Shooting outside Vaughan hookah bar sends Security Guard to hospital
July 5, 2026 3:39 pm EST.
Police in York Region are investigating a shooting that took place outside a hookah bar that left a Security Guard in serious condition. David Zura reports.
A routine school drop-off in Florida spirals into a criminal investigation after an armed security guard claimed a driver hit him with a vehicle, while the driver insisted the guard pointed a rifle at his face and threatened to kill him. Initial surveillance footage appeared to clear the guard, but additional videos from nearby businesses allegedly showed him pointing his firearm at the driver twice. Karone Brown was arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and has since pleaded guilty. Law&Crime’s Elizabeth Millner goes Inside the Crime.
The state board that regulates Security Guards is throwing up roadblocks to advancement for guards seeking to become armed, based on a policy that doesn’t appear in law and was never formally adopted, say firearms instructors and students calling for changes to board policy.
The state Private Investigators Licensing Board should focus on safety rather than facilitating employment gatekeeping that is based not on merit but on cronyism, the students and instructors say.
Since at least 2010, the PILB has required guards who want to attend certified firearm training to become armed to first obtain permission from their employers. The process fosters tacit discrimination, especially against women and minorities, and is preventing qualified Guards from earning as much as twice their current pay, say critics.
“There was a time I felt if I did not laugh at certain jokes, or boost someone’s ego, my career in this industry could be affected,” Finesha Thompson, an Armed Security Guard whose previous employer denied her access to firearm training by refusing to sign a required employment verification form, told the board in June.
Having to seek permission to advance one’s skills gives employers too much power over employees, she says.
“If I flirted back, I’m pretty sure I could have gotten what I wanted,” Thompson told the Current. “It’s degrading. No woman should feel that her ability to provide for herself or feed her family depends on keeping an employer happy. That is not professionalism. That is power being used the wrong way.”
Andrew Cowie, president of the Nevada Association of Certified Firearms Instructors and CEO of Counterforce Solutions, says the PILB’s adherence to the policy is inconsistent. Cowie says when he initially inquired about the form, PILB Executive Director Vincent Saladino told him not to worry about it.
“The director printed out a version of a form without that requirement and said ‘go teach’. The next 60 people who wanted to train were able to come to me. And then the director said, ‘Hey, I made a mistake, you need to go back to doing it the other way.”
Saladino did not respond when asked about Cowie’s assertion.
In 2019, the PILB considered eliminating the form, according to board meeting minutes.
Instructors, Saladino said at the time according to the minutes, were opposed and voiced concerns that Armed Guards would show up for unarmed jobs, Guards would seek employment outside the scope of their work cards by acting as independent contractors without the proper license, and people who are prohibited from having firearms may gain access to firearms classes.
Cowie says it’s up to the certified firearms instructor to teach “the legal limitations of licenses, the scope of their authority, and what they can and cannot lawfully do while employed. Restricting access to that training does not prevent unlicensed activity—it limits access to the very education designed to prevent it.”
Qualified individuals, Cowie says, “are being denied access to state licensure without due process, while private employers are effectively gatekeeping access to a state-regulated license.”
Cowie says the PILB’s “house is on fire.” On Tuesday, state lawmakers learned from Saladino that the state agency allows armed guards to carry shotguns and automatic rifles – weapons they are not permitted to carry on the job under Nevada law.
‘Barrier to advancement’
Employer-sponsored credentialing is not unique to security guards. Police-issued work permits, known as Sheriff’s cards, are issued to some hospitality employees and special events workers, and are only issued at the request of an employer. It’s the same for gaming establishment employees and real estate agents. But unlike the PILB employment verification, those prerequisites have been formally adopted.
Roughly 25,000 Nevadans are employed as security guards, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. They stand watch at day cares and schools, patrol synagogues and casinos, and shoo away homeless people seeking respite inside a McDonalds or hospital waiting room.
The U.S. market for armed security is valued at roughly $50.4 billion and employs more than 1.1 million officers. It’s expected to grow at more than 5% a year.
The card that allows security guards to be armed “is not just a piece of plastic. It represents rent, groceries, gas money, and taking care of our children. It represents our ability to survive,” Thompson said during public comment at the June meeting of the PILB. “The difference between making $13 or $15 an hour as an unarmed guard, and making $20 to $30 as an armed guard can completely change someone’s life.”
