While qualified school security consultants will provide benefits far beyond the fees they charge, school officials should always carefully consider whether quality free resources can be obtained before retaining school security consultants. Many state agencies provide high quality and free school security consulting resources. Two of our analysts provided free school security consulting services while we served with the Georgia Office of Homeland Security and another Safe Havens analyst did so as an intern. Then as now, we were often troubled to see school officials pay school security consultants for services they could have received for free from government agencies.
While several school security consultants have become upset when we advise schools of this, our purpose as a non-profit school safety center is to make schools safer and helping schools utilize their available funding more efficiently is one of our goals. The best school security consultants have to routinely turn away paid work and should not be offended by school officials who seek to wisely utilize their limited fiscal resources. School officials should consider pushy or aggressive actions by school security consultants as a potential warning sign.