, he was medically discharged based on an incorrect diagnosis. “My foot really began to swell, I couldn’t even get my boots on, so I was sent to a podiatrist who told me that I had flat feet and would always have this problem. So, I was discharged,” Shelley said, adding, “It wasn’t until I went to see a doctor afterwards, that a broken bone in my foot was identified. They just never properly examined it.”
He was offered the chance to re-enlist, but that meant enduring basic training all over again and, as he puts it, “My Marine Corp recruiter wasn’t very persuasive, he didn’t exactly motivate me.” Instead, Shelley found himself enrolling at university to study music, but that didn’t present any jaw-dropping career opportunities, so after having worked as a part-time nightclub doorman and security guard to pay his tuition, he found himself drawn to law enforcement.
“I’d met and talked to lots of people from the FBI, CIA and DEA and such like and I thought these would be a good fit for me. But at the same time I inadvertently met and spoke to lots of police officers during the part-time jobs I was working and they told me how I could take on a variety of different roles all in one city. I could jump from narcotics to homicide to tactical and change departments if I wanted to,” Shelley said.
At this point his 11-year relationship with the San Francisco Police Department began and for many years, Shelley even operated a mixed martial arts school in San Francisco, but tragically that didn’t survive the pandemic. However, in 2012, he launched what would become Legion Corporation and was soon joined by Managing Director Marc Ginez, a Marine Corp officer of 20 years, together with Operations Officer Ricky Soares and Workforce Development Manager Arshad Razzak, both former SFPD officers.
Legion officially began operating on Friday, Dec. 1 and going forward, coverage will start at 6 a.m. and run to 10 p.m. daily. The first week will very much focus on training, community engagement and security functions, including patrol and response. According to DTSM, “Operations staff will meet with security personnel weekly, making adjustments to deployment as the needs become better known. We already have a solid understanding of areas that need attention and we expect the needs to shift as the program progresses.”
Since SMPD seems to have a monopoly on all-black workwear, it’s important that the uniform adopted by Legion be professional, practical and appeasing. This was also an issue that Covered 6 was going to have to deal with.
“The goal that we have in mind is to make our security presence be official and friendly at the same time. So they’re going to be wearing attire that is button-up shirts, they’re gray with black pants and an identifiable blue baseball cap,” Jeremy Ferguson, DTSM Operations Director, said, adding, “It makes them easily identifiable and it’s easy to understand that they’re not police officers. Legion has been very supportive of making sure that their identifier is unique, friendly, but yet official.”
The most significant distinction is that no employee will carry a lethal weapon, not even the supervisors. They will instead be armed only with the most basic, non-lethal forms of weapon, such as batons and pepper spray.
“I’m not going to get into politics, pro-gun and anti-gun, it’s not about that in this environment. One security guard with a firearm is not beneficial to us,” Shelley says, adding, “If a situation unfolds that truly warrants an armed response, just another supervisor with a sidearm is not going to make a difference, not really. If they need to call someone for back up, they’re going to call the calvary. I want PD there with trained officers with the right equipment on scene.”
The areas that are set to be patrolled are the same that were set out originally. Coverage of the Downtown area will break down as follows: Zone 1 represents the three block length of the Third Street Promenade. Zone 2 surrounds Zone 1, providing a larger perimeter extending to 4th Ct, Ocean Ave, California Ave and Broadway. Zone 3 covers the area between 4th Ct and 7th Ct and approximately Wilshire Blvd to Colorado Ave. Zone L is from 7th Ct to 8th Ct and runs from Wilshire Blvd to Olympic Blvd. Finally, Zone 0 is a higgledy-piggledy shape incorporating the Santa Monica Place Mall, the Metro E-Line station and a little bit of Colorado Ave.
Moreover, beginning on Tuesday, December 5 at 10 a.m. and running every two weeks for the first 90 days of deployment, DTSM will host a public meet and greet with the Legion security team at Ugo’s on the Promenade. This will be a casual gathering where folk can meet the team, see the uniforms and get information on their deployment.
These sessions will last around 30 minutes after which there will be the opportunity to participate in a 60 minute “safety stroll” that will take a different route around Downtown each time. This gives DTSM staff and community members an opportunity to talk about specific locations, issues and opportunities. I’ll have a member of our maintenance team with us to log defects as well.
After Tuesday, December 5, the next walks will be:
• December 12: Second Court alley, Shop Stop & Talk, parking structures 6, 4, 2, Wilshire to Third Street Promenade.
• December 26: Third Street Promenade through Santa Monica Place to Colorado, Ocean from Colorado to 1300 block.
• January 9: Third Street Promenade to Wilshire, Third Court alley, parking structure 1, parking structure 5, to Broadway.
• January 23: 1300 block Ocean to Wilshire, Second Street to Broadway.
Ferguson also says that the Community Ambassador program has been extended through December and after that, Ambassadors will have the opportunity to transfer to other accounts managed by the vendor Block by Block, or apply for a position at Legion.
scott.snowden@smdp.com