Looking out for business.(Evening)

Byline: Nancy Salem NSALEM@ABQTRIB.COM / 823-3675

Security firms have their eyes, cards, cameras on you

The intruder looked like he belonged. He walked into the business, nicely dressed, and smiled at the staff. They smiled back. He strolled away, popped into an office and walked out with a laptop tucked under his arm. Nobody noticed.

At a customer service center, a thief waited until dark, broke in, opened the computers and left with the hard drives. Gone was the customer information database.

At a college, a homeless person snuck into the gym, swam in the pool, took a shower then broke his leg trying out a treadmill. He sued.

At a retail store, a spurned boyfriend walked in, pulled a gun and shot his ex, her boss and a customer.

Security is no longer a luxury to many businesses. With theft costing U.S. employers billions of dollars a year, and assaults and threats of violence against Americans at work numbering about 2 million cases a year, workplace security has emerged as a key concern of companies seeking to protect their employees, assets and data.

"Our lives have changed," said Daved Levine, owner of the security system company SCI Inc. of Albuquerque. "My parents never locked the house. So many people grew up in that environment. But it's not like that today. Go out to lunch Monday through Friday in Albuquerque and count the number of people who have ID badges on. People have expectations of security."

…