MIAMI-DADE COUNTY · LICENSED FLORIDA SECURITY AGENCY
Pinecrest security guards: covering an acre, not just a gate
Security guard services in Pinecrest cover a village built on one acre minimum lots, where the house sits well back from the street behind mature hedging. Almond Tree Security Services runs armed and unarmed patrols and fixed posts across Pinecrest, dispatches from Homestead, and answers a new request within 2 hours.
Agency license B# 3500420
Class D and Class G officers
$32/hr unarmed · $40/hr armed
Veteran Preference certified
Security Agency License B# 3500420
Investigator Agency License A# 3500419
Class D and Class G licensed officers
Veteran Preference certified by Florida
TELL US ABOUT THE LOT
Tell us what sits behind the hedge
Three or four lines is enough to price it. We reply the same business day, and the figure is confirmed in writing before the first shift.
What helps most:
The lot: how far the house sits back, and whether the drive is gated
What you want watched: the house, a build, an event, or the street frontage
When: overnight, a date range, or while a contractor is on site
Request a written quote
No obligation. If the village police force is the right call instead, we will say so.
WHAT THE LOT SIZE CHANGES
What does a Pinecrest property actually need?
Most Pinecrest addresses need patrol rather than a posted officer, and the lot size is why.
The village zones its estate district at a one acre minimum, written into Chapter 30 of the Village Code. When Pinecrest incorporated in 1996 it took the acre-lot pattern that had grown up through the 1950s and 1960s and made it enforceable. The result is a village of detached houses set well back from the road, with long driveways and hedging that has had sixty years to fill in.
An officer standing at the end of that driveway can see the driveway. He cannot see the pool deck, the side gate, the garage doors or the back fence. On a lot that size, cover means moving through the property on a schedule and logging what was checked.
Set checkpoints on an irregular schedule. The usual answer for an occupied or empty estate lot.
Armed or unarmed, where somebody genuinely has to stand at a point and control who comes through.
For the streets and associations that run a shared arrangement across several houses.
For the teardown and rebuild work that runs constantly on these lots.
Parties, filming and private functions at a house, where parking and the gate are the job.
Where the exposure is a person rather than a property.
THE DRIVE, HONESTLY
How long is the run from Homestead to Pinecrest?
Pinecrest is one of the shorter runs we make, closer to our Homestead office than Kendall is, straight up US 1 or the Turnpike.
We answer a new request within 2 hours and have a licensed officer on site within 4. That is a new request, not an active detail already running, and not an emergency service.
2 hrs
to answer a new request
4 hrs
to put an officer on site
24/7
nights, weekends, holidays
3
counties covered
The drive matters more than it sounds. A company quoting Pinecrest from Fort Lauderdale is pricing a dispatch it has to make twice a night through Miami traffic. We are south of you, which is the boring reason the overnight shifts actually get filled.
FOUR DIFFERENT JOBS
Where the work changes from one Pinecrest street to the next
Pinecrest is not one job. Four property types sit inside the same village and each one changes what an officer is actually doing.
Acre lots and long driveways
The core of the village. Occupied homes want a visible pass on an irregular schedule; empty ones, between owners or during a long trip, want the perimeter physically checked and a written log their insurer will accept. Several neighboring houses on the same street can share a patrol route, which is usually how a family of properties gets covered without anyone paying for a dedicated post.
Teardown and rebuild sites
Acre lots in a village this established mean near-constant demolition and rebuilding. A half-built house is a materials yard with no doors: copper, appliances, tooling and a generator sitting behind a temporary fence. This is a different job from guarding a home, and it usually wants overnight and weekend cover rather than a permanent post.
The US 1 storefront strip
The commercial edge of the village runs along US 1. Storefronts, professional suites and medical offices there have the problems any retail strip has: closing time, the back door, the parking area after dark, and staff walking to their cars.
Private events at a Pinecrest home
Pinecrest Gardens, the former Parrot Jungle and on the National Register of Historic Places since 2011, runs public events in the village. Private houses here host their own: parties, fundraisers, filming. Event work on a residential street is mostly parking, access at the gate, and keeping the function from spilling into the neighbors' frontage.
PUBLISHED RATES
What do you charge to patrol a Pinecrest lot?
An unarmed Class D officer is $32.00 an hour and an armed Class G officer is $40.00 an hour, with a six-hour minimum booking.
Unarmed officer
$32.00 per hour. Florida Class D.
Armed officer
$40.00 per hour. Florida Class D and Class G.
Vehicle, parked
$10.00 per hour. Billed separately from the officer.
Vehicle, on patrol
$14.00 per hour. Engine running or moving between points.
