Since prehistoric days, across almost every species, there's been a primal instinct hard-wired in us to protect our family. As humans, we all feel this. But as men, it’s the core of why we’re here. We’re the human shields.
We’ve come a long way from defending our loved ones with sticks against a saber-toothed carnivore. But as our tools have improved to ward off danger, the threats have evolved as well. Now they can be invisible - and devastating. The stakes are always rising.
Unfortunately, we don’t all have the tools to keep up with these escalating threats and situations.
That’s why what someone like Marco Cumba does is so important. Marco is a former Passaic County sheriff’s officer who took his security knowledge into the private sector, with three companies dedicated to providing enhanced protection for his community - and beyond.
“We launched our first company, Capital Security Investigations just at the beginning of Covid. So now there are all these buildings vacant and unattended, businesses were unprotected as we were all on lockdown. It was a situation ripe for opportunistic threats. We were able to step in and grow clients who needed an unexpected increase in security.”
Marco has also added Watch Guard Solutions and UFS Personnel to give even more options for personal, business, and even municipal security. UFS Personnel offers armed and unarmed security, and can assist with personal bodyguards already in place. It even allows for special circumstances - picking up children safely who are traveling alone, for example.
“In our tech room command center for Watch Guard Solutions, you’d think you were in NASA,” Marco says. “With 80 monitors on the wall at six stations, you can be watching 10 different places all at once. We can have eyes everywhere. If something happens, we not only can let the intruder know that they’ve been spotted, but we can also alert the authorities for an instant intervention. And because of the systems that we’ve developed, we can do this at a very reasonable cost - and it can be white labeled for a company to use. And because of our reach, we can do it anywhere. You could be in Texas, North Carolina, or anywhere.”
They truly can go big or small. They’ve done security for local stadiums, the VMAs, even for Barcelona soccer when they played a match here in NJ.
Thanks to this system, Watch Guard Solutions can assist police in situational tactics - they can guide them through the pursuit with real-time positional analysis. So not only is this a benefit to the security of the property, it also can help with the security of the responders as well.
They can even dispatch their own armed guards if the situation calls for it.
There’s even a weapon detection capability coming to the mix that will add another layer of defending against potential threats. Threats to the public don’t always come from criminals. Stories of everyday catastrophic revenge are all too common. Marco is taking steps to help to mitigate this rising epidemic.
So what are the things that Marco recommends that you do to help protect your family in their everyday lives?
“Always have a plan, and work on situations with them. Know your escape routes and what you’ll do in case of an emergency or a tense situation. When we’re out at dinner, I’ll ask my daughter ‘OK, where are the exits?’ We’ll run drills and play games to make sure everyone’s prepared. It’s always best to have ‘done it’ before. That microsecond of indecision can make all the difference. That’s why it’s so important to practice it before hand. Reaction becomes muscle memory. You don’t have to think about the steps - you’ve done it before.”
Ultimately, protection is all about being prepared. With someone like Marco around, we can all sleep a little sounder knowing that we have the tools, insights, and vision to keep all of those modern-day threats from upending everything that we cherish.
CSI, UFS Personnel 1, and Watch Guard Solutions are all based in Totowa. You can see more of what each offer on their websites (csisecurityservices.com, watchguardsolution.com)