The BOARDcast Ep. 4

Join us for a great conversation with Ruth Ann Powell of Key Security Systems, where we dive into the world of community security, technology, and how associations can better protect themselves. Ruth Ann shares her journey from a career in nutrition to managing HR and marketing in her family’s second-generation security company—covering everything from locksmithing to advanced electronic access, surveillance cameras, license plate readers, and gate systems.

We also talk about:

• The growing role of AI in surveillance and how it saves time reviewing footage.

• Why license plate cameras are essential for accountability in communities.

• How associations should properly prepare gates and systems for hurricanes.

• The importance of maintenance contracts to avoid costly surprises.

• Why boards should never promise “security” but instead focus on surveillance and access control.

If you’re a board member, CAM, or simply interested in how technology is shaping community safety, you’ll find this discussion both informative and eye-opening.

TRANSCRIPT

All right, we've got Ruth Anne Powell of Key Security Systems. Ruth Anne and I actually met when I was first getting into this whole world of associations. Um Ruth Anne, I don't know if you remember this, you sponsored me to come into I believe it was a CAI meeting. I think it was a breakfast meeting. And I thought, "Oh, that's great. I can meet a lot of people. I can learn more things. Wonderful. And then, if I remember correctly, they went around the room and everybody that was new had to stand up and talk in front of everybody. I'm like, "Wait a second. I don't know if I I don't know if I signed up for that portion of this." But, uh, yeah, you kind of introduced me to a lot of of this world. So, um, it's, uh, you know, we kind of, uh, ended up where we started. So, I'm so happy to have you on here. Why don't you kind of explain to everybody um key security systems? Obviously, we all know what security is. Uh but why don't you explain to everybody kind of your world that you live in and a little bit of your background if you don't mind? Well, thanks so much Derek and it was a pleasure to have you as my guest at CI. you were fantastic and you're doing great things and um just so proud of where you've been and where you come and really grateful that you've invited me to be on your program. My name is Ruth Anne Powell and my husband is Keith Powell and I am in the security world because of him. I actually trained to be a nutritionist and worked as a nutritionist for Wick here in Collier County and at the uh hospital NCH healthc care system in their outpatient wellness system for many years. And when I had my fourth child, um she was turning three and going to preschool and we had an opening. uh our office manager was leaving to take another job and so my husband thought it would be best if I came and worked for him. And so I started off managing his office um dispatching guys and taking payments, doing the books and doing some marketing on the side. And now I do HR and marketing exclusively. I have an someone else that does the office management role and I have another uh bookkeeper who does much better at that than I did. I did not know that you your background was nutrition. Yeah, that's amazing. Oh, you you would hate to see my daily diet. You would cringe. I need I needed a nutritionalist years ago. I think it's too late for me at this point. That's all right. Do you Oh, that's interesting. What do you live on caffeine? Uh, you know, I actually I gave up I'm really trying to like be a better human being all the way around. I'm trying to get rid of all vices, all so I actually gave up. I was a soda addict. I would literally drink I can't even tell you how many Diet Cokes a day. Um, I I'm surprised I don't glow in the dark or, you know, set off the the alarms everywhere I go. I had so much uh chemicals in me, but I gave that up probably about four or five months ago. I have not had any caffeine. Not that I know of. I mean, I'm sure there's somewhere floating around. Um, but yeah. No, not anymore, but oh my gosh, I used to drink over 12 sodas a day. It was It was horrible. It was horrible. Caffeine was my friend or my enemy. I'm not sure which one. Well, good for you, Derek. Well, I'm working at it. It only took till the uh till the end of my life that I'm figuring out all the things I should have done at the beginning of my life, but it's all right. It's all right. We're getting there. So, uh so Key uh Security Systems now, we've actually worked together on on some contracts. you guys do more than I think what at least what I thought of when I when we first met. You know, you think of okay, it's a locksmith or it's but there's so many aspects to it and especially with technology now. Why don't you kind of talk about that a little bit? I mean, there's um you know the master key systems, there's AI coming down the pike now fast. How is how is all of that kind of changed that world? Well, thanks for asking, Derek, and you're absolutely right. My husband is a second generation locksmith. His father started a locksmith business here in Naples in the 80s, and he worked downtown on Fifth Avenue. And uh for many, many years before he retired to Marco Island. And so my husband grew up locking, but he noticed that security was going increasingly electronic. And so he got his own electrical license. And we do a lot more than just locksmithing now. We install and service uh surveillance cameras. We install and service vehicle gates, telephone entry systems, barcode scanners. We repair