Mobile patrol, multi-day
$44.00 per hour. Officer and vehicle together, on a multi-day contract.
Vehicle, multi-day
$8.00 parked, $12.00 on patrol, per hour.
Minimum booking
6 hours. Applies to every post.
For most Pinecrest addresses the line that matters is the multi-day patrol rate, because a patrol route covers ground a fixed post cannot and a route can be shared across several properties on the same street. The South Florida pricing guide works through how the hours add up.
Your figure is confirmed in writing before the first shift.
Tell us the address and the hours.
THE QUESTION EVERY RESIDENT ASKS
Why hire a private officer when the village has its own police?
Because they do different jobs, and the Pinecrest Police Department is genuinely good at theirs.
The village has run its own standalone, full-time police department since 15 June 1997. If something is happening, they are who you want, and they will get there faster than any private company. Nothing on this page competes with that.
What a private officer does is the part a police department is not for: being physically present on your property before anything happens, checking a perimeter on a schedule, controlling who comes through a gate during a build or an event, and producing a written record of it. A patrol log showing your lot was checked four times between midnight and dawn is a deterrent and a document. It is not an emergency response, and we do not sell it as one.
HONEST LIMITS
When Pinecrest should not call us
Three situations where another option serves you better.
Something is happening right now
Call 911. Pinecrest has its own police force and they will beat us there. Our 2 hour answer and 4 hour deployment describe a new booking, not an emergency.
You need less than six hours
Our minimum booking is six hours. If you want somebody present while a delivery is unloaded or for the two hours of a party, we are an expensive way to buy that.
You want cameras installed, not people
We are licensed officers and patrols. Alarm and camera installation is a different trade and a different license class, and a village of hedged acre lots often needs the camera work first.
WHO WRITES THE POST ORDERS
Who signs off on your post orders?
Steve Garrison, founder, and Brian Kennedy, Chief Executive Officer.
Steve Garrison
Founder
Brian Kennedy
Chief Executive Officer
Post orders for a Pinecrest address are written against the property, not pulled off a shelf: where the officer parks, which gates get checked, what time the pass happens, who is allowed through during a build, and who gets called. Every officer holds a Florida Class D license for unarmed work or Class G for armed, completes 40 hours of field training with us, and repeats de-escalation and harassment training every year.
The motto is Safety Before All, and it is the standard the post orders are written against.
ASKED ON THE PHONE
What Pinecrest homeowners and managers ask
The questions that come up on a first call from a Pinecrest address.
Do you cover the Village of Pinecrest?
Yes. Pinecrest sits inside our Miami-Dade service area and is one of the shorter runs from our Homestead office, closer than Kendall. We answer a new request within 2 hours and can have a licensed officer on site within 4, including nights, weekends and holidays.
How many officers does an acre need?
Usually one, working a route rather than standing at a point. A single officer can cover an acre lot properly on a patrol pattern, checking the perimeter, gates and outbuildings on a schedule. A fixed post makes sense when somebody has to control a gate continuously, such as during a build or an event.
Does a Pinecrest home need an armed officer?
Most do not. Unarmed Class D officers handle presence, access control and incident reporting, which is the work at a residential address. Armed Class G officers are for a risk profile that justifies it. We will tell you if we think armed is unnecessary.
Is patrol cheaper than a posted officer?
For most Pinecrest properties, yes, because you are buying a share of a route instead of a whole shift. A multi-day patrol contract runs $44.00 an hour with the vehicle included, and the same route can take in several houses on one street.
Can you guard a house that is being rebuilt?
Yes, and it is one of the more common jobs in this village. A rebuild holds copper, appliances, tooling and a generator behind a temporary fence. Cover is usually overnight and weekend rather than a permanent post, and the officer controls contractor access at the gate during working hours if you want that too.
Do you coordinate with Pinecrest Police?
We work alongside them. Our officers call them, the same as you would, and hand over. We are a private security company licensed under Chapter 493, not a law enforcement agency, and we do not have police powers.
If I call this morning, when does cover start?
A new request is answered within 2 hours and an officer can be on site within 4. A standing schedule, a multi-day patrol route or a build that needs the same officer every night takes a conversation first, usually the same business day.
SAME DISPATCH DESK
Which areas next to Pinecrest do we cover?
Everything around it, dispatched from the same Homestead office.
The full list is on the Service Area page.
Put an officer on your Pinecrest address
Tell us the street, the lot, the hours you want covered and whether the house is occupied. You get a written figure back the same business day, and the rate is fixed before the first shift.
After hours (305) 216-1818 · Company Information · Security Agency License B# 3500420