Largest security guard companies hold their own: Wells Fargo Guard becomes No. 1 through acquisition.

Pinkerton Security, for years the dominant purveyor of security guard services in Los Angeles County, has had its title wrested away by Wells Fargo Guard Services, according to this week's List.

Wells Fargo, a subsidiary of Chicago-based Borg-Warner Security Corp. and not affiliated with San Francisco-based Wells Fargo Bank, displaced Pinkerton as L.A. County's largest security guard firm by acquiring and then folding in the operations of United Security Industries. Primarily through that acquisition, Well Fargo added nearly 1,000 local security guards to its payroll.

Wells Fargo officials were unavailable for comment last week.

However, Arthur Fischer, a regional vice president for Pinkerton, downplayed the significance of Wells Fargo knocking Pinkerton out of the top slot.

"If you have a lot of money and go off and buy other companies, that increases your growth, but that doesn't mean you're any better," he said.

Pinkerton's L.A. security force has actually declined by about 50 guards since last year. Fischer attributed that slight drop-off to corporate belt-tightening brought on by the Southern California recession.

The number of Pinkerton guards employed per client has declined somewhat, Fischer conceded. "But we have been able to offset that downsizing by increasing our number of clients; that way, we're staying about even."

Somewhat surprisingly, in light of the intense media coverage of L.A. crime in the past year, the total number of security guards employed locally by the 25 largest firms has actually remained virtually unchanged since a year ago. Last year, the 25 largest firms employed a total of 26,721 guards in L.A. County. Today, they employ 26,705.

While Wells Fargo added the most L.A. security guards to its payroll over the past year, the firm that hired the most local guards through internal growth (rather than through acquisition) was Inter-Con Security Systems Inc. of Alhambra. That firm took on 400 new hires in L.A., causing it to rise two notches to No. 4 in the rankings.

"We haven't grown through acquisitions or by just low-bidding contracts to gain business," said Michael Placido, Inter-Con's vice president of administration. "Our growth comes from (clients) realizing that true security is not just a night watchman. What we provide is the closest thing to law enforcement, without stepping over that line."