Alot more in article; https://thisisreno.com/2026/07/security-guard-licensing-board-controversy/
A Black former Marine and security company owner who was pulled over, handcuffed, and searched by San Diego police twice in less than a year, including once at gunpoint over a legally owned firearm, is suing the city and two officers for racial discrimination and civil rights violations.
Hakimkhalfani Webb, 62, served 21 years in the Marine Corps across three combat deployments and has no criminal record, according to the federal lawsuit filed June 19 in U.S. District Court in California and obtained by Atlanta Black Star.
On June 14, 2025, Webb was driving home from a security job in San Diego with his lawfully registered 9mm Glock pistol in his vehicle. He’d recently swapped the front bumper on his work truck and hadn’t yet reattached the front plate, which was sitting inside the cab.
That was enough for officers Michael Hagen and Adrian Villanueva to pull him over. When they spotted his gun, both officers drew their weapons on him. Webb says he raised his hands, told them he was a licensed security guard, and explained the Glock was for work. Hagen allegedly told Webb repeatedly that he would shoot him. Webb says he responded that he understood and would comply.
Officers handcuffed Webb, placed him in the patrol car, and asked to search his truck. He refused, so they searched it anyway, telling him his consent no longer mattered. They found nothing illegal.
After running the Glock through a database, Hagen told Webb he was being arrested because the gun wasn’t registered to him, despite Webb having owned and registered it since 2001, and despite carrying a valid Bureau of Security and Investigative Services (BSIS) gun permit at the time of the stop.
Officers photographed him, released him from cuffs, and issued a misdemeanor citation for allegedly possessing an unregistered firearm. They never cited him for the license plate. They did, however, confiscate his gun.
Three months later, prosecutors confirmed they wouldn’t pursue charges. The lawsuit says the city knew by mid-September that Webb’s gun was properly registered all along, the mistake stemmed from an officer who failed to run the full serial number during the stop.
Webb says the seizure cost him real money: without his preferred 9mm for jobs requiring him to repeatedly enter and exit his vehicle, he couldn’t bid on certain security contracts. The city didn’t return the gun until December 2025, after he paid $40 in fees.
A Second Stop, Days After He Asked the City to Clear His Record
On Jan. 23, 2026, Webb formally requested that San Diego seal and destroy records from his June arrest. The very next day, he spotted Officer Villanueva’s patrol car in South San Diego. Villanueva made a U-turn and began following him.
Webb says he came to a complete stop at three separate stop signs. After the third, Villanueva pulled him over anyway, claiming he’d rolled through it. Despite full compliance, Webb was again ordered out of his vehicle, handcuffed, placed in the patrol car, and made to pose for “mug-shot style” photos from the front and side. He was held roughly 30 minutes, surrounded by additional armed officers, then released, and no citation was issued.
more in article,..
The state agency that licenses Security Guards has been letting Armed Guards carry shotguns and rifles for years, even though Nevada law has no provision allowing the practice, state legislators learned Tuesday at a meeting of the Nevada Legislative Commission.
A regulation proposed by the Private Investigator Licensing Board, which oversees the security industry, sought to require eight hours of training for Guards who carry shotguns and automatic rifles.
PILB Executive Director Vincent Saladino told lawmakers that Security Guards in Nevada are already carrying rifles and shotguns.
“We were behind the thinking of having a minimum training for security professionals,” Saladino said. “That way they would understand how to safely carry it, and it would be more protections for the public and for themselves.”
“What purpose does a shotgun serve at the EDC (Electric Daisy Carnival) or at a local apartment complex or outside of a jewelry store? What’s the purpose of carrying a shotgun?” Sen. Melanie Scheible asked Saladino.
“Unfortunately, I don’t have an answer for that,” he replied.
“I don’t see any permissive language allowing security guard companies to arm their security employees with rifles or shotguns,” Assemblywoman Sandra Juaregui responded.
Legislative counsel confirmed that state law has no provision for training Security Guards on anything but handguns, rendering the use of any other firearm by Security Guards, other than certified instructors, illegal.
“I was probably given incorrect legal advice when we first brought this up, for you know, companies that were utilizing these additional tools,” Saladino said.
“We need to find out who your DAG (deputy attorney general) is,” Sen. Rochelle Nguyen told Saladino, who attributed the bad legal advice to the PILB’s former director.
