Who Checks the Work After Your Officer Shows Up?
Armed and unarmed Security Officers for buildings, communities, businesses, and sites across Florida. Every post gets orders written for that property, an Officer from our Emergency Response Team who comes out and checks the work, and reporting you'll actually read.
Which of These Is Your Situation Right Now?
Two nights during a renovation, or Officers on your property every day of the year. The standard is the same. The shape of the job isn't. Pick the one that looks like yours.
Ongoing Site Coverage
Officers on your property every day, or on a set schedule. Static posts, patrols, access control, front desk. A building, a community, a business, a campus.
Fully operational in 21 to 30 days.
Short-Term & Emergency
Your provider no-showed last night and the post is empty right now. Or a gap to fill, a few nights during a renovation, a vacancy, a dispute. Handled by our Emergency Response Team, a standing bench of Officers kept ready for exactly this, rather than by whoever answers the phone next.
Often on site within 24 hours.
Specialized & Sensitive
Overnight residential coverage for a principal. An asset that has to be moved. A situation that needs judgment more than presence. Staffed with ERT Agents, the side of that same team trained for sensitive work, not general coverage.
Scoped in a conversation, not a form.
Whichever of those three you're in, you probably got here the same way. Something went wrong with the last company.
Nobody Fires a Security Company
Because the Uniform Was Wrong.
They fire them because the post went uncovered, or the reports stopped meaning anything, or nobody answered when they called about it. Every one of those is a management failure, not an Officer failure. An Officer nobody supervises isn't a bad Officer. They're an unsupervised one, and that's the company's doing.
The post went uncovered
A call-out at 11 p.m. and no plan behind it. The company started making phone calls and hoping somebody answered.
Nobody ever came back
The only person from the company you ever met was the one who signed the contract. After that, silence. And silence isn't the same as things going well.
The post orders were a template
Generic, out of date, or still carrying another client's name. Post orders locked in a binder nobody opens aren't post orders. They're decoration.
None of those three failures show up in a proposal. Which is why it's worth being precise about what you're actually paying for.
Worth Holding Up Against
Every Other Quote You Get.
You're not really buying "a guard." You're buying coverage you can count on, Officers who make you look good, and a company that tells you the truth when something goes wrong. In practice, that comes down to these.
A list like that is easy enough for anyone to write down. What makes it true is everything that happens after the contract is signed.
Want to see what we'd write for your site?
You'll get a straight read on what your property actually needs, including when that's less than you were told.
Putting an Officer on a post is the easy part.
Everything that happens after is the job.
The ARDENT Operating Standard.
The ARDENT Operating Standard is the name we give to five things that happen around every Officer we place, on every site, whether it's two nights or five years.
Post Orders for Your Site
Written for your property, built with you during startup, and kept current as the site changes.
Trained, Vetted Officers
Every ARDENT Officer completes 16 hours of ARDENT training on top of Florida's required 40-hour Class D certification, before they ever stand a post.
ERT Site Checks
Scheduled and unannounced. An ERT Officer verifies the post against the orders, and then tells you what they found.
Reporting You'll Read
Clear, concise, complete, accurate. Sent to you. Not filed somewhere for us.
A 30-Day Startup
Six defined phases, from assessment to first shift. A process, not a hope.
Most security problems aren't caused by a bad Officer. They're caused by a company that placed one and walked away.
Coverage erodes quietly, and it isn't dramatic. A patrol gets shortened on a quiet Tuesday, because that door stays locked anyway. A report gets a little thinner each week, because nothing happened. An access check gets waved through, because it slows the trucks down. None of that is laziness. It's what happens to any standard nobody tests, ours included. That's what the unannounced site check is for: the standard gets tested while a fix is still small and cheap, instead of on the night that tests it for real.
Why we pay above the market
Officer turnover is this industry's chronic problem. The average provider churns through people constantly, and your site gets a stranger every few weeks who has never read your post orders.
We pay above the industry standard on purpose. Not as a gesture. It's the mechanism that gets you the same reliable Officer next month, and the month after that. Everything else we do depends on it.
What a real report looks like
Our standard is clear, concise, complete, and accurate. Complete means who, what, where, when, why, and how. Accurate means factual, with no assumptions and no guessing at motive.
Officers are trained that "Fire, Flood, or Blood" means notify immediately, and that when in doubt, you write the report. We write every report knowing who eventually reads them: your management, law enforcement, and sometimes attorneys.
And one line every Officer learns early: write only what you saw. Report something that didn't happen, and trust goes to zero, immediately. A report written to make us look good is worthless to you, so we don't allow them.
Five things, run the same way on every site we take. Which leaves the part almost everyone is quietly dreading: the changeover itself.
Changing Security Companies
Shouldn't Become Another Project.
You already have a job. So our entire 30-day startup is written down and published, phase by phase, and you'll know exactly what happens and exactly when. Almost all of it is our work, not yours.
Site visits and a real assessment. A transition team meeting. Recruitment begins immediately, not after the paperwork clears.
We review whatever program you have now, and where it makes sense, we retain select existing Officers who already know the property.
