A Night Hawk Security & Consulting patrol car sits across from the Durham County Department of Public Health. The company has a multi-million dollar contract to provide security to county buildings and parking areas, including the courthouse and jail.
Dan Kane
dkane@newsobserver.com
Over the past five years, Durham County commissioners have shelled out millions of dollars to hire a security contractor to protect buildings, staff and the public, much of it with contract extensions that more than doubled the original cost.
But Night Hawk Security and Consulting of Raleigh has drawn more than 140 complaints during that time due to security guards not showing up, failures to respond to alarms and staff glued to personal cell phones while on the job, county records show.
Durham sheriff’s reports shows one Night Hawk security officer failed to catch a gun in a purse as it passed through an X-ray machine at the county courthouse. Another documents that a security officer let a handcuffed defendant who had a gun hidden in his sock enter the county jail.
A security expert told The N&O the complaints are serious enough to warrant an audit or extensive review.
Three current county commissioners and one former commissioner said county officials never told board members about any complaints as they approved one contract expansion after another – bumping what started as a $1.6 million annual contract up to $3.5 million in the fiscal year that ended in June.
Nor were complaints shared with commissioners before they approved a new five-year, $4.1 million annual contract in June for Night Hawk to run the next five years.
Documents obtained by The N&O with a records request show repeated problems that ran throughout the contract’s first five years. In the first half of this year, the county’s security manager reported that the company continued to fail to respond to alarms, miss work shifts or be distracted on their cell phones.
“This has been an on-going issue for several years,” Ed Miller wrote in an internal spreadsheet of complaints after a security officer didn’t answer the phone when Miller called about an alarm on March 19. “Most times I am told that the phone was on vibrate.”
William Cousins, a retired U.S. Secret Service agent and security consultant in Michigan, reviewed the spreadsheet of complaints and a sheriff’s report about the gun missed at the entrance to the courthouse. The News & Observer informed him of a second sheriff’s report detailing the security breakdown at the jail.
Those reports showed serious problems that require a detailed review, he said.
“It’s a very lax environment there,” Cousins said, one that has put people at risk. County commissioners should have been made aware, he said.
Under the latest contract, Night Hawk is providing security at 41 posts that include spots in the jail, courthouse, county youth home, libraries, the Criminal Justice Resource Center, health and administrative buildings.
Durham County Courthouse Casey Toth ctoth@newsobserver.com
Complaints against Triangle company
Raleigh-based Night Hawk Security and Consulting was founded in 2007 by husband and wife Eugene and Denise Martin. Eugene Martin is a longtime security consultant and former owner of Security Management Consulting, a company he and his wife took over in 2008 and dissolved in 2017.
They did not respond to phone and email requests for an interview.
Security officers play an important role in county operations. It’s their job to make sure buildings are secure and employees and visitors are safe. They are supposed to be always attentive and responsive when problems emerge.
County staff repeatedly complained over the first five-year contract that wasn’t the case.
The Criminal Justice Resource Center deals with a sometimes difficult and dangerous clientele: people who have been convicted of crimes or are awaiting judgment in court. The center handles drug testing and counseling for these clients.
Eleven complaints came from center employees. When a client in 2019 became irate about a drug test he had just turned in, a center staff member twice called security before someone arrived to remove the man from the building.
Robin Heath, a center program manager, calmed the client down in the parking lot and told him he could return later.
“When I returned up front I noticed the security officer with his ear buds in watching something very intently on his phone,” Heath said in an email on Feb. 14, 2019. “He did not register my presence as I passed him.” This was a “continued problem” at the security desk, Heath added.
Later that year on Dec. 27, center officials complained about security not monitoring the parking lot.
“Viewing the parking lot from my window I could see someone relieving himself behind our personal vehicles this morning, this is just one of many incidents,” center administrative officer Viveca Deans wrote. “My current concern is we are not getting the full benefit of the safe and secure environment that Durham County has set for its staff and our clients.”
This past March, the center again reported a lack of coverage. “CJRC screening officer constantly on his cell phone, not doing rounds,” Miller wrote.
In an email dated Jan. 17, 2020, Miller told General Services Director Motiryo Keambiroiro that he had given the company’s security work a “preliminary rating” of unsatisfactory. He told company founder Eugene Martin this, which “upset him greatly,” Miller wrote.
Miller told his supervisor that Martin dismissed his repeated concerns about security officers using electronic devices and not paying attention as “minute.”
“This is definitely not the case and can provide numerous video evidence to support my position,” Miller wrote.
He closed the email by saying that he expected Martin would be paying Keambiroiro a visit to dispute Miller’s evaluation.
County officials would not make Miller, the security manager, or Keambiroiro available for interviews. Both referred The N&O to the county’s public information office.
Written responses to questions submitted to the public information office said that county officials meet with Night Hawk representatives daily to “ensure the quality of operation” and that Night Hawk was only paid for actual hours worked.
“To date, the full contract amount has never been earned,” the email said. It did not say how much Night Hawk had been docked for missed hours.
Some of Night Hawk’s personnel issues typify the high-turnover security business, the email said.
Winning bid
County officials first selected Night Hawk in 2017 to provide security to 36 buildings and parking lots even though it submitted the highest of three bids, county records show. Night Hawk also finished second in a technical evaluation, but it won out because of a second evaluation by a group of county officials across several departments.