The agency’s current DAG, Stephanie Itkin-Goodman, did not respond when the Current asked whether she’d read the proposed regulation. Itkin-Goodman is the Democratic candidate for Public Administrator in Clark County.
“Their house is on fire,” Andrew Cowie, president of the Nevada Certified Firearms Instructors Association, said of the PILB during public comment before Saladino’s testimony.
Cowie asked lawmakers not to allow security guards to carry shotguns and rifles.
“Your decision today will authorize security officers to carry AR-15s or shotguns,” Cowie told legislators. “I implore you. Do not approve any regulation they submit today until you have the opportunity to review.”
Cowie also asked legislators to increase the training requirements for armed guards, who are currently required to attend eight hours of classroom training and five hours on the range.
Lawmakers suggested to Saladino that the PILB look at expanding training for armed security.
“Nobody wants to spend money on training,” Saladino said of the security companies licensed by the state.
Juaregui, the chairperson of the commission, reminded Saladino “that the purpose of the board is public safety, not member safety. So if your members aren’t okay with more training, but the public is requesting it, then that’s something that you should definitely consider.”
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — If you've traveled by plane, you can probably picture this scene: Passengers line up to present their IDs to an airport officer, put their carry-on luggage on a conveyor belt and walk through a scanner.
But one detail at Kansas City International Airport is a bit unique. The uniformed officers who scan IDs and screen carry-on bags wear badges and U.S. flag patches, but they're not Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers — they're private contractors. It's a distinction many passengers don't seem to notice.
"It's news to me," said Natasha Greenway, holding the handle of her son's stroller before catching a flight to Philadelphia.
"I didn't even notice," says Kim Eckels, who was traveling to Portland, Ore., with her family. With a laugh, she added, "I taught my kids not to question anything going through security. Just keep your mouth shut and go."
That attitude is shared by many travelers, who can be forgiven for not realizing that the officers politely but firmly guiding them through the screening process work not for the government but for VMD Corp., based in McLean, Virginia. As more airports consider going private rather than using federal officers, companies like VMD are eager to show they can keep passengers safe — and satisfy the TSA's oversight and standards.
"We do have TSA" at the airport, noted Gabe Murphy, VMD's program manager at Kansas City International.
Private employees are responsible for everything from checking IDs to screening passengers and baggage. But Murphy said the TSA also has a security team there whose job is to "basically audit us and make sure that we're following all the processes and procedures that are outlined by TSA."
Using the acronym for standard operating procedure, he added: "Their SOP is our SOP."
Why are some commercial airports using private security?
The federal-private divide dates to the creation of the TSA in the wake of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. In the process, the government gave airports a choice of staffing checkpoints with federal security officers or opting out, using private firms under the Screening Partnership Program (SPP).
Nearly 25 years later, the TSA screens passengers and bags in most U.S. airports. The largest holdouts are Kansas City and San Francisco International Airport. Other SPP airports are scattered around the United States, from Sarasota, Fla., and Atlantic City, N.J., to Tupelo, Miss., and Yellowstone, Montana.
But more airports, such as Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, are considering going private. Changes like that would bring a major shift, said Tina Won Sherman, director of the U.S. Government Accountability Office's (GAO) Homeland Security and Justice team. She said that the SPP hit a plateau years ago.
"It's really remained a small number: 20 privatized airports, where there are currently 440 federalized airports across the country," Sherman said.
What's happening at airports with private security?
The current administration has said privatizing airports would save tens of millions of dollars, prompting pushback from the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) union, which warns that the plan would undermine federal officers.
The federal law that created the Transportation Security Administration requires that private contracting companies pay their employees at least as well as commensurate federal workers. TSA officers have long struggled with some of the lowest wages in the federal workforce, but that situation improved markedly in 2023, thanks to an omnibus budget bill. Officers also benefited from the TSA's collective bargaining agreement with the AFGE union in 2024, but the current administration has sought to revoke that contract.
Sherman notes that details of how Gold+ would work are still emerging. But, she added, if dozens of small- and medium-sized airports join, it would raise questions about how the TSA handles oversight of everything from technology standards to screeners' efficiency, at a much larger scale. They are questions she'll be watching closely for answers.
"It's critical, absolutely critical, for TSA to make sure that security is upheld at the highest standard that it can be," Sherman said.
