A property manager in Hickory Hill told me she lost eleven tenants in June. Not to another complex. Not to homeownership. To fear. Eleven families broke their leases, paid the penalty, and left after a shooting in the parking lot put a bullet hole through someone’s bedroom window on the second floor.
She’s been managing apartments in Memphis for nine years. She said this summer is the worst she’s seen.
Across the city, apartment complexes are turning to private security at a pace that security companies say they’ve never experienced. The calls are coming from Hickory Hill, from Parkway Village, from the Whitehaven corridors along Shelby Drive, from Raleigh properties near Raleigh-Millington Road. Property managers who spent years treating security as an optional budget line are now treating it as an emergency.
The Problem Is Specific and Getting Worse
Memphis apartment complexes have always dealt with property crime. Car break-ins, package theft, the occasional trespasser. That’s baseline. What’s changed in 2021 is the nature of the incidents. Shootings on complex grounds are making the nightly news with disturbing regularity. The Commercial Appeal has covered at least four separate apartment shooting incidents in Shelby County since May.
The violence isn’t random. It follows patterns that property managers and MPD both recognize. Complexes with open parking lots, no gate access, and minimal lighting attract trouble. Properties near high-traffic corridors become cut-through routes. Units rented under fake identities or subleased without management’s knowledge create pockets where criminal activity can take root without anyone on the lease being accountable.
For property managers, each incident creates a cascade. The police report comes first. Then the tenant complaints. Then the lease breaks. Then the online reviews that make future leasing harder. Then the insurance questions. A single shooting at a complex can trigger a premium increase that wipes out months of revenue. Two incidents in a year and some carriers won’t renew the policy at all.
The financial math eventually points in one direction: hire security.
What a Security Contract Should Actually Include
Most property managers calling security companies for the first time don’t know what to ask for. They know they want “a guard.” The specifics of what that guard does, when, and under what authority get worked out later, often badly.
A security contract for multi-family housing should cover these elements at minimum.
Patrol scope and frequency. Will the guard patrol the entire property or stay stationed at one point? How often do they walk the grounds? Every hour? Every two hours? The answer depends on the property’s layout. A sprawling 300-unit complex off Hickory Hill Road needs roving patrols. A smaller 80-unit property might be fine with a fixed post at the main entrance.
Gate access and visitor management. If the complex has a gate, the security officer should control it during overnight hours at minimum. Visitor logs matter. Resident ID verification matters. A gate that stays open because the guard doesn’t want to deal with checking everyone in is worse than no gate, because it creates a false sense of security.
Hours of coverage. Most apartment crime happens between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. A property manager working with a tight budget should prioritize those hours. Full 24-hour coverage is ideal, and some larger complexes can afford it, though the overnight-only model is where most Memphis properties start.
Reporting requirements. Every shift should produce a written report. Incidents, observations, maintenance issues (a burned-out parking lot light is a security issue), and tenant interactions. These reports aren’t just for the property manager’s files. They’re documentation that matters when an insurance claim or a liability lawsuit lands on your desk.
Escalation procedures. What does the guard do when something happens? The contract should spell out when to call police, when to call the property manager, and what the guard is authorized to do in the meantime. This prevents the worst-case scenario: a guard who freezes during an incident because nobody told him what his boundaries were.
Armed vs. Unarmed: The Apartment Debate
This question comes up in every conversation with property managers, and there’s no universal answer.
Unarmed guards work well for access control, patrol visibility, and deterrence at properties where the primary concerns are trespassing and property crime. They’re less expensive, easier to staff, and carry lower insurance requirements for the security company.
Armed guards make sense at complexes with documented violent crime. If there have been shootings on your property, an unarmed guard standing in a parking lot at 2 a.m. is in a position no reasonable employer should put them in. Armed officers cost more per hour and require additional Tennessee licensing (the armed registration through TDCI adds training requirements and background check scrutiny), yet for high-risk properties, they’re the appropriate choice.
Some property managers split the difference. Unarmed during daytime hours for resident interaction and access management. Armed overnight when the risk profile changes. It’s a workable approach if the budget supports two different rate tiers.
What It Costs
Property managers in Memphis should expect the following ranges from contract security companies, as of this summer.
Unarmed officer, single post: $18 to $24 per hour billed. For a standard overnight shift of 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., seven days a week, that’s roughly $3,600 to $4,800 per month.
Armed officer, single post: $26 to $36 per hour billed. Same overnight schedule, $5,200 to $7,200 per month.
Roving patrol (vehicle-based, covering multiple properties or a large single complex): $22 to $30 per hour. Some companies offer patrol packages where an officer hits your property two to four times per night on a randomized schedule. These run cheaper, sometimes $1,500 to $2,500 per month, though you’re sharing the officer’s time with other clients.
