Cambridge Security Celebrates Company Award Recipients for 2019

We were delighted to celebrate the following employees at our recent 2019 holiday party with company awards recognizing their exemplary behavior—attitude, conduct and performance.

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Check out our gallery with photos of all the employees.

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Read about our awardees for 2019 and the why we chose these employees to be recognized with our highest honors.

Field Training Officer of the Year Recipients

Lieutenant Gabriel Salazar, Palm Beach and Treasure Coast

Lt. Salazar was hired one year ago as an Armed Floater. He has been a versatile asset to our operation. He has worked at almost every site including our premier sites JCC, Bay Hill, San Michele, The Loxahatchee Club where he has learned the post orders, he has never been the recipient of any complaints and has never called out. He responds when called to work with short notice and is always eager, willing and able to work. Thanks to S/O Salazar’s dedication, knowledge of so many sites, his positive attitude and world class customer service skills he has significantly helped our operation by filling openings and working all shifts.

Lieutenant Cody Johns, West Coast

Cody has set the bar high on officer performance and availability. Officer Johns took a critical position last December as a Field Training Officer during a major change of the Operations staff. His hard work and dedication assisted in a smooth transition for the new Operations staff as they worked to bring the Branch to a normal operating posture.

Officer Johns can be summed up into all categories it takes to be successful as a Cambridge Field Training Officer. He is motivated, loyal, dedicated, and infallible. To accentuate these brief words Officer Johns will be wherever you need him and will do whatever it takes to accomplish the mission. He has worked every post armed/unarmed in this Branch as a security officer.

Officer Johns has showed exceptional professionalism in doing his duties. Feedback from clients demand that they keep Cody at their site. These simplistic yet rare abilities that Officer Johns demonstrates on a daily basis is what marks him as a further leader in this Company.

Cody Johns takes pride in being part of Cambridge Security, and we take pride in having part of our team.

Lieutenant Pablo Cabreja

Lt. Cabreja was hired during the Hurricane Irma caused power outage in Fort Lauderdale, where he stood post at a retail store while groups of looters were moving through the area. Since then, he has worked in numerous roles, including his most recent promotion to Field Training Officer.

Cabreja has a thirst for skills and knowledge. He always challenges himself to perform tasks to the best possible standard and seeks help from appropriate colleagues when needed. He has quickly become the ‘go to’ person when his Branch needs someone to come in. He consistently begins each day fully refreshed and prepared for any challenges.

Officer of the Year Recipients

Sergeant Yuri van der Weil

Yuri van der Wiel has been employed at Admiral’s Cove since October of 2018. He is intrinsically involved in maintaining the professional standards that have been adopted for our security team.

Yuri has since been promoted to the rank of Sergeant and is our Field Training Officer. The phrase “above and beyond” is his daily routine and has been responsible for training every officer and paramedic that has joined our security team ever since. Yuri comes to us with an impressive security background. He oversaw security on the oil drilling platforms off the Angola coast in West Africa and worked with the Royal Dutch Marines.

Security Officer Jesus Miranda

Since we placed officer Miranda at Three Of Life over a year ago now, he has been doing an outstanding job. Jesus Miranda Customer service skills are exemplary, but his natural charisma is what makes all the teachers and students at the school to love him. He takes the time to get to know every single kid, parent and teacher at the school by name.

Officer Miranda is always going above and beyond weather it be helping the teachers take out the trash, fixing ran over traffic cones, or walking the kids and parents from their car to the school with an umbrella on rainy day, he is always lending a helping hand.

His job performance is outstanding; he is a leader, a team player, and he always goes above and beyond on his job. Which is why we believe he more than deserves the award of officer of the year.

Security Officer Cristian Gavino

Officer Gavino is someone who looks forward to coming to work each day. Our customers have referred to him as the perfect ambassador for Cambridge Security Services. He is always helpful, always willing to do more and ready to step in during a crisis.

Officer Gavino knows every square inch of the property including all residents and their regular guests.

Security Officer Ken Sackett

Ken has been the Roving Security Officer at Tuscany Cove. Ken is one of those outstanding security officers that you find every once in a while. As the Property Manager says, Ken does not shy away from issues that are uncomfortable to most people. He ensures that the rules of the Community are enforced. He is also the “Officer Friendly” that everyone wants!

Ken takes ownership of community by going above and beyond what is expected of a Security Officer.

Ken Sackett takes pride in being part of Cambridge Security, and we take pride in having part of our team.

Medal of Merit Recipients

Paramedic Supervisor Dan Tilles

Dan Tilles has worked at Admiral’s Cove as a part-time paramedic for more than 10 years. He is also a career Paramedic with the Tequesta Fire Department where he serves as a Captain and is in charge of the Emergency Medical Services for the agency.

Dan has since been promoted to our Paramedic Manager and was an integral component to the re-establishment of our paramedic program when Cambridge Security assumed the contract with Admiral’s Cove in July of 2018. On December 11, 2019, the Florida Department of Health conducted an audit and inspection of our paramedic program. When the investigator reviewed the policies and procedures of our program, she commented on them being the best that she has seen and was told that they were written and integrated into our standard paramedic policies and procedures for our site by Dan Tilles.

The investigator went on to say that the paramedic program at Admiral’s Cove was the best non-transporting private paramedic program that she has seen. Dan was significantly responsible for these accolades.

Eric Diaz, IT Specialist

As you know, the Company was a victim of a ransomware attack during the first week of November. Unfortunately, nearly all of our servers and many of our networked computers were compromised as a result of the attack. As a result, our network needed to be physically redesigned and configured to protect us better in the future, servers needed to be rebuilt from scratch, printers and PC’s needed to be reconfigured to work on the “new” network, and infected computers needed to wiped and restored.

