Security Companies Thriving With Influx Of Applicants

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) -- Security companies may be seeing more business, but they're also seeing more qualified applicants -- laid-off police officers and people who dreamed of being a cop but can't find a job with a public agency.

Anthony Watson proudly carries a gun and a badge, but he's not exactly living his dream.

"I'm kinda the backup for some of these guys," he says from his security patrol car. "I definitely want to be a police officer."

Anthony graduated from law enforcement academy, but instead of landing a job as a sworn peace officer, he says he was forced to become a security guard.

"I figured once I graduated, it was just going to be an automatic 'here's your position,'" he says.

Vicci Gritz, the owner of Universal Security Academy in Sacramento, says more people like Anthony as well as laid-off officers are filling up her classes as police and sheriff's departments stop hiring or cut back.

And Matthew Carroll of Paladin Private Security says his company is thriving. "We're just getting a wealth of applicants with phenomenal backgrounds," he says.

Security companies like Paladin are seeing the spike in demand, too, as frustrated business and home owners feel the impact of fewer cops on their streets, and feel they must rely on armed guards to keep them safe.

"Our five-year business plan was to have 10 patrol cars. We're eight years old and we have almost 100," Carroll says.

But the clock is ticking for Anthony. The certificate he earned for graduating from the sheriff's academy will mean nothing if he doesn't find a job as a cop. It's good for three years -- and his time is up in January.

"You've worked so hard to obtain something that is right now … almost seems useless," he says.

He had no idea his first big fight would come before the badge -- landing a job to protect and serve.

"It's still my dream. It's still something I want to work toward," he says. "And this gives me the opportunity to still get a taste of what it is."