automatic doors. We do burglar alarms. And we're still a full service lock. Wow. Yeah. I think with And what about AI? How is that now? Obviously, I know there's, you know, I mean, the the scary things people hear about facial recognition with security cameras and all of that, but how deep are you guys getting into that? Well, I think that AI is a really useful tool. I mean, everyone knows chat GPT and we use it in our emails all the time. The great thing about AI and surveillance cameras is that they're actually using AI to help people go through video footage. So, in the past when you were going through video footage of your security cameras, it took hours to go through the footage to catch the incident, but now it's uh going to be a lot easier and a lot quicker because you can prompt the AI to find someone with a white shirt to find white truck and then give you all those incidences. And of course, the importance of license plate cameras can't be overrated. It's really important that you have license plate cameras because just knowing that someone came in in a white truck is not very useful. You have to have the license plate of the owner of the vehicle to really be able to go after somebody that either is loitering in your community or illegally dumping furniture at your dumpsters or perhaps they do something worse like clip the gate and cause thousands of dollars worth of damage at the gate. So to be able to hold people responsible for the things going on in your community, it's really important to have a license plate camera. And the uniqueness of those cameras is that they can handle dim lighting and motion blur. And a lot of incidences at gates sometimes will occur at night. And so to be able to make out a license plate uh when you have the dim lighting and the motion blur of the cam of the car going through um the the lane really requires a specialty camera and they are much more expensive than regular cameras. Um much more specialty but they are far more powerful. Yeah. So what about the laws when it comes to all of that? Um I'm I'm I'm guessing there's some privacy laws that might get uh touched upon, but then again, it is private property. You have every right as a community to know who's in in your community. Are the laws getting more involved on the security side nowadays? Well, I don't know about the laws. That would be a great question for an attorney, but I know that even the the the police uh like to get involved with this. In fact, they have been the police departments have been encouraging communities to pay for services that will run license plates as they go through the community to help the police uh enforce warrants and things like that. I mean, I think when you're driving on a public road, you're displaying your license plate publicly. I don't know that you can claim any privacy for that. Yeah, that's true. I know. Uh so I I live on Marco and I know the uh the police are, you know, nine out of 10 times there's always a a car as you come over the bridge there's always a car on the other side and I was talking to one of the police officers and I always thought, oh, they're looking to see if somebody's speeding as they're coming over the bridge. They're they're looking at license plates. That's that's what they're doing. They're literally checking license plates as you're coming into the area. So, I think that'll just be more and more moving forward. Um, so I think you be easier to do as that task becomes automated. So, you it's harder for police officers to take the time to stand there. That costs a lot of money to pay an employee to stand there. But as we're facing very much uh a crisis of of good employees, just a crisis of manpower, I think that that's where technology is going to become our friend. And we're going to need the automation to automate these tasks that can be automated and done by computers. Right. Right. Now, when it comes to the cameras around a community, uh, and I know some of this because of of, um, what I what I do during the day, I deal with fiber optics and, um, you know, these cameras. Do you see that they are mostly, you know, we call it dark fiber where it's it's going back to a central location. All those cameras are kind of going back to a central location with a recorder or whatever it is. or do you see that there's a trend to get those online so everybody can access or communities or security companies can access that online? Well, absolutely. Both of those things are happening. A lot of times management companies want a large monitor so that they can have those camera feeds monitored by either a guard or an administrative professional at all times in live real time. Um, they also want to be able to access that feed uh through the cloud via their phones at any time of the night or day. And those are things that can happen with commercial grade cameras. There are apps for your phone where you can get the downloaded feed and and keep tabs on your property at all times through your phone. Um certainly a central location where either a guard or administrative professional is watching the cameras is something that a lot of customers want as well. Right now when it comes to gates and with my background in property management, gates were not my friend. There was there were so many times we would get a call somebody broke through the gate or the you know it's malfunctioning or whatever the case is. Um, what do you, and I hate to bring this word up, uh, but I've been bringing it up a lot lately, you know, if a hurricane comes, what can, what can you do, uh, from your point of view when it comes