Public Safety is a priority in Spring Branch. Joseph Garza is an officer with S.E.A.L. Security, which the Spring Branch Management District contracts with as a part of our Public Safety Program.

Tell me a little bit about S.E.A.L’s work with the Spring Branch Management District.

We have been here for almost three years. We came on with SBMD to help them provide extra service for private properties and multifamily businesses and help for HPD on some of their calls here. It’s cut down the response times for HPD quite a bit.

What kind of things do you typically handle?

We handle a lot of loitering, soliciting. We get a lot of calls out of apartment complexes for domestic [violence] incidents. Everywhere we go, we give our business cards with our phone number. They can call us, and we will go out there and issue criminal trespass warnings. We will arrest on-site if they have violated their criminal trespass warnings. We pretty much help any way we can.

What do you hear from the people in Spring Branch?

We get a lot of feedback that people do feel safer in the community knowing we are around, and that we are helping to bring down crime.

Tell me about the vehicle that you helped apprehend recently.

It was a vehicle going up and down Long Point that was pretty much an armed robbery vehicle. They were robbing people who were getting out of their cars, [going] from their houses to their cars, to and from their vehicles [in parking lots]. We were getting multiple calls on this same white van.

I go to every apartment complex every morning to get a lot of feedback on what’s going on in the community. I went to Bella Springs; they said they had a robbery, and that it was a white van with three Hispanic males. They robbed the people at gunpoint. So I told them we had been looking for this van.

The complex has cameras on their entrance and exit gates. So we got this nice video footage of the van. I told the owner of the property that we should put out some kind of [information] blast to the property, and I would go to other properties to get them to do the same thing. So the next time, the van comes in again. Next thing you know, the community comes together and starts calling HPD; they call us. One resident actually followed the van on the phone with HPD, and that’s how we apprehended them.

It’s a strong community out here. When we give them information, they take it seriously. They want to see their community safe.

You said you go daily to the multifamily complexes. Can you walk me through an average day at work?

I go to every apartment complex. At the same time, we’ll also be looking for any loiterers or solicitors on private properties and businesses. After, we go to every business, every shopping center, to deal with problems. We want people to know we are out here for the community.

Do you have any favorite places you like to eat or visit while you’re working?

I like to get lunch at Mambo Seafood. I also stop every morning at the EZ Food Store. So that’s my favorite place to go every morning and before I get off shift. Really, I love just being in the community.

S.E.A.L Security, 1525 Blalock Rd., 713.979.2388, https://sealsecuritytexas.com/

Written by Tawny Tidwell

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