What do passengers say? More in article...
https://www.npr.org/2026/06/29/nx-s1-5829930/us-airports-tsa-private-security-companies
WOODBRIDGE, VA – A convicted felon walking his dog on the property of an elementary school has been charged with brandishing a weapon at a school Security Officer who asked him to leave, according to Prince William County police.
The Prince William County Police Department reports that Dewayne Andrew Williams, 40, of Woodbridge, was walking his dog on the grounds of River Oaks Elementary school at 8:44 a.m. on Wednesday when he was approached by a school Security Officer. The school Security Officer told Williams that animals were not allowed on the property.
Police say Williams threatened the school s
Security Officer and displayed a firearm, though he didn’t fire it. Williams then left the area.
Williams was arrested on Thursday after attempting to flee from officers, according to the department. He is charged with brandishing, possession of a firearm on school property, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, fleeing from a law enforcement officer and threatening a school employee. He is being held without bond.
Williams has a lengthy criminal history in the county. He pleaded guilty to felony malicious wounding in 2015 and was sentenced to 20 years in prison, with 15 years suspended. He was already racking up parole violations for drug possession in 2011.
STOCKTON, Calif., June 28, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Stockton Criminal Defense Attorney Allen Sawyer is representing Joseph Lawrence Mills, a Sacramento Security Guard charged with voluntary manslaughter following a fatal shooting during an alleged break-in at a Sacramento cannabis dispensary.
Mills, 55, is accused in connection with the May 8th shooting at a dispensary in the 8500 block of Thys Court in Sacramento’s Florin Fruitridge Industrial Park. According to reports, prosecutors allege that Mills shot two suspected burglars, one of whom, 22-year-old Kato Lamarzae Mills of Oakland, died at the scene. The two men were not related.
Following a court hearing in Sacramento Superior Court, Attorney Allen Sawyer successfully secured Mills’ release from custody while the case proceeds. Mills and Sawyer are expected to return to court at the end of July.
Sawyer said the charges are unwarranted and that his client acted in self-defense while protecting himself and the property he had been hired to secure.
“He had to make a split-second decision to defend himself,” Sawyer said. “Imagine being in his situation. It’s 4:30 a.m. and these individuals are storming the building.”
According to Sawyer, Mills lived on the dispensary property and was confronted in the early morning hours by a group of masked individuals who rushed the business. Sawyer said surveillance footage aired by Sacramento television stations shows the dangerous circumstances Mills faced before shots were fired.
“He encountered them and he thought his life was in danger,” Sawyer said. “He definitely didn’t cause the situation.”
Sawyer said he hopes law enforcement will take a “long, hard look” at the surveillance evidence as the investigation continues. He also emphasized that Mills remained at the scene after the shooting and has been deeply affected by the incident.
“This was a traumatic event for Mr. Mills,” Sawyer said. “He was placed in an extremely dangerous situation through no fault of his own.”
The case also highlights the risks faced by legal cannabis businesses, which Sawyer said are frequent targets for break-ins because their locations are publicly known and may be perceived as holding cash or valuable inventory.
“Unfortunately, unlike illegal operations, legal operations are easy to find, and they’re targeted because of that,” Sawyer said.
Mills remains presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court. Sawyer said the defense will continue reviewing discovery, surveillance footage, and other evidence as the case proceeds in Sacramento Superior Court.
Each time John F. Carbone Jr. started a shift, he said, Securitas asked him to confirm he had the equipment needed for the job: keys, a work phone, and a working radio.
But for years, the 18-year Harvard security guard and union steward said he has signed in at posts across campus the same way: “no radio, no radio, no radio.”
The problem stretched across much of Harvard’s undergraduate campus.
As of June 15, only 19 of the 49 radios required at Securitas Security Services posts across the Faculty of Arts and Sciences were operational, according to interviews with more than 15 Securitas employees and visits by The Crimson to more than two dozen posts.
Thirty of the 45 sites staffed by Securitas had no functioning radios, leaving Guards assigned to residential Houses, labs, and academic buildings without one of their most basic tools for emergency communication.
The gaps were especially stark in undergraduate housing. Just four of the 14 radios required across Harvard’s 12 Houses, DeWolfe, and Cronkhite were present when The Crimson conducted its inventory.
Two days after The Crimson completed that inventory, Securitas distributed radios to all 14 residential posts, according to a person familiar with the matter and two longtime Securitas Guards. By Friday, nearly all FAS sites had a working radio.