Post orders are developed with you, not handed to you. Resumes and references reviewed. Interviews run.
Pre-employment training. Final selection. Gear and uniform issued.
Background checks and licensing verification, confirmed before anyone reaches your property.
Site-specific training on your actual property. Leadership assigned. Then the first shift, with people who already know the site.
So what do you actually have to do?
It's the question that almost never gets a straight answer, and it's the reason people stay with a provider they've already given up on. Across all thirty days, your part is three things:
- One walkthrough. You show us the property.
- One post-orders session. We write them, you tell us what we got wrong. You know things about your property that we won't.
- One transition meeting. We meet your points of contact. Who to call, who to escalate to, what you never want to be surprised by.
That's it. The recruiting, the training, the background checks, the licensing, and the scheduling are all ours. If switching feels like a second job, the provider is doing it wrong.
That's how coverage gets started. How it behaves once it's standing there is the bigger question, and it's the one that decides your liability.
Will an Officer Prevent Trouble,
or Start It?
They escalate through a four-step ladder. Most situations end on the first or second rung, which is exactly the point. If you've ever worried that a security presence creates a liability instead of preventing one, this ladder is what stands between the two.
Presence
A visible, alert Officer, positioned to be seen. For most problems, this is the entire solution. Nothing happens because someone is clearly watching.
Notification
Informing someone of the site's rules. Respectful, non-confrontational, and usually enough.
Warning
Stating clearly what happens next if the behavior continues. Often the last chance for someone to walk it back on their own.
Enforcement
A documented incident report to your management. If it's criminal, law enforcement, and that is a last resort, not a first instinct.
That's the standard we hold our own Officers to. The more useful question is what the company on your property is doing right now.
Eight Things a Managed Provider
Does Without Being Asked.
Every one of these is ordinary, and none of them should have to be requested. Tick the ones that are true of the company on your property today. Nothing is stored, nothing is sent anywhere, and nobody asks for your email.
Whatever the number, it isn't a verdict on your provider. It's a list of things you're entitled to ask for.
You're welcome to use this on any provider you're considering, and we'd rather you used it on us as well. If we can't check all eight for your site, we shouldn't have it. And if your current company can, keep them. We mean that. What we want you to end up with is a provider you can trust, and we're honestly not that worried about whether it's ARDENT.
Two questions come up almost every time, and neither one fits on a checklist. Armed or unarmed, and whether cameras could just do this cheaper.
The Two Questions Everyone Asks.
"Should we go armed?"
Armed coverage isn't an upgrade you add to feel safer. It's a risk decision. The useful question isn't "would armed feel more secure?" It's "what specific threat would an armed Officer address that a well-run unarmed operation could not?"
Being armed does not expand what an Officer is legally allowed to do. An Officer, armed or not, has the same authority to detain as any private citizen, and any use of force is governed by state law and limited to what is reasonable and necessary.
We'll tell you honestly which one your site needs, including when the answer is unarmed.
"Can't cameras do this cheaper?"
Sometimes, and if that's true for your site, we'll say so.
But understand what you're buying. A camera records a problem. A trained Officer prevents one. Cameras are excellent at telling you what already happened. They are very bad at stopping it, at greeting a resident, at walking a vendor out, or at making a judgment call at 3 a.m.
The best answer is usually both, with the Officer as the part that thinks.
That's how we'd advise you, and sometimes it costs us the bigger job. The people who took the advice are easier to believe than we are.
What It Looks Like When It Works.
"We hired Ardent to protect our neighborhood, they are fantastic about communication and the staff is very friendly. We've noticed a drastic reduction in traffic in the community and have a much better sense of safety when the Ardent team is present."
"Even on short notice Ardent has had officers onsite the next day after we request them. The officers have always been very professional to work with."
"Best security services and the most attentive staff!"
None of them are describing a rescue. They're describing somebody who picked up, and somebody who showed up.
The Number One Complaint in This Industry
Is That Nobody Picks Up.
You shouldn't have to chase your own security company. We organized ourselves into three teams so you don't have to, and none of them are salespeople.
Client Success
Your first call, about anything at all. We hire Client Success out of customer-service backgrounds rather than sales, because we want people who are good at solving a problem, not closing one. If you don't know who to call, call them.
Operations Leadership
Scheduling, ERT site checks, post orders, incidents, and Officer performance. Anything happening on your property right now.
Finance & Admin
Invoices, contracts, certificates of insurance, and whatever your procurement team needs. A real person, not a portal.
That's who'd be on the other end of it. Which still leaves the questions people ask before they're willing to believe any of this.
The Questions Worth Putting to Any Security Company.
These are worth asking us, and worth asking anyone else you're considering. The answers tend to differ, and that's usually the whole story.
What happens when my Officer calls out at 11 p.m.?
An ERT Officer fills it. Our Emergency Response Team is a standing bench kept ready for exactly this, and they're briefed on your post orders before they arrive. A provider without one starts making phone calls and hopes somebody answers. Every company has coverage on a normal night. You're trying to learn what happens on a bad one.