to gates as far as prepping them, as far as dealing with them after the fact? Well, it's real important that when you're expecting a hurricane that you take down your barrier arms and store them away. Um, some people have actually off opted to take their uh metal gates off site and put them in a more secure or elevated facility. Uh, we had an issue with flooding lately with Ian and some of the other storms that come through. Uh, we've never seen this kind of flooding in my lifetime that I know of. So, this is a new experience. Another thing that we've been doing to help um associations is putting their gates on risers and actually elevating the operators so that if there is flooding uh that they're less likely to be flooded and ruined. I know that's something. Yeah. Sometime another idea would be to actually take them off site and reinstall them after the storm. So that another option that some companies are offering. Now you obviously deal with a lot of different aspects when it comes to security. What would you say are the main things that um you as a company what what's kind of your bread and butter? What is the the ma what are the main things that you guys deal with? Obviously, you got a lot of different pieces. You got a lot of different options that that you can offer, but what what are the main things uh that you guys do most days? What what's what's the main area of focus? Well, we work we do a lot with access control. So, fob systems, repairing fob systems, installing fob systems, strikes, electronic access, um automatic panic bars, electrified panic bars. Uh we also do a lot with gates. Gates as you said are regularly impacted and so they have to be repaired. So, we do a lot of gate repairs. Uh we also do maintenance contracts and that's something that I think is really important for managers to have their gates maintained properly and that can help them to troubleshoot problems before they arise. I know we had a camera system one time. There was a gunshot that actually damaged a vehicle in a parking lot and there was a camera system near it and when we went to check the feed, the cameras hadn't been working in 3 months and nobody knew it. Oh no. at where having a maintenance contract where your security company comes through once a quarter and actually checks your equipment can be really important. Um because sometimes if you're not monitoring those cameras actively or you're not monitoring your equip equipment actively, sometimes things happen and you don't notice right away. Yeah, unfortunately uh that one sounded so familiar to me. We'll have to talk off air. I I actually managed a property where there was a there was a gunshot that hit a car. I don't remember about the camera part of it, but uh I think I'm going to talk to you about that off air a little bit. I that would be wow. That would be an odd coincidence, but hey, I get I guess these things maybe aren't as uncommon as as you think. So what do you see moving forward for this whole industry for security for the AI component within the security world the the everything's moving to electronic I know on my house I have electronic um locks on my doors so I you know I get in using my thumb print I mean that you know years ago that would have been sci-fi and now that's just every day for me So, how do you how do you see the future looking for for this whole industry? Well, that's a great question and that's anyone's guess, but at least for now, I think what's here to stay is mobile credentials. Um, facial recognition was really popular several years ago, but then it's it it kind of fell out of favor. And I think because for large communities trying to flip through profiles of that many faces uh actually caused a too large of a lag time and people were impatient. However, mobile credentials are very secure because they're attached to your phone and people don't generally share their phones with anyone. Okay. And they're very convenient. Everybody has their phone on them at all times. Usually, I would say even kids and and older adults, everyone has their phone constantly with them. And so, it makes it very very convenient. You're less likely to lose a fob. You're It's a very convenient and secure way to access your access control system. That's true. Yeah, that's true. Uh yeah. Yeah, actually there is a move away from fobs because we're all carrying around this magical device that we can use for fobs for for entry. That is true. Even your car, people can just they can start their car on their phone. It's it's an amazing world. Yeah. The phone I don't know anybody I mean think about it. Anybody you know if they if they misplace their phone for more than three seconds, there is an anxiety attack like no other. Oh my god, my whole world is in there. Your whole world is in your phone. Scary. Don't even wear watches anymore because they have access to their phone. They can measure their heart rate on their phone. The phone has their bank account information, all their pictures, their social media. The the phone has universal appeal and it's very secure and convenient, which is unusual to have something secure and convenient at the same time. So, I think mobile credentials are definitely something that is going to continue and that people will probably take more advantage of. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. I stopped wearing a watch years ago because of that. I thought, why am I wearing a watch when my I literally have my phone with me and that tells me the time. Yeah. It's a different It's a different world. I tell everybody, uh, if if I want to know what the future looks like, I go watch an old Star Trek show, and everything comes true. Just just go look at the 1960s Star Trek series from the communicator, which turned into the cell phone, uh, automatic doors. I mean, I'm waiting for the replicator that it can just make my food. I mean, of course, we have the microwave, but uh I just want to tell it just make me a chicken sandwich and have Or how about the trans corner? Be me up, Scott. Oh, that would that one I might wait. I might have somebody else test that one out before me, though. I just in case. Just in case. Sounds great. But, you know, I don't I don't want to come out the other side as a goat or something. But, well, you know what? Thank you so much for for coming on the show today. I truly appreciate it. Like I said, um I kind of feel like I'm I'm at the starting point with you on this show. You literally introduced me to so much of this world with HOAs, condominiums, co-ops, this whole world. And uh and here we are how many years later sitting down talking all over again. So thank you so much. I appreciate your time, Ruthanne. Absolutely. It was a pleasure. Thank you so much, Derek. Appreciate the opportunity. All right, so now uh we're going to do a little extra segment that will be part of the podcast. Um so it'll be a continuation uh of that, but also a little further. Um, now I want to actually talk to you about some some more fun stuff like uh I know you know at the at the can event when Key was talking and I think you mentioned it too uh stupid criminals that you guys see some fun things on on the videos when you go through them. Do you get do you have like a best of reel that you uh you watch at holiday parties or anything? Well, actually, he gets a lot of his stories uh online. Some some of the things that people do, you just you you can't even make up. Um there was a gentleman who decided to drink at a bar after hours and he busted the busted the bar and uh was drinking and uh the alarm went off and the alarm company called and he answered the phone and gave his name So, you just can't make those things up. Well, yeah, most criminals are not Harvard graduates. So, yeah, I think there might have been something missing to begin with. Someone I knew was a private investigator. We'll leave it there who it was. Somebody I knew. and they would take videos, you know, they would surveil people and um for insurance mostly, you know, somebody who said that they had a back injury and then uh her job was to go uh when they were renting uh jet skis to go rent jet skis right next to them so she could show that they're out there, you know, having lots of fun. But she would show us some videos. You know, this unknown person that I met once would show us these videos. Oh my gosh, so funny. People are just when they don't think anybody's looking, they're they're just not the brightest. Not the brightest folk, but it is entertaining. I'll give you that. For the rest of us, it is fun to watch. It is. You know, you're talking about privacy, and I think there are some people that do have the mistaken impression that there's some level of privacy at the pool. My husband was telling a board member that, you know, no one would be naked at the pool and he promptly uh went through some video with the board member and a woman turned her body towards the camera, not realizing there was a camera, and she was topless. Oh no, to eat his words. So people sometimes have the mistaken impression that there's a level of privacy that simply no longer exists in our world. Now everybody has a Ring camera and all kinds of things that maybe in the past would gone unnoticed uh are recorded for posterity and retained forever digitally. Yeah. And there was that controversy just a couple years ago where law enforcement was basically using people's ring cameras. I mean, I think I don't know if that's if that ever got resolved totally, but I know that was a big controversy for a while that they wanted permission to use everybody's ring cameras to keep an eye on neighborhoods and not necessarily inside, you know, an association, just period. Right. And I I know that caused a big stir for people uh just when it came down to privacy. But again, if you're going to do something illegal, you have to understand there are cameras everywhere. So, we actually had something really positive happen from ring camera footage. A neighborhood right near me had a woman go missing. Uh she was woman and confused. She had some deta and they were able to use the Ring camera footage to find her in a neighbor's garage. The neighbor out of town and didn't realize that she had gotten trapped in their garage and they did find her alive and restored her to her family. Oh, thank the Lord. A ring camera footage actually saved somebody's life and that that can happen. Wow. That's actually yeah that's I mean yeah people people kind of forget that side of it too. I mean there's I guess like with any tool or technology or invention it can be used for good it can be used for bad. I mean just you know I I was a back in the day in the 1800s when I was young I was a firefighter for uh for a decade. Um and fire I mean hey fire can be great or it can be bad. It doesn't matter what it is. So, yeah, you just have to look at the good and and I guess try to to limit the the bad as much as you can. So, now I know uh Key was talking at at an event that we were at and what was that thing he had in his pocket that it was like a decoder or what was that? He said like he could um hack it was like a hacking device. Do you remember? Yeah, I do. And I don't name it either. I