Securitas had possessed working radios since at least August 2024, according to the person, who said the radios issued to guards cost about $1,000. Securitas did not respond to a request for comment on the radio shortages or the timing of the distribution.
Harvard contracts with Securitas to staff security posts across academic and residential buildings. Guards said radios are essential during fast-moving incidents, allowing them to reach the Securitas control center, other Guards, and the Harvard University Police Department without relying on individual phone calls.
Without radius, campus-wide communication becomes far slower. If HUPD needs to reach every Securitas Guard on campus, it must go through the Securitas control center at Harvard, which then calls each post individually, according to Carbone.
“If there’s an issue that transcends the entire FAS and 45 to 50 buildings, they would have to call 25 to 30 guards,” Carbone said. “It’s ineffective.”
An HUPD spokesperson declined to comment, citing a longstanding policy against discussing security measures and equipment.
Carbone said he first raised concerns about the radio shortages to Securitas leadership in May 2025 after he learned that more than a dozen sites did not have radios. He raised the issue again in January, asking why the problem had not been fixed.
“I haven’t seen anything. In fact, what I’m hearing is it’s significantly worse,” Carbone said he told management. “What are we doing?”
Carbone said he was brushed off when he raised the concern.
“We’re at considerable risk here,” Carbone said. “And I explained why I felt we were at risk. The senior manager that was there said, ‘we understand what you’re saying. We care about our employees. We care about doing our job. We’re working on it.’”
At several posts, guards said Securitas’ replacement of broken or missing radios was inconsistent. Some posts reported radio issues that went unresolved for years, according to four guards.
At Quincy House and Adams House, radios had been dysfunctional for a month or less, according to three guards. At others, like Kirkland House and Mather House, radios were missing for upwards of three years, the guards said.
Several classroom and lab buildings also lacked working radios, including the Science and Engineering Complex, the Chemistry laboratory complex, Zimmer Hall, and Memorial Hall. The Chemistry complex, which houses four labs, went at least three years without a working radio, according to two Securitas guards.
At Lowell House, a replacement radio came on May 19 after months without one, according to the person and three guards. Earlier that day, a student living in Lowell reported that a man who was not affiliated with the University followed her into her entryway, covered her mouth, and attempted to push her inside.
The man fled the scene after the student yelled for help and people in nearby rooms entered the hallway.
The Securitas guard working in Lowell at the time of the assault did not have a radio, according to the person and the three guards.
The man, later identified as 31-year-old Arthur O. Krogman, was arrested one week later and charged in connection with the Lowell House assault, an earlier incident outside Peabody Terrace, and a reported breaking and entering at MIT on the same day. He has pleaded not guilty.
For Carbone, the Lowell incident underscored concerns he said he had raised for more than a year.
“A guard is not going to have a radio, and it’s going to result in some unfortunate circumstance,” Carbone said. “Something will happen, and all hell will break loose, because people just aren’t attending to the issues that they’re responsible for.”
Still, two longtime Securitas guards said they avoided raising radio issues with management because they feared retaliation.
In 2022, former Harvard security guard Walter J. Terzano filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board after he was suspended for organizing a protest during contract negotiations with the union representing more than 300 campus guards. Terzano alleged that he was unfairly retaliated against, and Securitas and Harvard settled the case in 2024.
Carbone, for his part, said he continued raising concerns about the radios because he was concerned about student safety above all else.
“I don’t want anything to happen to anybody,” Carbone said.
A suspected Peeping Tom's late-night prowling ended in handcuffs after a Security Guard allegedly caught him peering into a teenage girl's bedroom window in Virginia, police said.
The incident unfolded shortly before 11:20 p.m. on Thursday, June 25, in the 1400 block of Bayside Avenue in Woodbridge, where Prince William County Police responded to a report of a Peeping Tom.
According to investigators, a Security Guard spotted 43-year-old Woodbridge resident Rene Alfredo Musun Melendez looking into the window of a home occupied by a 17-year-old girl.
Responding officers detained Musun Melendez, who police said appeared to be intoxicated.
Following the investigation, he was arrested and charged with peeping into a dwelling and public intoxication.
Musun Melendez was released on a $2,000 unsecured bond. A court date is pending.
