Security firm expands through Mass.

BYFIELD, Mass. - With a recent acquisition and a new location opening up in an adjoining state, a local security firm here is well on its way to its goal of blanketing Massachusetts with its services. In the last few months, Security Team, a company based here that was founded by Arthur and Linda Allen in 1980 as one of the first Dynamark Security franchise dealers, has increased its number of locations to three. The company hopes to open a fourth location by making an acquisition in the Worcester area in central Massachusetts, a market Security Team considers key to its coverage area in the state. Together with its north shore coastal headquarters here, the company has added a location in Fall River, in the southern coastal part of the state through the purchase of a division of a telecom company there that exited the security market. That purchase gave Security Team about 500 accounts and a location on Main Street, along with a single technician to service the account base. The addition of those accounts brings Security Team to a base of about 4,000 accounts, with about 65 percent of those in the residential market. “We will use that (location) as a seed and build an office staff and installation staff around it,” said Arthur Allen, president of Security Team. “We are starting with a nice small base and will grow that.” The location in southeastern Massachusetts, and another location in Concord, N.H., that was slated to open this month under the Security Team name by a former technician, gets the company one step closer to its goal of being able to service customers in a timely fashion throughout the entire state. “We want to be there literally within a hour of their phone call. I want to have a man standing at their doorstep,” Allen said. Location doesn’t preclude the company from servicing accounts that are not located within the company’s immediate service area. The Allens, both avid aviators, operate an aviation division of Omni Security Systems, the parent company of Security Team, that owns two small planes used to service remote accounts in northern Maine, Cape Cod or other locations not easily accessible by a service or installation technician and a vehicle. One plane can carry six passengers, the other 12. Allen estimates that about 20 percent of Security Team’s accounts “are somewhere where you wouldn’t want to drive to,” he said. State officials have tapped into Arthur Allen’s expertise in both security and aviation and appointed him chairman of the Massachusetts Aeronautics Commission, where he advises state officials on security for the state’s 40 airports.