About HOA Security Orlando

Nexus Security Firm was started by James Franklin after more than 15 years in law enforcement. Boards tend to find that useful for a specific reason: he will tell a board when a staffed gate will not fix the problem it was bought to fix, and what the cheaper measures are. A vendor whose first answer is always more hours is a vendor whose advice is worth discounting.

The first call is a conversation about the community rather than a proposal. We ask how many homes, how many entrances, whether the gate is staffed today, what the amenity setup is, and what has been happening over the last few months, with dates if the manager has them.

By the end of it you will normally have a rough rate range for the patterns that fit, and a straight opinion about whether officers are the right spend. Some of those calls end with us suggesting the board look at lighting and its gate hardware first and call back in six months. Six months with the lighting fixed and the gate latch working changes what the next conversation is about. If coverage does make sense, the next step is a walk of the property with a board member or the manager, at the hours the complaints are about.

Nexus Security Firm holds a Florida Class B security agency license, number B 1900066, issued by the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. FDACS runs a public license search, and a board member can confirm the agency and its status in under a minute from a phone during a meeting.

Individual officers hold their own licenses. An unarmed officer holds a Class D, which requires 40 hours of FDACS-approved training and is valid two years. An armed officer holds a Class G on top of it, requiring four hours of firearms requalification each year of the two year period (FDACS Division of Licensing). Officers carry those licenses on post and a board is entitled to ask to see them. Run the same check on every agency bidding for your work, and treat the word licensed with no number behind it as an answer in itself.

A shift starts with the officer reading the post orders, which is the document the board approved saying what happens in each situation the community has. At a gate that means the visitor list, the tailgating rule, vendor hours and the answer for a rental guest arriving at 2am. At an amenity post it means card checks, guest limits and closing time.

Through the shift the officer logs what comes through and what is found: entries, plates, conditions, anything out of place. A supervisor is assigned to every post and attends it, including on overnight shifts, because residential posts fail in the small hours and they fail when nobody has been near them. Incidents are documented during the shift and the documentation goes to the association, with times and detail a fining committee or an insurer can use. At the end of the shift the officer hands over to relief and the log goes with the post.

When something crosses into a police matter, the officer calls the Orange County Sheriff or Orlando Police and keeps documenting. Florida security officers do not detain people, and post orders are written to that standard.

We work with associations across Orange, Seminole and Osceola counties from the office at 3203 Lawton Rd in Orlando. That covers the communities in Winter Park, Baldwin Park, Audubon Park and College Park close to the office, out through Dr. Phillips, Windermere, Horizon West, Hunters Creek and Lake Nona, east to Avalon Park, Waterford Lakes and Oviedo, north to Altamonte Springs, Lake Mary, Longwood and Apopka, and south into Kissimmee, Celebration, St. Cloud and the vacation home communities along the 192 corridor.

Distance matters on patrol pricing more than on anything else, because the cost of a route is spread across the communities on it. If your association sits near others we already cover, that shows up in the number. Ask when you call.