A Harlingen Security Guard shot during a struggle with an armed man is speaking publicly for the first time about the night he said he nearly lost his life.
The Cameron County Sheriff's Office identified the suspected shooter as Thomas Matthew Puente. Investigators say Puente returned to the VIP Gentleman's Club, located at 14225 Expressway 83, on May 2 armed with a shotgun after being removed from the club earlier that night.
Authorities say security guard Rogelio Lopez confronted Puente, leading to a physical struggle where Lopez was shot in the leg. Puente then fired another round inside the club.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Man shoots security guard at Harlingen gentleman’s club
"As soon as he had seen me, he had taken the weapon out and pretty much loaded the shotgun and pointed it at my face. At that point, we struggled. We fought for the weapon," Lopez said.
Lopez says the shotgun blast shattered his femur.
"Because of that it actually snapped my femur, and I don't know how I did it, but I was still up and fighting with him," Lopez said.
He kept fighting until others rushed in to help. Once the threat was over, Lopez says his focus shifted to surviving.
"I'm looking at my leg and I see that I have an open wound, a shotgun wound," Lopez said.
Lopez says he reached for a tourniquet he had carried with him every day at work.
"A friend of mine passed me a tourniquet three years ago that I would carry every single day with me at work," Lopez said.
He applied the tourniquet above his knee. When asked what would have happened without it, his answer was immediate.
"I wouldn't have made it. I wouldn't have made it," Lopez said.
Lopez underwent three surgeries and spent nearly three weeks in the hospital. He is now in physical therapy while dealing with nerve pain.
He says he hopes others can learn from what happened to him.
"It's very important because at the end of the day, you never know what's going to happen," Lopez said. "There are different ways you can learn how to use the tourniquet, whether it's training school or, if you look online, there are different videos on YouTube."
"Learn how to stop the bleed because you can either save your life or you can save somebody else's," Lopez said.
The Cameron County Sheriff's Office tells Channel 5 News the investigation has been completed and submitted to the district attorney's office. Channel 5 News reached out to the district attorney's office for an update on the status of the case.
I can find "Full time" , "Part-time" and "On-Call" , in multiple Legal books, but not "flex".
Nai Anwar only recently learned that Erie County, New York, passed a law last month banning businesses from collecting customers’ facial recognition data.
The 38-year-old Muslim refugee from Myanmar, who resettled in Buffalo, New York, more than a decade ago and later became a U.S. citizen, had never attended a county legislative meeting. He didn’t even know stores were capable of collecting facial recognition data from customers walking through their doors.
But one question immediately came to mind: What happens if immigration authorities get access to those databases?
The concern feels especially heavy in Buffalo, where Rohingya refugee Nurul Amin Shah Alam died on the street in February after being released by border officials in what was ruled a homicide.
“For immigrants in Buffalo, we are always concerned about [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] raids and enforcement activities,” Anwar said.
“I am a citizen now, but I have friends who are not citizens yet,” he said. “I worry about them being misidentified if authorities use facial images to track people.”
Those concerns are among the reasons Erie County lawmakers approved one of the nation’s most restrictive laws governing commercial biometric surveillance.
On May 26, County Executive Mark Poloncarz signed the Biometric Transparency and Privacy Act, prohibiting private businesses from collecting, using, retaining, or selling biometric identifier data, including facial-recognition scans. Companies that violate the law can face penalties of up to $5,000 per day.
The law, however, only applies to businesses and carves out explicit exemptions for government agencies acting within their governmental duties—including federal immigration authorities such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—as well as financial institutions.
Invisible technology Erie County lawmakers set out to address these concerns after Wegmans, the Rochester-based grocery chain, acknowledged that it had deployed facial recognition technology in a small fraction of its stores.
The revelation came after signs, required by law, appeared in New York City Wegmans locations this winter notifying customers that biometric information could be collected on the premises. When Buffalo-based Investigative Post began asking whether similar technology was being used in Western New York, the issue quickly gained the attention of local lawmakers.
In a Feb. 26 statement, Wegmans said it used the technology in “a small fraction” of its stores to identify individuals previously flagged for misconduct.
“This technology is solely used for keeping our stores secure and safe. The data is not, and will not, be used for any other purpose,” the statement said.
Wegmans did not respond to Prism’s request for comment.
There is no evidence that retailers in Erie County have shared facial recognition data with ICE. Nevertheless, privacy advocates warn that once biometric databases exist, future access can be difficult to predict.
