Meet the Deep Sentinel Guards: Richard

There are plenty of security systems that claim to monitor and protect your property. But who is supposedly watching over you? And can they actually protect you? If you have a traditional alarm system like ADT, the answers might surprise you. Dispatchers with minimal qualifications wait for an alert that your home has (possibly) been invaded… And then they call you to make sure it’s not a false alarm, wasting precious time.

What makes Deep Sentinel unique is the system’s ability to prevent crime by combining smart technology with live video surveillance. Behind every crime intervention are real human guards. These guards stand ready to leverage their experience and our standard security protocols the instant a suspect sets foot on your property.

Meet some of the highly trained security professionals that make up the Live Sentinel Center (LSC) team. Here, we talk with one of our surveillance guards, Richard.

Q&A with Richard, a Deep Sentinel Guard

Deep Sentinel: Tell us about your professional background.

Richard: I have been working security for about 8 years now for private companies doing physical and surveillance security. Before Deep Sentinel, I worked [in security] for a private school and the Oakland Athletics.

DS: What training have you received through Deep Sentinel?

Richard: Working with Deep Sentinel, I’ve learned how to use the tools in the LSC [Live Sentinel Center] system, which assists in pushing off potential threats and criminal activity while assisting our customers’ needs.

When training new guards, we first drill scenarios, like what to say if there’s someone at a front door or if someone is using the customer request response sign. In this process we call staging, the trainer will use a camera and point it at a specific scenario. The new guard has already memorized the different responses that we use. After the staging process, they shadow a trainer, and the trainer shadows them.

DS: How do you know when to intervene and what to do?

Richard: We know when to intervene by following the SLA [Service Level Agreement], which is our policy of when to intervene and what to do during the intervention. Also, using my experiences in security (and common sense) while observing something suspicious helps when we need to intervene.

Escalation protocol is different for a residence or a business. If someone we intervene with was at a residence, we would intervene in a “customer service” tone, compared to someone at a business after hours, when it would be more suspicious. We intervene verbally and verify the subject. If they can’t verify, we would then use the alarm to deter or call the customer to confirm the subject should be there.

DS: Do you have any memorable interventions?

Richard: One of my most memorable interventions is when a crazed individual was trying to gain access to a customer’s residence by kicking in the front door. I was able to intervene and deter the subject and call the police, then the customer to reassure her that the threat had left the area and help would be arriving soon.

DS: What do you enjoy most about working for Deep Sentinel?

Richard: Our team has many different personalities and people from diverse backgrounds and walks of life. All of our guards work independently, but at any moment can come together to assist one another in achieving the goal to get the job done of protecting our customers.