ORLANDO, Fla. — The Orange County Comptroller released an audit Wednesday highlighting issues with a security company contracted by the county.

It shows Allied Universal Security Services, which has several contracts with the county, failed in certain aspects from October 2021 to May 2022.

In 2018, the county signed a security contract with Allied Universal to provide security guards at corrections facilities.

The recent audit performed by the county comptroller’s office shows a list of issues which include:

• training for guards not completed in time

• incomplete new hire requirements before being allowed to work

• no confirmation of any quarterly screening testing

• and staffing requirements not being met at the Juvenile Assessment Center

“Our contract says for certain amounts of time, you need to have at least one female security guard,” Orange County Comptroller Phil Diamond explained from the contract when discussing the Juvenile Assessment Center. “That wasn’t the case.”

John Murphy is the vice president of APEX Security. His company provides private security to hotels, malls, construction sites, and other locations across Central Florida.

He says on a typical security contract, a client will express exactly what duties they want performed for each site.

“At the bottom we have an amendment which is our post orders,” Murphy said. “Those are exactly what the client wants out of us. This is what we agree to, what the duties are. This is the 10 commandments we want the officers to follow.”

One finding in the comptroller’s audit showed a guard working in two locations at the same time. At least one female guard was absent for shifts at the Juvenile Assessment Center on the girl's side.

“We call it Bill Casper,” Murphy said. “There’s no real person there. They just put it there to make it look like working so you can bill the hours.”

The audit also discovered a guard with no firearms license worked in an armed role. 

According to Diamond, Allied Universal is aware of the audits findings and agrees with them.

“Our hope is that these problems will be resolved and we will have the best possible safety and security we can have at the jail and the juvenile assessment center,” Diamond said.

County staff, which now has the report, will discuss and determine how they want to proceed with Allied Universal Security.

Spectrum News reached out to Allied Universal for comment multiple times, but they did not respond.