What happens to coverage while we switch providers?
The thirty days happen while your current coverage is still in place. That's the whole design: the assessment, the recruiting, the post orders, and the training all run before anyone changes hands, so the changeover is a handover rather than a gap. By the time our Officers walk on, the post orders for your property are already written and they've already been trained on your site. Where it makes sense, we'll also keep good Officers who are already there and know the place. It's worth asking whoever you're considering how they handle the changeover, and worth being careful with anyone whose answer needs you to go uncovered for a few days to make their scheduling easier.
What's your minimum, and what does it cost?
There's no flat minimum that fits every job. Some coverage is a few hours for a single weekend or a specific event. Other coverage runs every day, indefinitely. As a general range, unarmed coverage commonly runs $28 to $40 an hour and armed coverage $38 to $55, depending on the property and the risk. Full ranges and the eight things that move a quote inside them are on our Pricing page. Tell us what you're dealing with and we'll price your actual situation, including if it's smaller than you expected. A cheap Officer who's often missing, unprepared, or unprofessional costs you far more than the few dollars an hour you saved. The right question isn't who's cheapest. It's who gives you reliable coverage at a fair price.
Do you cover my area?
We serve all of Florida, with local teams and local numbers in Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, Hillsborough, Orange, and Duval counties. If your site is somewhere else in the state, call us. We very likely cover it, and we'll tell you plainly if we don't.
Can I see a sample set of post orders before I sign?
Yes, and it's a fair thing to ask of any provider. Post orders are where the standard actually lives. If a company can't show you what they'd write for your site, or hands you a template with another client's name still in it, you've learned something important for free.
How often does a supervisor actually visit the post?
Regularly, and some of those visits are unannounced. An ERT Officer checks that the Officer is on post and in uniform, has current post orders and understands them, has a working radio or phone and the site contacts, is running the full patrol route, and is keeping the log current. Every visit is documented. Left unchecked, any standard drifts. Not because people are lazy, but because a skipped patrol on a quiet night is exactly how erosion starts.
How do I know it's actually your Officer on my property?
Every ARDENT Officer wears a uniform and carries an identification badge with a number you can verify by calling us directly. If you ever see someone claiming to represent ARDENT and something feels off, whether it's the wrong hours, the wrong uniform, or just a bad feeling, call us. We would rather answer ten calls that turn out to be nothing than have one impersonator go unreported.
Is a Security Officer the same as a police officer?
No, and any provider who blurs that line is a problem. A Security Officer is a trained private professional with the same authority to detain as any other private citizen. What they have that a bystander doesn't is training, post orders, a documented escalation ladder, and a direct line to law enforcement when it's genuinely needed. Their job is to prevent and document, not to police.
Do we need Fire Watch too?
If a fire system on your property is impaired, then yes, and it has to be a separate assignment. Your Security Officer cannot also run the Fire Watch. If a Fire Marshal finds they were doing both, they may determine you had no compliant Fire Watch coverage at all. We can staff Fire Watch alongside Guard Services as two distinct posts.
How long until you're actually up and running?
A full account is operational in 21 to 30 days, through the six phases of the startup. For short-notice or emergency coverage, we're often on site within 24 hours. We won't race anyone to a number, though. An Officer who arrives fast and doesn't know the post is worth less to you than one who arrives a few hours later already briefed, and any provider who promises you an exact arrival time before they know anything about your site is selling, not scoping.
Guard coverage answers most of what a property needs. It doesn't answer all of it, and the gap is usually where people get caught out.
You Might Also Need.
The ARDENT Operating Standard
The five things that happen around every Officer we place, on every site we take. Yours to use with any provider you're considering, including one that isn't us.
Learn moreFire Watch
If a fire system on your property is impaired, it needs a separate, dedicated Officer. Standard start in four hours.
Learn moreExecutive Protection
When the thing you're protecting is a person rather than a place. Discreet Agents, sized to the actual risk.
Learn moreOfficers near you
None of that needs deciding this week. Reading first is a perfectly good way to start.
Three Things Worth Knowing
Before You Sign Anything.
Useful whether or not you ever call us, and just as useful with any provider you're considering, including one that isn't us.
Who Actually Checks On Your Security Officer?
Supervision is the thing every company claims and almost nobody defines. It lays out what a real site check involves, and the question that quietly exposes a company that isn't doing them.
Read itWhy Warm-Body Staffing Fails You, Eventually
It rarely fails on day one. It fails the first night something happens, which is the only night that ever mattered. It explains how the erosion actually works.
Read itWhat to Expect From a Professional Guard Service
What should already be included, what you should never have to ask for, and what it means when a provider treats any of it as an upgrade.
Read itNone of it requires a call. And if you'd rather skip the reading and just tell us what's happening on your site, that works too.
Let's Look at Your Site.
Tell us what you're protecting and we'll give you a straight read on what it actually needs, including if that's less than you were told. Or call (954) 787-3700. Someone will pick up. Either way, you'll come off the call knowing more than you did going in, even if you end up hiring somebody else.