Jim Schoenleber, a former cop who built Argus Services Inc. here into a regional security-guard powerhouse with more than 1,000 employees and annual revenues topping $20 million, has been forced by health problems to dismantle the company.


Schoenleber says he has transferred Argus security-patrol contracts and sold some of its assets to Securitas Security Services USA Inc., the big U.S. subsidiary of Securitas AB, a Swedish security conglomerate. That companys other U.S. acquisitions have included such historically notable security players as Pinkertons Inc. and Burns International.


Securitas has hired most of Argus work force, which had ebbed some to about 800, he says. Argus recently had relatively few employees in the Spokane market.


In addition to providing security guards and patrols for a host of government and private-sector customers throughout eight Western states, Argus also offered security background checks and sold electronic surveillance equipment. Schoenleber says he has sold the assets of those latter two divisions to senior managers of the company, who have launched separate companies using the Argus name. He earlier had sold off the companys janitorial division, which operates as Argus Janitorial Inc.


He declines to disclose the terms of the various transactions.


With all those divestitures, Argus Services no longer has any operations, which will enable Schoenleber to retire, following a transition period in which he will be providing consulting services to the buyers of the various Argus unit.


Schoenleber, who is 56, says he suffers from serious heart problems and was advised by his doctor to eliminate the stress of running a large company.


If it werent for my health, I wouldnt have done this, he says.


Securitas isnt new to the Inland Northwest market. Burns, Pinkertons, and another Securitas acquisition, American Protective Services Inc., all have maintained Spokane offices. Those operations were consolidated under the Securitas name and now are based at an office at 2510 N. Pines, says Tim Ludwig, a Securitas branch manager here responsible for Eastern Washington and North Idaho.


Ludwig says Securitas hired about 150 Argus employees in that region, giving the company about 360 employees in the Inland Northwest. We doubled in size here as the result of adding the Argus contracts, he says.


Securitas officials outside the Inland Northwest couldnt be reached to confirm how other Argus branch operations have been absorbed.


Ludwig says the marriage has been good. Many of the things we have been doing nationally, they (Argus) had been doing on their own. Argus had a very strong reputation in the market, he says.


In addition to taking on Argus contracts and hiring most of its employees, Securitas bought some assets of Argus, including weapons, vehicles, uniforms, and some office equipment from the Spokane Valley-based companys 23 branch offices, Schoenleber says.


Schoenleber owns Argus Services former headquarters building, a 10,000-square-foot structure at 18507 E. Appleway, as well as a 7,000-square-foot building located nearby at 18303 E. Corbin Place that had served as the companys Eastern Washington regional office.


Argus other offices were in leased spaces, and Schoenleber says he understands Securitas has taken over at least some of those leases. He says he has leased out space in the building on Corbin Place to the buyers of Argus background-check and technology divisions. Hes marketing the building on Appleway for lease.


Argus Technologies


Argus former technology division was sold to managers Scott Shagool and Sean Stiller and now does business as Argus Technologies Inc., Schoenleber says. It employs six people.


The companys main area of business is selling a computerized surveillance system called Argus Watchdog.


That system uses a combination of proprietary software, custom-designed digital video recorders, and the Internet to monitor video images electronically from surveillance cameras at a customers location, so the customer doesnt need employed guards to watch monitors.


Argus Technologies still staffs a video surveillance room on Corbin Place for the system, and currently serves about a dozen clients, but eventually will contract that work out to others so it can focus on equipment sales, Schoenleber says.


He says Argus Technologies plans to market the system heavily to casinos, and recently received approval from the Washington state Gambling Commission to install the system in such venues. In that environment, Schoenleber says, sales will come in big chunks, since systems that can handle a casino sometimes cost more than $1 million. Other industries also will be targeted, he says, and the equipment and software will be modified to meet each application.


Argus Technologies also is pursuing some federal research work involving surveillance technology, but Schoenleber says he cant talk about that work yet.


He expects Argus Technologies to do about $2 million in sales in 2004, and that the company likely will hire two more employees next year.


Argus Search


The other Argus Services operation to be sold had done background checks for a variety of clients. It was sold to former Argus manager Jeannene Kurtz, and now does business as Argus Search Inc. It employs four people and also is located in the office on Corbin Place.


The newly created company offers a variety of Internet-based background checks that can be displayed on a customers computer screen and printed soon after a customer orders one.


Argus Search has consolidated a host of electronic searches on its Web site, www.argus-search.com, and customers can choose which searches they want to pay for from an ala carte menu. Prices range from $6 to $60 per report, Schoenleber says. They range from searches of court, criminal, and driving records to verification of employment and educational information to credit reports and workers compensation history.


He says Argus Search will market the service to a host of potential customers, including landlords, employers, and even people who want to know whos going out with their daughter.


Building a company


Argus Services was founded here in 1985 by Jim Wynecoop and Claude Cox, both of Spokane, who sold the company to Schoenleber two years later. Schoenleber earlier had worked as a police officer and detective in Southern Oregon, and had tried his luck at construction and as a river guide. He had done security work with Wynecoop at an oil field on the North Slope of Alaska.


When he bought Argus in 1987, it had only 35 employees, but it grew quickly under his management. Within 10 years it employed 500 people and did business throughout the Northwest and as far away as Denver. By 1999, its annual sales topped $10 million, and following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when security became a paramount concern in the U.S., its staff soared to more than 1,000 employees and its annual revenues shot up over $20 million.


Still, says Schoenleber, a service company such as Argus is only as strong as its current contracts, which usually last only a year or two, so when he sold off the company and transferred its contracts, the proceeds werent as big as you might think, he says. Its not like we had a big inventory of widgets to sell, he adds.


Still, Schoenleber, who now drives a Hummer and last week bought a fishing lodge on Oregons Rogue River, says hes done OK financially.


I thought when I started that if I could get up to 100 employees Id be jumping in the streets, he says. Then I kept thinking I could always do better. Everything weve put the Argus name on has done well.