Companies Besieged

During the time of "peace," the "enemy" prepares the way for attack and internal disruption.

For all its martial tone, that quotation is not an excerpt from the maxims of Chairman Mao or Che Guevara's advice to guerrillas. It is a sample from the conventional wisdom of A Checklist for Plant Security, a 16-page pamphlet published by the National Association of Manufacturers and distributed to 250,000 businessmen. Its militant, military style is a direct response to the disturbing fact that U.S. business is now under siege--the target of a multipronged assault by forces ranging from outside political protesters to embezzling employees.

The attackers are using just about every weapon available. Office buildings, banks and department stores have been damaged by bricks, fire and bombs. Petty thievery and white-collar crime are rising. The National Association of Retail Merchants reported that shortages of goods rose by 10% in 1968, the latest recorded year. The shortages amounted to about $3 billion, equal to 1.7% of total U.S. retail sales. For some stores, losses from shoplifting and employee pilferage are running as high as 6%. Last year some $50 million worth of securities vanished from Wall Street banks and brokerage houses.

Dynamite Detector. One result of the crime and violence is that companies supplying guards, watchdogs, alarms, surveillance devices and identification systems can barely keep up with the demand. The U.S. Department of Commerce estimates that the number of detective agencies and protective services has grown by 40% since 1965, to more than 3,000. In the sluggish mid-February stock market, a $15 million issue of stock in Brink's, the armored-car company, sold easily and rose to a 10% premium. Pinkerton's, which has the largest U.S. private detective force, reported that 1969 revenues increased 21%, to a record $120.5 million. Vice President John A. Willis credits the gain partly to the spreading interest in the protection of office buildings. "Every month," he says, "we add a fair share of high-rise clients."

The most obvious sign of business nervousness is the uniformed guards that now patrol the offices of many non-defense companies. Employees at American Telephone & Telegraph Co. headquarters in Manhattan, for example, must show identification cards every time they enter or leave the building. Visitors with no specific business in the building are firmly escorted outside. Some groups of businessmen even employ private guards in their neighborhoods to supplement the police. Between 59th and 74th streets, New York City's Madison Avenue has a daytime squad of 15 private police hired by the area's merchants for $2,400 a week. Less visible protection is being supplied by many companies never before concerned with the security business. Astrophysics Research Corp. has developed a machine to detect dynamite up to five feet away. K.M.S. Technology Center has devised a system that compares the fingerprints on an ID card with the finger of the man carrying it.

Government Market. A lengthening roster of companies are racing to take advantage of an expanding market. Of these, New York City's I.B.I. Security Service may be the fastest-growing security firm in the U.S. Started in September 1967 by two ex-detectives and a former reporter for the New York Daily News, it now has 1,000 employees and reported revenues last year of $2,100,000. Spreading out, I.B.I, has already sold franchises in Miami and Minneapolis. Like many security companies, it goes in for all varieties of protection --uniformed guards, undercover detectives, police dogs, electronic alarms, armored cars and lie-detector service. It also has a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to teach security techniques to 250 trainees, many of whom were hard-core unemployed.

The Government, in fact, is an important customer for private security service and paraphernalia. The Justice Department is paying for a survey of security needs and the installation of experimental intrusion-alarm systems in one city. It granted $84,700 to the Cedar Rapids police, who bought an alarm system from the Wells Fargo Alarm Services Division of Baker Industries. The company has put 350 intrusion alarms into gas stations, taverns, warehouses, stores and small factories. The alarms are tripped by various means--metallic foil on windows, ultrasonic waves, photoelectric beams--and connected by telephone wire to a central panel at police headquarters. If this gear catches many intruders, alarms wired directly to police stations may become commonplace for small businesses. Baker Industries' revenues have grown fivefold in the past five years, and management plans to expand capital spending in 1970. Unfortunately for the nation, the business of combatting crime and violence seems to get better every year.

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