Federal immigration agencies have expanded their use of biometric technologies over the past decade, incorporating fingerprints, facial recognition, and other tools into identity verification and enforcement systems.
For Erie County Democratic Legislator Lawrence Dupre, who proposed the ban, simple transparency initially seemed like the appropriate response.
“The technology is invisible. It works without your knowledge or consent. You walk into a store to buy groceries and your body becomes a data point in a system you never agreed to,” Dupre said in an email interview.
But as he researched the technology, Dupre concluded that disclosure alone was not enough.
“I realized the real risk is not that you do not know your data is being collected,” he said. “The real risk is that it gets stored, sold, or stolen. Once a company has a biometric profile, that data exists forever.”
While passwords or credit card numbers can be changed, stolen biometric information cannot be replaced after a breach.
More in article... https://prismreports.org/2026/06/24/after-wegmans-disclosure-erie-county-new-york-bans-businesses-from-using-facial-recognition/
A superhero Security Guard fought off a pair of masked punks trying to rob a hip SoHo boutique Monday — with the wild scuffle caught on dramatic surveillance video.
Tyrell Gibbs, 34, told The Post he was working the door at the trendy luxury resale shop Rebelonging for fewer than than two weeks when the brazen crime unfolded — and led him to tap into his boyhood experience as a tight end and receiver on the football field to shut down the illegal rush.
“You meet them at the line of scrimmage,” said Gibbs, who has an eight-year resume in security and hotel service — and the physique and face to land him modeling jobs, too.
“That’s what we were doing — I felt like if I met them at that point and addressed them there, that he would go away versus me allowing them to come to me,” Gibbs said of the battle at the Manhattan store’s entrance.
“I just know that in sports, either you step up, or you step down.
“My thing was to react,” said Gibbs, who was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Harlem playing for the Harlem Knights youth football league.
“It wasn’t to even fight,” said the guard — whose employer hailed him as “amazing.”
“It wasn’t to even fight,” said the guard — whose employer hailed him as “amazing.”
“I didn’t want to harm them, and I didn’t want to harm anybody else, but keeping every body safe, just creating a boundary between myself, the door and the open space of the door.”
The violent encounter unfolded shortly before 3 p.m. at the West Broadway shop, when a girl wearing a head scarf and dark sunglasses entered the store, and the guard held the front door for her, according to footage posted by the boutique on Instagram.
Then all hell broke loose.
Two masked punks tried to bum-rush the door, but Gibbs would have no part of it — with footage showing him rebuffing them like an NFL lineman, shoving them away till they gave up and high-tailed it down the street.
Gibbs noted that in middle school, he suited up with the Knights and later played basketball — which he said “absolutely” helped prepare him for the face-off with the wannabe crooks.
“I’m just trying to keep that door closed,” he said. “It was hectic.”
The girl who entered earlier then scooted past the guard and ran off.
The crew “fled on West Broadway down towards Canal St around 2:52-2:57PM in a white Acura. (We are looking for their license plate and any information connected),” the store said in Instagram.
“We have only been open for a week and this is extremely frustrating but we need to get to the bottom of this to prevent this from happening to other businesses,” the shop said.
“Thank you to our amazing security for keeping us safe we are truly so grateful.”
Gibbs lamented the uptick in crime in the city recent years.
“Petty larceny, car robberies. A couple of things, like fraud and all types of stuff like that. Petty crimes, but all about money,” he said.
“I feel like it’s an economy-based thing. It’s been a real tough go for a lot of people coming off the pandemic, so I can only imagine what’s really going on in the household. A lot of these people I’m encountering during these situations are very young.
“Some people have not aged out of the situation that they’re in.”
[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]
ATLANTA — A Family Dollar shoplifting suspect led a state trooper on a foot chase after investigators say he hit the trooper and two Security Guards. The suspect was caught after he jumped down a ravine.
It all happened Saturday just after 7:15 p.m. near the Family Dollar on Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway and Paines Avenue in southwest Atlanta.
Georgia State Patrol says a Family Dollar Security Guard flagged one of its troopers down to report an assault. She says a shoplifter hit her and another Security Guard as he left the store with a cart of stolen items.
The trooper caught up to the suspect and rolled down his window to talk to him. The shoplifter reached through the window and hit the trooper several times, according to GSP.
