Taking the bite out of crime.

Wells Fargo Guard Services local chief Kathleen Bolz takes tough line on law enforcement

Against a backdrop of increasing alarm over growing crime, the private security guard industry is enjoying robust growth. And one of the fastest-growing security firms is Wells Fargo Guard Services, which recently surpassed Pinkerton Security as the largest security guard firm in Los Angeles County. Wells Fargo's top gun in L.A., and one of only a few women to head a major security guard firm in L.A. County, is Kathleen Bolz. In fact, Bolz is the only female top local exec among the county's 10 largest security firms. Wells Fargo employs some 3,200 full-time security guards in Los Angeles County, about 1,400 of whom report directly to Bolz.

She has been the firm's Los Angeles district manager since February 1993, but she's hardly what one might expect in this male-dominated, high-risk industry. Sitting behind a large wooden desk in her corner office, she could be mistaken for a top corporate executive at any number of Fortune 500 companies.

"I've disappointed you, haven't I?" she chuckles. "I feel like I should have had a machine gun mounted to my desk or something."

But a 9-inch-long "bullet" is perched ominously atop her office shelf - a gift from one of her security officers. "I think it could hurt you," she laughs when asked about it.

With the exception of her ammo trinket, Bolz and her surroundings appear typical of corporate America. "For a lot of years there have been stereotypes that security firms are all run by ex-police officers and FBI agents," she concedes. "But that has been changing. Now many more people with business backgrounds have been coming into the industry."

The primary reason for that shift is that private security services have become big business. The Southern California regional operations of Wells Fargo and its sister firm, Burns International Security Services, generated a combined $150 million in revenues during 1993. And those revenues have been growing at a 10- to 15-percent annual clip in recent years, according to Joe Allen, spokesman for Wells Fargo's parent company, Borg-Warner Security Corp.

"This is a profit-oriented atmosphere," explains Bolz, who has steadily climbed Wells Fargo's corporate ladder since joining the firm as an administrative clerk in 1978. "I'm making sure policies and procedures are adhered to. I have to make sure people are in control of scheduling personnel and doing it effectively." As much as security services may now resemble other corporate cultures, some aspects remain vastly different. Two L.A. Wells Fargo guards have been shot since Bolz assumed her post as district manager in February 1993. One guard is already back on the job; the other is recuperating and expected to return to his post soon, Bolz says.

When asked how she feels upon hearing one of her charges has been shot, Bolz responds: "I get angry because shooting a security officer is a senseless act. I get angry that society has come to the point where a life has no value. Then I feel concern that the guard is OK, and that there is no permanent damage." Besides downed officers, Bolz has faced other considerable challenges dealing with the riots and, more recently, the earthquake. The unreinforced brick building where Wells Fargo's district headquarters is house in downtown Culver City partially collapsed in the quake. City inspectors "red-tagged" the building, which also contains Wells Fargo's communications center for the entire state of California.

Bolz responded by mobilizing her troops at the firm's downtown L.A. branch office, putting other guards on stand-by alert at their homes, transporting a number of other guards to client locations in need of added security, and convincing city inspectors to allow a skeleton crew to operate Wells Fargo's district command center from within the red-tagged building.

Despite such high drama, Bolz insists that 90 percent of her job is "mundane" - pitching prospective clients, performing administrative duties, attending client meetings, etc. "The 405 Freeway is the most traumatic thing I face on a daily basis," says Bolz, who commutes more than an hour each way from her Orange County home in Fullerton.

Bolz also occasionally applies a dose of humor to help her and her troops cope with job stress. "This business is notorious for its serious situations," says James Light, manager of Wells Fargo's premium properties division. "And when the going gets tough, we can count on Kathy's sense of humor to ease a tense situation, or for support."

One such situation arose recently when a Wells Fargo guard phoned a client in the middle of the night, waking him from a sound sleep, to report that fire sprinklers had been set off and were soaking the interior of the client's building. Upon further investigation, it was learned that the guard had been looking through a glass wall to the parking lot outside, where it was raining.

"Kathy handled the client situation with tact," Light recounts. "But after the situation, we both looked at each other and totally cracked up." The guard was not fired or disciplined.

Bolz was born in Chicago, but she and her family moved to the small rural town of Bartlett, Ill., when she was 10. And she remained there until she was 22.

"It was like 'Leave It To Beaver' -- no dope, no gang fighting," she recalls. "Those were the days when you could leave your door open and keys in your car." While heading a security firm district in one of the nation's most violent metropolitan areas is a far cry from rural Illinois, Bolz downplays the security industry's gritty image. For example, she strongly rejects the widely held belief that the security industry is plagued by employee alcohol and drug abuse and unnecessary physical altercations from hostile cop-wannabes. By far the most frequent reasons for termination are excessive absenteeism and tardiness, she says -- hardly the stuff of TV exposes.

Bolz stresses that all Wells Fargo job applicants are subjected to a five-step screening process: drug testing, TRW credit check, Department of Motor Vehicles check, criminal background check and verification of social security number. And once hired, all Wells Fargo guards undergo company-mandated training sessions, in addition to state-mandated training. Bolz's emphasis on training has brought her high praise.

Bob Beach, director of security for Kaiser Permanente, explains that Bolz was responsible for instituting a guard certification program at that giant HMO almost immediately after Wells Fargo purchased Duber Security, which had been Kaiser's security provider for years.

"We had been asking Duber to set up a training program for three years," Beach says. "And then Kathy came in and had one in place within 60 days."

Duber had lost its bid to continue providing security services for Kaiser shortly before it was purchased by Wells Fargo. But Kaiser extended Duber's existing contract by 18 months to enable Bolz to get the training program in place for the new security provider, Health Care Security Group, a division of Intercon Group.

"I had a good working relationship with Wells Fargo, but we were looking for a larger organization because we had branched out across the country," explains Beach. "But about 85 percent of the guards we employ today are people who were brought in and trained by Kathy through the Wells Fargo program. And all our supervisors are (former) Wells Fargo people."

Despite her focus on training, Bolz has never herself been trained to shoot a gun. In fact, she had her first and only experience actually firing a gun about six months ago when her husband of 24 years, who works for Nissan Motors as an automotive technician, invited her to join him at a commercial firing range to test out a new .38-caliber revolver he had purchased.

"I had nothing else to do, so I said, 'OK,'" she recalls. "It was awfully loud. But what irritated me the most was the spent shells flying over from the guy next to me."

Overcoming that irritation, she hit the target on 10 of her 12 shots. "My husband was surprised," she laughs, but adds that she has no intention of making gunplay a hobby. Bolz intends to stick with her tamer leisure activities: playing the spinet organ, ballroom dancing, and reading mystery and romance novels. "I'm a very tame person," she says, somewhat apologetically. Snapshot

Kathleen Bolz

Native of: Chicago Resident of: Fullerton Age: 46 Education: Elgin Community College, Elgin, Ill. (three semesters), Fullerton College (one semester)