Off-duty MPD officers: $45 to $55 per hour when you can get them. Most are already committed to hospitals and retail chains. The waiting list for off-duty police in Memphis is measured in months.
For a 200-unit complex, spreading an armed overnight guard across all units comes to about $26 to $36 per unit per month. Most managers fold this into a modest rent increase or absorb it as an operating cost that pays for itself through reduced turnover and lower insurance claims.
Cameras Aren’t a Replacement, They’re a Complement
Some property managers think a camera system eliminates the need for a live guard. It doesn’t. Cameras record. Guards respond. You need both.
A solid camera system for a mid-size apartment complex runs $15,000 to $40,000 installed, depending on the number of cameras, resolution, storage capacity, and whether you want remote monitoring. The ongoing cost for cloud storage and a monitoring service adds $200 to $500 per month.
What cameras do well: capture license plates, document incidents for police reports and insurance claims, and deter some property crime when cameras are visible. What cameras can’t do: intervene during a fight, check IDs at a gate, or walk a tenant to their car at midnight.
The most effective setup pairs visible cameras with a live patrol officer who has access to the camera feeds on a tablet or phone. The guard can check cameras to verify a noise complaint before walking across the property, or review footage to identify a vehicle that was cruising the lot at 3 a.m.
Insurance Implications
Here’s something property managers overlook until it’s too late: your insurance carrier has an opinion about your security arrangements, and that opinion directly affects your premiums.
Properties with documented security measures, including contracted guard services, functioning camera systems, and controlled access, typically qualify for lower liability premiums. The reduction varies by carrier and by the property’s claims history. I’ve talked to managers who’ve seen 10 to 15 percent reductions after implementing a security contract.
On the flip side, properties with repeated violent incidents and no security response plan face premium hikes that can dwarf the cost of hiring a guard. One Parkway Village property manager told me his carrier increased his annual premium by $18,000 after two shooting incidents in 2020. That’s $1,500 a month, which would’ve covered an unarmed guard five nights a week.
The insurance math almost always favors proactive security spending over reactive premium absorption.
Contract Companies vs. In-House Security
Larger apartment management firms sometimes consider hiring security officers directly rather than contracting with a security company. The logic is cost savings: cut out the middleman, pay the guard directly, keep the margin.
The reality is more complicated. Hiring security officers in-house means the property management company becomes the employer of record. That means workers’ comp insurance for armed personnel (expensive), TDCI licensing compliance as a contract security company, HR management, training, uniforms, scheduling, and liability coverage. Most property managers who try it discover the overhead erases the per-hour savings within a few months.
Contract companies handle all of that. Allied Universal and Securitas are the biggest national names operating in Memphis, and they can staff large properties quickly because of their existing workforce. The tradeoff: you’re one account among thousands, and getting a dedicated, consistent officer assigned to your property can be a fight.
Local and regional companies often provide more attentive service for apartment contracts. Shield of Steel, a veteran-owned firm based at 2682 Lamar Ave here in Memphis (202-222-2225), has been picking up apartment contracts across the city this summer. Their pitch is competitive pricing on multi-property deals, GPS-tracked patrols so property managers can verify guard activity, and statewide coverage for management companies with properties beyond Shelby County. The veteran staff is a real selling point for complexes where residents want to see experienced, disciplined officers. The downside: they’re a smaller company with less brand recognition than the national chains, which matters to some corporate ownership groups that want a name they’ve heard of on the contract.
The best approach for most mid-size Memphis complexes is to get quotes from two national firms and two local ones, then compare not just price but response time, officer turnover rates, and how many dedicated (not rotating) officers they’ll commit to your property.
The Bottom Line for Property Managers
If you manage apartments in Memphis and you don’t have a security plan right now, you’re behind. The crime numbers this summer have made that clear.
Start with a security assessment of your property. Most companies will do one for free. Walk the grounds at night. Count the burned-out lights. Check which gates actually close. Look at where cars park and where the blind spots are.
Then get quotes. Compare armed and unarmed options. Ask about camera integration. Read the contract carefully, especially the liability sections.
The cost of security is real. Somewhere between $3,600 and $7,200 a month for a single overnight guard, depending on your needs. The cost of not having security, measured in lost tenants, higher insurance premiums, and incidents that make the evening news, is almost always higher.
Eleven families left one Hickory Hill complex in a single month. That’s eleven units to turn over, re-list, and fill. At an average monthly rent of $900, that’s $9,900 in lost revenue before you count the turnover costs. A security guard would’ve been cheaper.