The company had two advantages in that evaluation, county records show. The county prioritizes doing business with minority- and women-led businesses, and Night Hawk owner Denise Martin is a Black woman. The county also favors contractors that pay a livable wage, and officials found Night Hawk’s wages better than the other two companies that bid on the contract, records show.
Former County Manager Wendell Davis recommended Night Hawk based on that second evaluation, “the responsiveness of the vendors to our questions, and our perceptions of their embracing of Durham County values and commitment to customer service,” according to a report given to commissioners in 2017.
Additional money awarded to Night Hawk over the years to cover more posts came in the form of contract extensions. As a result, the additional work wasn’t put out to bid, a process that normally requires more scrutiny of the contractor.
Durham Sheriff Clarence Birkhead requested the last extension to Night Hawk’s initial contract. Facing severe staff shortages, the sheriff said he needed Night Hawk security to help cover the courthouse and jail. Commissioners approved spending $412,323 in November 2021.
Two months later, in January of this year, a woman walked into the courthouse with a double-barreled derringer in her purse, according to a sheriff’s report The N&O obtained through a public records request. A Night Hawk security officer was stationed at the monitors as the purse went through the X-ray machine. The woman picked up her purse and went into the courthouse.
A short time later, a deputy viewed the video and spotted the handgun, triggering a search for the woman. They found her minutes later, she apologized for bringing the gun and then two security officers escorted her out of the building, the report said.
Sheriff’s deputies reviewed video of the entrance and said it appeared the Night Hawk officer wasn’t watching the monitors when the woman went through, the report said.
“There’s no excuse for that. None,” said Cousins, the security expert.
David Bowser, a sheriff’s spokesman, said last month no other problems had emerged with Night Hawk’s security after the courthouse gun incident. But on May 29, a bail bondsman led a handcuffed Luis Benavides, who was out on bail on a murder charge, around a metal detector and past a Night Hawk security officer at the jail’s entrance, according to a sheriff’s report obtained by the N&O.
The bail bondsman said he had searched Benavides before bringing him to the jail, the report said. The Night Hawk officer let Benavides and the bail bondsman into the booking area, it added.
But Benavides was carrying a loaded hand gun in his sock at his ankle, a sheriff’s sergeant discovered. A sheriff’s arrest record shows Benavides, 24, was charged that day with weapon possession by a prisoner.
Sheriff Birkhead has filed a complaint with the NC Department of Insurance against the bail bondsman for violating procedure by bringing Benavides through the front entrance and “bypassing security measures,” according to sheriff’s spokeswoman AnnMarie Breen.
The bail bondsman was supposed to search Benavides before taking him to the jail, she said, and bring him through a sally port that is not accessible to the public. A sheriff’s deputy would have then searched him.
She did not answer a question about the Night Hawk officer letting both men enter the jail and go around the metal detector.
“After this incident, security procedures were reviewed with both internal and external stakeholders,” she said. “A review of our already in place procedures was also conducted to determine if any changes needed to be made.”
Cousins, the Michigan-based expert, said if the security officer was properly trained and given the order to direct the men through the sally port, he shouldn’t have let them through.
Commissioners Brenda Howerton, Wendy Jacobs and Heidi Carter said they knew nothing about the complaints against the security company when county staff asked for contract expansions over the past five years and sought commissioners’ approval to award Night Hawk the $4.1 million contract in June.
“We wouldn’t have let that pass by us without some real investigation as to what was going on,” said Howerton, who is the board’s chair. “It’s not something that I recall that has come before us.”
Carter asked county officials about the complaints after The N&O’s inquiries.
“I think staff did not feel the need to mention performance issues because they were able to be handled administratively and because Nighthawk prevailed in the competitive bid process,” Carter said in a text message.
The N&O first inquired about the Night Hawk contract in March. The county sent the 2017 contract and bids days later. But the county did not provide documents related to complaints and performance until June 30, two weeks after the commissioners approved Night Hawk’s new $4.1 million contract.
Adequate disclosure?
Former longtime Commissioner Ellen Reckhow, who left the board at the end of 2020, said county officials should have informed her and her colleagues years ago.
“If I had been apprised of these issues, I would have definitely raised them at the time of the contract renewal and I would have asked for a remediation plan with short term follow up,” she said.
Maria Jocys, a retired FBI agent running to replace Birkhead, questioned whether the sheriff vetted Night Hawk and reviewed its performance for the county before hiring it.
“What were the criteria to decide on hiring Knighthawk for courthouse security?” the unaffiliated candidate asked in an email. “Did anyone factor in the complaint history, or was that overshadowed by personal campaign contributions?”
Birkhead first won election in 2018. The night after he was sworn in as sheriff, his campaign held a fundraising reception at Parizade, an upscale restaurant near Duke University, according to a flier of the event. Denise and Eugene Martin were listed among nine hosts for the fundraiser.
Night Hawk was again one of three companies that bid for the latest security contract approved in June, but county officials disqualified one bidder and said the other failed to accurately price its services.
Keambiroiro said the public information staff would only allow her to answer a reporter’s questions by email. The N&O asked the public information office for the policy that prevents public officials from being interviewed. County officials have not provided it.
Dan Kane began working for The News & Observer in 1997. He covered local government, higher education and the state legislature before joining the investigative team in 2009.
