For months the Frontier has looked at security guards, their licenses, and the public (and not-so-public) records on them stored at the Council on Law Enforcement and Education in Ada.

Our findings were stark. Security guards and the companies that employe them enjoy almost unprecedented secrecy when it comes to what the public can find out about them. And the records that are available are in a jumbled mess of mislabeled boxes CLEET says it doesn’t have the time or the employees to track.

That has allowed several armed security guards to keep their licenses even after being charged and convicted of crimes, some violent. Could someone like that be patrolling near you? There’s almost no way to tell.

We also investigated the death of Monroe Bird, a 21-year-old Tulsan who eventually died after being shot and paralyzed by a security guard at a south Tulsa apartment in 2015. Ricky Stone, the guard who killed him, was never charged in connection for the shooting even though he was disciplined by CLEET for it, had marijuana in his possession and was taking anti-seizure medicine that impaired his “decision making and reaction time.”

Interested in our project? The stories are below. Want to subscribe to The Frontier? Click here. 

Thanks for reading.

A security guard’s bullet ended Monroe Bird’s life. Here’s the rest of the story.

State often in dark while armed security guards commit crimes

State law cloaks CLEET security guard records in secrecy

CLEET database of security guard disciplinary records