Yes. American Patrol LLC is a licensed and fully insured Washington State private security company, and our officers are licensed under Washington State requirements for private security guards. If you are comparing vendors, ask every one of them for their license — an unlicensed security patrol company can weaken your insurance position after an incident.
We are headquartered in Everett and run day and night security patrol routes across Snohomish County and north King County — including Lynnwood, Marysville, Edmonds, Mukilteo, Shoreline, Bothell, Mill Creek, Lake Stevens and Snohomish. Because our officers are already on the road in this area day and night, coverage here is genuinely local rather than dispatched from another county.
It depends on three things: how many security patrol visits per night you want, the size and layout of the property, and whether you need mobile security patrol or a dedicated security officer posted on site. Mobile security patrol is billed per visit or on a monthly route contract, and costs a fraction of staffing a guard on site all night — which is why most retail plazas, HOAs and industrial parks start there. Send us the address and the hours you want covered and we will put a written quote in front of you.
This is the question we hear most, usually from someone who was burned by a previous vendor. Every visit our security officers make is logged in real time with a time stamp, the property and the officer ID, and anything found on site is photographed and attached to the report. Reports appear in your secure client portal the moment the officer files them, so you can check any night yourself instead of taking our word for it — and you can message dispatch straight from the portal if something needs an answer.
Yes — both armed and unarmed security officers, for patrols and for stationed posts. Which one is right depends on the property, the risk history and your insurer's requirements. We will tell you honestly if we think armed coverage is unnecessary for your site; it costs more and it is not always the right answer.
On private property, yes. We enforce permit and overnight parking rules, issue citations, and document every vehicle with photos and license plate records before any action is taken. Towing is coordinated with the property's authorized tow company under Washington State impound rules. The photo record matters here: it is what protects the property owner if a vehicle owner disputes the tow.
Yes, and it is a large part of our work. Typical coverage is mobile security patrol, daytime or overnight, with parking enforcement, trespass response and documentation a board or property manager can forward straight to residents when they ask what is being done.
It depends where your property sits on the active security patrol route at that hour, and any company that quotes you a single number without knowing your address is guessing. Because our security officers are already patrolling Snohomish County day and night, response is usually much faster than dispatching from a distant office. We will give you a realistic window for your specific address before you sign anything.
Fire watch is a mandated physical patrol required when a building's fire alarm or sprinkler system is out of service. A licensed security officer walks the property on a set schedule watching for hazards and logs each round, keeping the building compliant until repairs are done. It is usually urgent, so we can typically start fire watch coverage on short notice.
For most commercial properties it comes down to three things: visible deterrence so problems do not start, a documented response when they do, and a record the property manager can hand to an owner, insurer or the police. A security company should be reducing your incident count and your tenant complaints — and be able to show you, in writing, what it did on any given night.
Ask for the state license number and proof of insurance before anything else. Then ask how they document their work — if a company cannot show you what a report looks like before you sign, you will be paying for coverage you cannot verify. Ask whether officers are already patrolling your area, because that determines real response time, and ask for references from properties similar to yours.
Send the property address, the hours you need covered, and the problems you are trying to solve — homeless activity, overnight parking, break-ins, vandalism, tenant complaints. We assess the site, propose a security patrol schedule and price, and can usually begin coverage within days. Email sales@americanpatrolllc.com or use the quote form on our contact page.
We're based in Everett at 500 SE Everett Mall Way and we patrol across Snohomish County — Lynnwood, Marysville, Mukilteo, Edmonds, Mill Creek, Lake Stevens, Monroe and Snohomish included. Apartment communities in Lynnwood are a regular part of our overnight routes.
Ask for time-stamped, photo-documented reports rather than a monthly summary. Every visit we make is logged the moment the officer arrives, with GPS position and photos, and it lands in a client portal your board can open themselves. If a company can't show you that, you're taking their word for it.
In Everett: time, areas toured and checked, conditions found, and initials — kept on site, and a copy emailed to the Fire Marshal's Office daily until the watch is lifted. On a 30-minute patrol interval that's 48 logged passes a day, which is why an automatic time-stamped log beats a clipboard.
In Everett, yes — and the rule has a specific line in it. If your fire alarm or sprinkler system is out of service, the Fire Marshal requires a fire watch. Under eight hours it can be kept by the service technician or an owner's employee aged 21 or over. Past eight hours it has to be a licensed security guard from a third-party company, and you need an invoice showing that. Other cities in the county have their own fire authorities, so check with yours.
Everett requires every affected area checked at least every 30 minutes while the building is occupied, and at least hourly when it isn't. The watch runs 24 hours a day until the system is back in service and the Fire Marshal's Office has verified it.
For a short outage, yes. Past eight hours in Everett it has to be a licensed guard from an outside company. The other thing worth knowing: whoever does it can't have any other duties. Fire watch means watching for fire, not watching for fire while also fixing the boiler.
Usually within days. Send the property address, the hours you want covered and the problem you're trying to solve, and we'll walk the site and put a written proposal in front of you. Fire watch is faster than that — it's usually an emergency, so we can normally start same day.
A guard on site is a constant presence — right for lobbies, gates, and anywhere someone needs to be there the whole shift. Mobile patrol is a marked vehicle making randomised checks through the night, and it costs a fraction of a full-time guard. Plenty of properties use both: a guard for the busy hours, patrols overnight.
Yes, and it's a large part of what we do. The approach is documentation first — photos, times, and a written record — because that's what a trespass case or a police report actually needs. Our officers de-escalate and report rather than going hands-on; going physical creates liability for you as the property owner, not just for us.