Ahsing Solutions, an upstart for-profit company with a city contract to patrol and monitor for drug activity in the Mission, is under state investigation after The Standard’s reporting revealed it was providing security services without a proper license.
According to a source with direct knowledge of the investigation, the California Department of Consumer Affairs received an anonymous complaint about Ahsing days after The Standard reported in December that the company had been performing unlicensed security work. The department, which oversees the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services, sent a letter to Ahsing asking for more information about its activities. According to the source, the company has yet to respond.
The Bureau of Security and Investigative Services said its investigations are confidential, and it would not respond to public records requests.
In an interview Nov. 3, Ahsing cofounder and program director Arleen Luong acknowledged that the company operated as a security services business. She said it held contracts with the Tenderloin Museum and Sequoia Living, a retirement community with locations in Aquatic Park and downtown.
“For those sites, it’s security,” Luong said, before explaining that several of Ahsing’s employees carry guard cards, which allow them to work as guards if employed by a licensed security company.
A search of the state database for security licenses shows no filing for Ahsing. Companies are required to obtain security licenses to ensure employees are properly insured and trained to perform the work, regardless of if the employees themselves are licensed.
Reached by phone, a person at the front desk of Sequoia Living’s downtown location described the Ahsing employee who works there as “a wonderful security guard.”
“We’re really lucky to have the person we have,” the person added.
Representatives of the Tenderloin Museum and Sequoia Living did not respond to a request for comment.
During the Nov. 3 interview, The Standard asked Luong if she planned to license Ahsing to provide security work.
“No, because the little two baby contracts that we have, which are small, we just have the employees that have guard cards,” Luong said.
In an interview Friday, Luong said she doesn’t consider the work performed at Sequoia Living to be security and stated that Ahsing no longer works with the Tenderloin Museum.
“I misspoke when I said security. I have to stop using that word, because people take it for what it’s not,” Luong said. “It’s not security.”
Luong said she had not received the state’s letter, but her husband, Mike Luong, had received an email from an investigator at the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services, which operates under the California Department of Consumer Affairs, last Tuesday.
However, because the email was addressed to Mike rather than Arleen Luong, the registered owner of Ahsing, she assumed it was spam.
“We have nothing to hide,” Luong said.
Luong provided a screenshot of the email from Nikki Judge, special investigator at the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services, which threatened “administrative action” against the company if it didn’t respond.
Luong also provided screenshots of Ahsing’s contract with Sequoia Living, though she would not share the full document.
Among the responsibilities listed in the Sequoia contract is the line item “Patrolling the facility to identify any trespassers, unauthorized individuals, or problematic guests, and to maintain a secure environment.”
Security experts say the company’s contract with the city also describes the type of work typically done by security guards.
The city contract requires Ahsing employees to “conduct hourly foot patrols in designated corridors to monitor safety and deter drug use” and “prevent or interrupt street violence, or to prevent crime so long as it does not endanger Ambassadors.”
However, city officials and Luong have denied that the company’s work with the city should be described as security. In the Nov. 3 interview, Luong argued that there is a difference between providing “safety” and “security.” Residents and business owners have praised the organization’s success in cleaning the streets around the 16th Street BART station.
In December, the city signed $32 million worth of contracts with five organizations to perform street ambassador work over the next 18 months. All the agreements include language similar to Ahsing’s $3.2 million contract.
The Department of Emergency Management didn’t respond to a request for comment on the state’s investigation into Ahsing.