want to say it was a fidget spinner, but I know it wasn't a fidget spinner. No. No. But it was it was that's what it kind of reminded me of. It was like that small and compact. And um but yeah, it was it was funny because he was walking around the entire room. And then at the end of it, he was saying, "Yeah, and this can uh pick up your uh credit card uh information or whatever." And everybody's looking at him like, "I'm sorry. You just walked by me three times. Uh you're telling me this now?" Oh, but I'm sure I'm sure he's an upstanding man. I'm not saying anything. Please, please. But that is scary. And you and I don't know if you still can, but you could buy that on Amazon or online. I mean, that's right. I guess I guess it takes a while for the law to catch up to some of these things. True. I should You know what? When you see them, ask them the name and then text me if you don't mind. I want to pick one up before uh before they're completely outlawed. you know, not for any bad use, but just for fun. I just want to make all my uh my family members nervous. That's all. That I can see what my kids are doing on their phone. That's all. Nothing nothing bad. Nothing bad at all. So, uh are there is there anything that you would like people to know? I mean, I want to make sure I give you the floor of this is a chance to educate the folks out there. Is there anything that you would like everybody to know? uh within the the guidelines of an association within security any anything come to mind? Well, that's that's a great question, Derek. And I think one thing that comes to mind is just the importance of maintaining your security systems. And I know we talked about maintenance contracts. I think they're really beneficial, but sometimes people are tempted when things break to let them go and let it slide. Maybe wait till you have the money, which may or may not ever happen. If you have security systems on your property, surveillance cameras, gates, access control systems, and you don't intend to maintain them for whatever reason, you should remove them. And that's really important. Uh we've had customers that wanted to install fake cameras to try to give the impression that people were being surveiled when they were not. And we know that people have been successfully sued for installing fake cameras and giving the impression of security that did not exist. Wow. So I would encourage you never to form a committee that is called security or to advertise that you provide security because that's something that you you simply can't promise. Uh there was an association here in Naples, a very upscale association that advertised that they were a secure community and they had some homeowners uh with that were invaded and robbed and they successfully sued the association because the association promised them security and did not provide it. So it's really important that when you talk about cameras, you don't call them security cameras. You call them surveillance cameras. And when you talk about your systems, you talk about access control system, not security systems. You can't provide security. It's simply something divine. And we a very determined thief or asalent will get in. We've had that had people attacked and things happen sometimes because their systems were broken. That is great great advice. I remember I was actually when I was in the property on the property management side and came across a community and they wanted us to um hire their quote security team, their their their uh their gate, you know, their guard gate um folks and whoever was driving around and we we opted out because of that exact thing saying well we can't first of all uh you know legally or insurance-wise you know we couldn't cover that we were then a security company but the second thing was our recommendation to them was you have to rename these people you cannot call them security guards right you that right there opens you up. And I don't think people realize that. I mean, it's just been such a a throwaway phrase for decades and decades. But I guess with litigation, you have to be very careful how you are advertising and that and just by naming them a security guard, you're advertising that they are creating security. I've never Yeah, that's true. That is very true. Absolutely. I mean, in the instance of the fake camera, if someone were to set their purse by the fake camera with the impression that if it was taken or messed with, somebody would be able to retrieve the footage. And that's not the case with a fake camera or certainly a broken camera. So, if you do have systems that are not working, I would encourage you to just make a decision. Either repair them and get them working or take them out. That's great. That is great advice. Um, wow. No, that's great advice. Anything else uh before we go that that any other gems, any other nuggets of wisdom? Well, I think it's important to lean on your professionals. Um, because you don't want, you know, as a manager or as a board member, it's important that you don't try to be the end all and be all. uh it's a lot of liability to take on and you really want to rely on the professional in the field that they're in. So you wouldn't ask security advice from uh your attorney per se. You wouldn't ask legal advice from your security company. You wouldn't ask the painter uh for for legal advice or for CPA advice. You want to rely on the professional in the industry in the area you're in. Sometimes board members are from out of state and they're not familiar with the laws here in Florida or with the environment here i

Extended thinking