Following the attack, Eric was an integral part of the complete restructure of our network and standing up new servers and endless configuration. As we rapidly worked to restore our systems over the weekend so that normal operations near 100% could resume the following Monday, he worked around the clock – easily 20 hours per day – rebuilding our infrastructure. Eric configured new backup and replication policies to better protect us from similar situations in the future. He worked with nearly every associate at each of our offices to ensure their computers and printers were properly configured and functioning on the new network. He interfaced with our vendor partners such as Vonage and our VOIP provider to ensure their systems could communicate properly over our hardened network.

Victoria Handy, Payroll and Billing

During Q4 of 2019, on several occasions, the Company’s payroll provider failed to transmit direct deposits. Making matters worse, our payroll provider was less than forthcoming with information or resolutions.

Knowing that many of our employees live paycheck to paycheck, Vicki tirelessly worked with her Manager and Vice President to create live payroll checks for every impacted employee. The process was extremely manual, to put it lightly, and required her to work extended hours but, as per usual, Vicki did so with no complaints.

Security Officer Diego Otaiza

On November 10, 2019, while on patrol in Terracina Officer Otazia was stopped by a resident and informed that a house was on fire at 6650 Aliso Ave. He immediately called 9-1-1, went to the home and confirmed that the home was unoccupied.

Officer Otaiza managed the crowd of onlookers and traffic, to ensure Palm Beach Fire Rescue had unimpeded access to the residence. Officers Otaiza’s calm and quick reactions certainly played a role in minimizing damage to the home.

Lieutenant Darrell Carbone

On Friday October 19th, the security operations center received a call from a resident requesting Fire Rescue. Lt. Carbone responded and found that a resident accidently walked into the rear sliding glass door of their home causing injury to her knee, arm and her face. Upon arrival, Lt. Carbone found the resident with a serious laceration on her nose that was bleeding uncontrollably. Lt. Carbone assessed the patient and took over care from her husband. He applied dressings and pressure to the wound until Fire Rescue arrived.

Director of Security Frank Good received a letter of thanks from the homeowner, praising Lt. Carbone calming his wife and remaining with her until rescue arrived on scene.

The victim was transported to the hospital, where she received multiple stitches to her face.

In the words of the patient’s husband, Lt. Carbone made a scary situation much easier.

Captain Ali Abed

On May 18, 2019 Officer Ali Abed was working the gatehouse. At approximately 2041 hrs while monitoring our perimeter system, Officer Abed observed 5 individuals exiting Frenchman’s Creek (a neighboring community) through the nature preserve and onto Hood Rd. Officer Abed immediately dispatched Officer Boyd and our TAC 1 officer. After dispatching FR units, Abed contacted Palm Beach Gardens Police Department, and then Frenchman’s Creek security. Palm Beach Gardens PD dispatched multiple units to the area with Officer Abed’s description of the get-away SUV along with the direction of travel.

The police department determined that two homes inside Frenchman’s Creek were found to be burglarized. Proceeds of the burglary included jewelry, cash, and firearms.

Officer Abed’s extensive knowledge of the Avigilon System helped him collect, organize, and hand over all footage to the police department upon arrival. Officer Abed orchestrated a full-on breach response with his teammates without any hesitation.

Security Officer Jerry Gabriel

On November 6, 2019 a 34-year-old male subject began shooting at the intersection of 41st and Chase Ave., in Miami Beach. That intersection is approximately 150 feet from Temple Beth Shalom. Officer Gabriel heard the shot(s) and reacted without hesitation.

The school and synagogue were placed on lockdown and he called for assistance from the other Officer working at the time. He and the other Officer protected the Temple while Miami Beach PD successfully took the shooter into custody.

Officer Gabriel has received numerous accolades from congregants and administrators at the property.

Security Officer Chris Kralick

On August 6, 2019, Security Officer Christopher Kralick was patrolling Tresana Blvd. when he witnessed an older women driving on the wrong side of the street. Officer Kralick stopped the vehicle and spoke with the driver who seemed lost. Officer Kralick was able to determine where she lived and showed the woman to her residence. The resident thanked Kralick and said she would be fine.

Officer Kralick finished his patrol and returned to the residence approximately 20 minutes later, to check on the well being of the woman. When Officer Kralick arrived, he noted the garage door was still open. Kralick entered the home and found the woman laying on the floor, but conscious.

Officer Kralick requested Fire Rescue, who responded and transported the resident to the hospital.

Distinguished Service Award

Klauber Arena, Operations Specialist

Arena was hired on 6/15/2017 as an unarmed Security Officer, posted at Port Royal. At that property, he quickly became the standout Officer in the eyes of the community and property management.

His performance was so good, he was quickly noticed by management. On 12/26/2017, he was promoted to Field Training Officer. In that role, Arena mentored Officers and drove company expectations. Known for his unwavering commitment to our Core Values and Standards, Arena was one of ‘those FTO’s’ that truly held his team accountable. Not long after his promotion, Arena was given the heavy responsibility of managing the team at our largest client, Publix. As he always does, Arena excelled in that role.

On 12/17/2018, Arena was promoted to Operations Specialist, leading the team he was formerly a member of, the FTO staff as well as managing several key accounts.

Much of what has led to Arena’s success in the Company rests in his desire to exceed expectations, collaborate with team members, and continuing push for more responsibility. Arena consistently shows curiosity for new ways to work and is consistently asking for and attending additional training.

For his incredible work ethic and for reflecting our Core Values with conviction, we recognize Klauber Arena with the Distinguished Service Award.