From guard dogs to digital cameras, a Sunset Park firm adapts

Rain dripped from the red-and-white-striped hood of the roll-down security gate at 6310 Fifth Avenue. Above it, an old-school hand-painted sign spells out “Sunset Park Investigations Security.”

Cesar Talavera, the 77-year-old founder of Sunset Park Security Services and director of its training school, welcomes us inside, where memorabilia from decades of security work sits alongside the tools of the modern security business.

When asked whether private-investigator work is all beautiful women walking through the door with a case and high-speed car chases, Talavera pushed back on the movie version. “No, no. There’s a lot of work involved in any type of investigation,” he said.

The company still gets occasional divorce cases, background checks and calls from people who believe someone is following them, but many of the tropes from films and books, like the lone detective on a stakeout, are inaccurate.

“You do a stakeout with one person, you lose them, then you lose the whole day,” Talavera said.

He started the company in 1979 at 354 47th Street. After several moves within the neighborhood, he bought the Fifth Avenue building, where the business has operated since roughly the 1990s.

Through the 80s, the company patrolled Fifth Avenue for merchants who paid $5 a week apiece. It later provided private patrols for the Fifth Avenue Business Improvement District, with marked cars, bicycles and, for some assignments, guard dogs. Guards responded to alarms, carried rings with hundreds of clients’ keys and checked warehouses after break-ins.

“This is the old, and then we got the new,” Talavera said, holding up a heavy Detex clock once carried by guards on patrol. At each checkpoint, a guard inserted a numbered key that marked a paper disc inside, creating a record of the rounds. Today, Talavera said, digital systems can show where a guard is in real time.

One employee, Talavera recalled, removed the checkpoint keys from a worksite, took the guard dog home and watched the World Series. Talavera arrived to inspect the site and found both missing. The employee was fired.

“I take it very personally,” Talavera said. “I like things done the right way.”

Over time, rising insurance costs, falling demand for alarm response and new technology reshaped the company. Staff dropped from roughly 85 people at its height to about 15 today. The company still provides guards and some investigative and alarm work, but training and residential-building security are now its primary focus.

The ground-floor office and basement reflect that mix. A classroom contains safety materials and mementos from earlier patrol work. Nearby computers are used for fingerprinting and federal enrollment services. Downstairs, Giselle Valentin, an instructor, demonstrated camera feeds used to monitor client sites, including cameras in Puerto Rico and another site on Westminster Road in Ditmas Park.

While the signal from Puerto Rico was clear, the weather seemed to be interfering with the Westminster feed. “Westminster kinda was giving me a hard time, I think because of the rain,” Valentin said.

Valentin said she joined the company about 30 years ago. Her mother, Nancy Ruiz, joined Sunset Park Security in 1995 and serves as administrative director of Sunset Park Security and co-school director and instructor at Sunset Park Security Training School. Along with teaching, Valentin also works security at one of the residential properties the company serves.

“You’ve got to go with the change,” Valentin said. “We have to be a lot more alert and focused on what we’re doing.”

Jazmin Mejia, another longtime staff member, handles TSA PreCheck, TWIC and related enrollment services and also works at the residential site. The storefront additionally advertises fingerprinting, notary service, passport photos, fire-guard preparation and armed and unarmed security courses.

For someone interested in entering unarmed security work, the school’s quoted course fees, combined with current state application and fingerprinting charges, put the initial path at about $380. That includes the required eight-hour pre-assignment course, fingerprinting, the state application and the 16-hour on-the-job course.

The school now teaches in English and Spanish. Talavera said it introduced Spanish-language training about two years ago, after receiving state approval for translated course materials in a process that took about a year. He said it was the first school in Brooklyn authorized to offer that training in Spanish.

While the school does not promise work or operate a placement service, the company sometimes passes along students’ names when hospitals or other employers ask for candidates and occasionally hires a promising graduate itself.

“We recommend,” he said. “We don’t do job placement.”

Talavera sees continued demand in apartment buildings, co-ops and required training, even as cameras, databases and other technology reduce some of the work private investigators once handled. He said his immediate goal is to pursue security contracts at new local buildings and hire neighborhood residents.

He describes himself as semi-retired, but he continues to train his staff and remains closely tied to employees who have spent decades with the company.

Asked how long he expects to stay in the business — “Probably till I die,” Talavera answered.

“I’ve got bills to pay,” he added. “And I worry a lot about my staff. I shouldn’t, but I do.”