Joe Redmond

I started in corrections, moved to road patrol, and then ran operations and security at a locked treatment facility.

That last one changed how I think about this work. 110 clients, behavioral specialists on staff, and a building that had to be secure and therapeutic at the same time. You cannot run a place like that on enforcement alone. If the people living inside a security plan don’t understand it or can’t live with it, they work around it, and then you have nothing.

That holds in a house and it holds in a small business. I have seen families install systems they stopped arming after three weeks, and businesses write policies nobody followed past the first month. The equipment was never the problem.

Before any of it I served as an infantryman with the 2nd Marine Division. What stayed with me was the inspection standard. Weapons, uniform, barracks, every day, against a standard where almost right is a failure. That is how I walk a property. Not looking for what is obviously wrong. Looking for what is almost right.

Some of what I know about this work I learned in ways I would not choose again. I would trade the knowledge to not have needed it. Since that isn’t on offer, I’d rather it go to use in someone else’s house.

I hold the Certified Protection Professional and Professional Certified Investigator credentials from ASIS International and contribute to ASIS standards development. Thirty years across all three functions of criminal justice, including the rehabilitation side most people in this field never see.

I work out of Loveland, Ohio.