Principle · 01
Hold the post.
Nobody leaves a site until relief is on station. Not for weather, not for traffic, not for a shift change. Missed posts are a firing offence — no exceptions, no second chances.
Miss rate 2025 · 0.00%
A century of
combined experience.
Shield of Steel was founded by a U.S. Coast Guard veteran with a three-man roster and a single post in downtown Memphis. We are now 200+ officers across all 95 Tennessee counties — still owned by the founders, still answering the phone ourselves.
01 / From the Founder
I started this company because every security firm I'd worked with before cared more about billing hours than holding the post. Officers who didn't know the site, supervisors who didn't answer the phone, reports that never got written.
A century of combined leadership experience later, we still run the same playbook — show up, document the shift, answer the phone. We haven't grown because we took shortcuts; we've grown because we refused to.
If you're reading this, you're probably looking for someone who will take the job as seriously as you take yours. We will.
WA
Waiel A.
Founder · U.S. Coast Guard (Ret.)
02 / Company History
Six milestones —
one company.
Shield of Steel has grown in deliberate stages. We've never taken on debt, never sold to private equity, and never taken a contract we couldn't staff from our own roster. Here's how we got here.
ORIGIN
Founding
One founder, one post
Waiel A., a U.S. Coast Guard (Ret.) veteran, launches Shield of Steel LLC from a Memphis basement with a single nighttime post at a downtown office tower.
2003
First expansion
Shelby County multi-site
Roster grows to 38 officers. First multi-site contract with a regional healthcare system. Acquired first marked patrol vehicle and launched 24/7 dispatch line.
2009
Licensure expansion
Armed program certified
Registered as an armed-officer agency under TN PPSS. Built in-house range and annual firearm requalification program. First armed contract: a Memphis cash-handling facility.
2014
Statewide coverage
Reached all 95 counties
Opened regional hubs in Nashville, Knoxville, and Chattanooga. Became one of five TN firms holding active posts in every county of the state.
2020
Dispatch upgrade
Memphis command centre
Moved dispatch to purpose-built command centre with live fleet tracking, integrated alarm monitoring, and client portal. 24/7 command seat staffed without exception.
2025
Zero missed posts
Operational milestone
142 active posts, 200+ officers. Zero missed-post minutes across the full calendar year — the first time in company history across the current roster size.
03 / What We Believe
Four principles.
Non-negotiable.
We don't have a mission statement — we have a standard. These are the four things every officer, supervisor, and dispatcher at Shield of Steel is held to, every shift.
Principle · 02
Document the shift.
Every shift gets a written Daily Activity Report. Every incident gets a photographed, time-stamped entry. A shift without paperwork didn't happen — and we don't bill for shifts that didn't happen.
DAR compliance · 100%
Principle · 03
Answer the phone.
Our dispatch line is answered by a live human in fewer than three rings, 24 hours a day, every day. No phone trees, no voicemail, no call centre overseas. You call — we pick up.
Avg ring count · 2.1
Principle · 04
Earn the uniform.
Every officer goes through a 40-hour onboarding, a probationary first month under a named supervisor, and quarterly reassessment. The Shield of Steel patch is earned — and it can be taken back.
Quarterly reassessment · mandatory
100+yrs
Combined Experience
Veteran-led · still founder-owned
142
Active Posts
TN statewide · audited monthly
200+
Officers
All W-2 · all licensed
0.00%
Missed Posts
Calendar year 2025 · 142 sites
04 / Leadership
The people
who sign off.
Eight names. Between them, more than a century of military, law-enforcement, private-security, and cyber service. Every officer on every post — and every analyst in the SOC — reports up into one of these people.
01 · Executive
CEO
Anwar O.
Chief Executive Officer
Chief executive. Career in private-security operations and regulated-industry compliance. Signs every contract over $250K and every incident-response engagement personally.
CEOExecutive
02 · Executive
Vice President
Mossa A.
Vice President
Vice president. Leads strategic accounts, multi-site client relationships, and the executive-protection, events, and advisory desks. Oversees corporate development across Tennessee and Mississippi.
VPStrategic Accounts
03 · Founder
Founder · Ops
Waiel A.
Founder & Director of Operations
Founder. Leads day-to-day field operations — post-order discipline, dispatch coordination, shift audits, and the operational-readiness desk. U.S. Coast Guard (Ret.). On the dispatch floor weekly.
FounderUSCG vet.TN Armed Reg.
04 · Protection
Director · EP Division
Deborah T.
Director · Executive Protection
Former U.S. Secret Service protective detail (17 yrs). Leads our close-protection program. Has deployed internationally on 40+ principal engagements.
USSS ret.TN Armed Reg.
05 · Dispatch
Director · Command Centre
James V.
Director · Memphis Dispatch
Former Memphis PD dispatcher (14 yrs). Runs the 24/7 command centre and the alarm-response SLA program. Writes the monthly response audit.
MPD ret.APCO cert.14 yrs
06 · Field
Regional · Middle TN
Samantha R.