The trooper pulled out his gun and the man ran away, starting a foot chase. At one point, the suspect jumped down a ravine. Atlanta police officers joined the search and arrested him.
The suspect, who hasn’t been identified, had previous warrants out for his arrest. The trooper had minor injuries.
An inmate is charged with fleeing from custody during a hospital stay, according to deputies with the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office.
Officials said Victoria Jones, 27, was taken to a hospital on June 18. At the time of the incident, she was under the supervision of an Armed Detention Services Officer.
During the incident, officials said Jones had been secured with physical restraints to the hospital bed and briefly entered the restroom. Jones then slipped out of her restraints and ran into the hallway, got in an elevator, and went down to the first floor.
There, she was quickly apprehended by a hospital Security Officer before she could leave the building.
Deputies said Jones was charged with misdemeanor escape from a county or city confinement facility and has been returned to the Greensboro Detention Center under an $11,000 secured bond.
Jones was originally arrested in May, and has been in custody on an $8,000 secured bond for the following charges:
Felony robbery with a dangerous weapon (two counts)
Felony obtaining property by false pretenses
Felony financial transaction card fraud
Felony conspiracy
Felony failure to appear on a felony (three counts)
The investigation is ongoing.
https://www.wxii12.com/article/guilford-county-inmate-escape-hospital-stay/71642207
I've worked in a few places where we would shut down, a few where we would remain on the clock, outside chilling in our cars until lights came back on. One spot where we would clean up, punch out, and be dismissed.
Currently as a Security Guard, we stay, but might cut down on how many Guards.
Executive
The frequency and brazenness of pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden and along the Somali coast continue to increase, with the authorities warning ships to maintain heightened vigilance and immediately report any suspicious activity. This week, there were three reports of attempted boarding in the same area northeast of Aden, and in each incident, the small skiffs opened fire on their targets, and in one attack used an RPG.
The Maritime Security Center Indian Ocean (MSCIO), which was established by the European Union Naval Force (EUNAVFOR) Atalanta, reported the latest incident happened on June 17, approximately 105 nautical miles northeast of Aden, Yemen.
According to the information received by MSCIO, the unnamed vessel was approached by two skiffs carrying an unknown number of armed persons. The skiffs approached within close proximity of the vessel and opened fire. The vessel’s security team returned fire, after which the skiffs disengaged and moved away from the vessel.
This incident came just two days after two other vessels reported approaches also in the waters between Somalia and Yemen. The master of a tanker reported that it was approached midday on June 15. The vessel was 111 nautical miles southeast of Aden, Yemen. A small skiff with four people approached and reportedly opened fire with an RPG. The vessel reported implementing defensive measures and said the attack was unsuccessful.
Several hours earleir a container vessel sailing approximately 14 nautical miles off the coast of Yemen, between Aden and Ahar, reported today that it was approached by a small skiff. It said the boat opened fire and was attempting to board the container vessel.
Maritime security firm Vanguard Tech reported the vessel as the Egyptian-owned Greta Star (22,968 dwt). The ship, which has a capacity of 1,730 TEU and is registered in Panama, was showing on its AIS that it was sailing between Oman and Djibouti. Vanguard reports it as “heavy firearms,” but that the ship was able to increase speed and prevent the boarding.
On Sunday, June 14, an unidentified cargo ship said it was approached by two small boats, each with six people aboard. It was sailing along the northern coast of Yemen, south of the Horn of Africa, and near Xaafunn. The small boats reportedly hailed the cargo ship, ordering it to stop. The small boats opened fire, and the security team returned fire for approximately 30 minutes before the boats turned away.
These recent incidents followed another on June 10, when a small boat with six armed individuals approached a cargo vessel also in the Gulf of Aden. The vessel was 88 nautical miles southwest of Balhaf, Yemen, and there was another exchange of gunfire. The small boat also turned away after the security team returned fire.
Atalanta has reported an increase in the number of incidents since April of this year. Three ships, including two small laden tankers, were reported boarded and taken to positions off the coast of Yemen. The EU initiative is working with the local authorities and investigating the rash of incidents in the region, and continues to emphasize the renewed dangers in the areas. Ships are strongly urged to increase their defensive efforts or to avoid the region if possible.
The attacks are continuing later into the year than is typical. Usually, the monsoon season results in a decrease in attacks until later in the year.