Security guard services in Pasadena for the businesses, parking lots and apartment buildings next to SoFi Stadium, the Kia Forum and Intuit Dome. Our unarmed officers hold Bureau of Security and Investigative Services (BSIS) guard cards and follow post orders written for event days and ordinary days.
Pasadena's security work is daytime work more often than people expect. The Pasadena Police Department's own monthly crime brief has flagged three running patterns: wallets lifted from shoppers and diners, vehicle burglaries at trailhead parking lots, and catalytic converters cut from parked cars. All three happen in daylight, in busy places, while staff are looking somewhere else.
The rest of the calendar is driven by the city's institutions. Caltech and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) are the two largest employers, Huntington Hospital runs around the clock, and the Rose Bowl and Convention Center fill hotels and parking structures on event weekends.
CAL Security Group is licensed as a Private Patrol Operator (PPO) by California's Bureau of Security and Investigative Services (BSIS), and every officer we send is unarmed. Every post gets written orders for that address before the first shift.
Each one is quoted on its own line, with the hours it covers.
A visible officer on the floor in Old Pasadena and on South Lake, watching bags, back doors and the tables where wallets go missing. Loss prevention.
Office buildings and medical suites use a desk officer for visitor sign-in, deliveries, contractor escorts and after-hours badge checks. Reception security.
Garages and trailhead lots are where converters and car contents disappear. Patrol rounds through each level, logged with the time of every pass. Mobile patrol.
Rebuilds, renovations and empty lots need a night presence before the copper, tools and appliances go. Construction site security.
Opening and closing rounds, plus an officer who answers the alarm before the police bill arrives. Alarm response.
Entry checks and crowd flow for private events and hotel functions, and timed fire watch rounds while a sprinkler or alarm system is out of service. Fire watch.
Six parts of the city, six different jobs for the officer.
Twenty-two blocks of historic buildings on the National Register, holding more than 300 businesses and over 100 restaurants. Daytime theft, alley doors behind restaurants and closing-time crowds shape the post. Most work here is a walking officer covering several addresses on one block.
The city's corporate stretch next to Caltech and The Langham, with a daytime population the district's own business association puts above 56,000. Office lobbies, bank branches and ground-floor retail, so the post is usually a desk officer by day and a locked perimeter at night.
Office security →Theatres, civic buildings and the Convention Center sit close together, which means event nights, ticket queues and public parking structures. Coverage is event-led: officers on the dates that draw a crowd, patrol stops the rest of the week.
A hospital that never closes, ringed by medical office buildings, clinics and staff parking. Overnight staff walking to their cars, visitors arriving at odd hours, and after-hours lobby access are the standing problems.
Healthcare security →Game days, the Rose Parade and Arroyo events push cars and crowds into nearby streets and lots. Businesses and buildings around the Arroyo often add coverage for those dates only, and the quote keeps event hours on a separate line.
Event security →The January 2025 Eaton Fire burned through neighbouring Altadena, which is unincorporated Los Angeles County rather than City of Pasadena. Rebuilding on that edge has filled streets with construction sites, cleared lots and stored materials for a multi-year stretch.
Vacant property →Pasadena is about 12 miles northeast of our office at 1208 W Jefferson Blvd in Los Angeles. Other city pages close by, by straight-line distance:
A rebuild is a security problem for years, not weeks. Materials are delivered before crews arrive, copper and appliances land on site well before doors lock, and a cleared lot next door tells anyone passing that nobody is watching the street at night.
The usual answer is not a guard standing on site for 24 hours. It is a night officer during the weeks when material is exposed, and logged patrol stops on the quiet stretches, with the schedule changing as the build moves.
Pasadena requires an alarm permit for any alarm system in a home or a business, and it charges $181 for every false alarm after the first one in a calendar year. The billing cycle runs January 1 to December 31, and the permit itself costs $39.54 as of July 1, 2026.
| Pasadena alarm charge | Amount |
|---|---|
| Alarm permit, residential or business | $39.54, effective July 1, 2026 |
| First false alarm in the 12-month cycle | No charge |
| Second and each later false alarm | $181 each |
| Running an alarm system with no permit | $163, plus a penalty fee |
Figures published by the City of Pasadena on its alarm permit page. Four faulty activations in a year cost more than a month of patrol stops, which is the argument for having an officer check the property before police are called.
Guard rates work from a different number. Unarmed guards in California bill at roughly $22 to $40 an hour on the open market, published market data rather than our rate. Pasadena sets its own minimum wage, $18.57 an hour from July 1, 2026 for businesses of every size, so the wage floor under a Pasadena post sits above the $16.90 state rate and above most neighbouring cities. Hours decide the rest: 168 a week for round-the-clock cover, 84 for nights only, or a shared patrol route billed per visit. The cost guide has the ranges by property type.
Four steps from the first call to the first written report.
What has been happening, when it happens, and what you want covered. We say which service fits and which would be a waste of your money.
Free, and booked for the hour the problem happens. Entrances, garage levels, alley doors, lighting and the routes people use to get in.
Each post priced separately with its hours. The orders name who may enter, what the officer does about theft or trespass, and when Pasadena Police get called.
A supervisor checks the post unannounced, and a written report reaches you after every shift with rounds, incidents and anything broken that creates the next problem.
Your incident dates and times, a site plan if you have one, your alarm permit number, and the hours the property sits empty.
Send us the address, the events that affect you and the hours you want covered. We will walk the property, look at how crowds and cars reach it, and send a written quote, post by post.
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