Regional Director · Middle TN
Runs the Nashville hub. Former Tennessee Highway Patrol sergeant. Oversees 68 active officers across Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford, and Sumner counties.
THP ret.TN Armed Reg.9 yrs SoS
07 · Advisory
Director · Advisory
Helen S.
Director · Risk & Advisory
Leads the written-plan practice. Retired FBI special agent (22 yrs, counter-terror). Authors the signed site assessments and the monthly client intelligence brief.
FBI ret.CPPPSP
08 · Cyber Command
Director · Cyber Practice
Nathan B.
Director · Cyber Command
Leads Cyber Command — SOC, assessments, incident response, and compliance. Prior military cyber experience, including red-team work. Holds CompTIA SecurityX, ISACA CISM, and CompTIA CySA+ — a practitioner-manager-analyst stack, each DoD 8140 baseline. Signs every engagement personally.
SecurityXCISMCySA+DoD 8140
05 / Credentials & Compliance
Fully licensed.
Fully insured.
Every credential we carry is current, verifiable, and on file. We're happy to send a full compliance packet — licences, insurance certificates, bond, and recent audit reports — before you sign anything.
Licence● Active
TN Lic. #14310
Tennessee Department of Commerce & Insurance — Private Protective Services contract security company licence.
Renewed 03/2025 · exp 03/2027
Armed licence● Active
Armed / Supervisor
TN armed security officer certification with range-qualification program. All armed officers re-qualify quarterly at our in-house range.
200+ qualified officers
Insurance● Active
$5M GL
General liability insurance covering all officer conduct, vehicle incidents, and third-party claims. Certificate of insurance on request.
Carrier · Travelers
Surety bond● Active
$2M
Performance and fidelity surety bond ($2M surety bond). Protects clients against financial loss resulting from officer misconduct or contract non-performance.
Carrier · Hartford
Workers comp● Active
100% W-2
Every Shield of Steel officer is a W-2 employee, covered by Tennessee workers' compensation. We do not subcontract, 1099, or staff from day-labour pools.
Carrier · Liberty Mutual
Data handling● In transit
Encrypted
Our dispatch traffic, client portal, and incident-reporting systems run over TLS 1.3. Officer portal access is password-protected with session timeout. Incident reports are stored with role-based access control.
Software · hardened client portal
IndustryMember
ASIS Intl.
Company and senior staff hold active memberships with ASIS International, the industry standards body for private security.
Since 2002
Veteran-ownedVerified
SDVOSB
Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business verified through the VA's Center for Verification and Evaluation. Certified federal contractor.
CVE verified
BBB● A+
A+ Rating
Better Business Bureau accredited A+ with zero unresolved complaints across company history. All client grievances handled directly by COO.
Accredited since 2001
06 / The Standard
What we mean when we
say "shield of steel."
Security is a discipline, not a service. Here's the standard — in plain language, the way we'd explain it to a new officer on their first day.
Show up.
Every post on our roster has a named primary officer, a named secondary, and a regional float. If the primary can't make the shift, the secondary is on-site before the gap opens. If the secondary can't make it, the float does. We do not leave posts uncovered — we have not missed a post-minute across 142 sites in calendar year 2025, and we'll tell you in the proposal how we track it.
Look the part.
Every officer on every shift arrives in a clean, pressed uniform with visible licence, current ID, a charged radio, a working body cam, and the post order printed and in hand. Supervisors audit uniform and equipment compliance at roll call; officers who arrive out of standard do not work the shift. This is not theatre — it is the difference between being taken seriously and being ignored.
"If the officer doesn't look like he's in command of the post in the first five seconds, he isn't. And neither are we."
Document everything.
A shift without documentation didn't happen. Every officer submits a Daily Activity Report before leaving the site — incidents, visitor log, equipment check, patrol count, photographs of anything out of the ordinary. DARs are reviewed by a supervisor the same morning and made available to the client before 9 a.m. We do not bill for a shift without a submitted DAR.
Answer the phone.
Our dispatch line at (202) 222-2225 is answered by a trained, licensed human dispatcher in fewer than three rings, every hour of every day. No phone trees. No voicemail. No overseas call centre. If you are a client, you reach a person who knows your site. If you are not a client, you reach a person who can help you decide whether to become one.
Take the call seriously.
Every alarm response, every incident, every escalation runs through the same four-stage protocol — acknowledge, dispatch, arrive, secure — and every stage is timestamped. The full log goes to the client the following morning. If we missed the SLA, we tell you; we credit the account; and we explain what happened. We would rather lose the contract than lose your trust.
That's the standard.
There's no secret. No trademarked methodology. Just the six things we've been doing with a century of combined experience — refusing to get any less rigorous about any of them as the company grows.
07 / Next Step
Ready to see
the standard?
A senior officer will walk your property, meet your team, and deliver a signed written assessment within ten business days. No cost, no pitch, no pressure. Just the plan.