Kootenai County’s Eric Mescher heads up USA Security’s new office

COEUR d’ALENE — Between them, Eric Mescher and Tony Camilleri Jr. have more than seven decades of law enforcement and security experience.

Add to that more than three decades of friendship, and you’ve got a strong bond.

Unbreakable, even.

“We’re brothers now, brothers from another mother, so to speak,” Mescher said.

The 1969 Lakeland High School graduate points to names tattooed on his arm. One of them is Tony.

“They are four law enforcement brothers I would lay down my life for,” he said. “Anytime, anywhere. And they would do the same for me. It’s a brotherhood that doesn’t go away.

“We’ve been through a lot,” he continued. “I feel fortunate that Tony has the belief and trust in me to run this outfit out here.”

Camilleri is the president and CEO of USA Security that recently opened an office on Government Way.

Already well-established back East with 150 employees, it offers a variety of security services, armed and unarmed, from home and business protection to sporting events to schools to street fairs and concerts.

“We’re not cops, we are security,” said Mescher, regional manager, West Coast.

But they police.

Mescher’s law enforcement career dates back 40 years. He started with the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office in 1970, later worked for Coeur d’Alene police, then went to the Idaho State Police and finally spent a few years with a private security company contracted for federal protection service under Homeland Security.

He has called Kootenai County home since 1959.

“As a security office, your biggest thing is to help the public, help the people,” said Mescher, whose father, Ben, retired from the military. “That’s what we are and that’s who we are. We’re professionals trained to help the public and make the public feel comfortable and at ease.

“Just like our sign says, ‘We deliver peace of mind,’” he added.

Camilleri, a retired Hartford, Conn., police commander, started USA Security 18 years ago. He said he has high expectations for the Coeur d’Alene office.

“High-end quality service is what we’re providing out here,” he said.

USA Security, he said, is not a conventional security company. It is versed in keeping places, events and people safe and sound without the stress.

“I’m fairly confident nobody has the type of background and experience that our people and our management staff have,” he said.

Camilleri said the bottom line is “how to deal properly with the citizens out there. That’s who you have got to deal with every day.”

“Deal with it, make it work better than anybody else. Just make it work so you calm the situation, you don’t increase the intensity of the violence of the situation,” he said.

Mescher said security work “has became a whole division all in itself out in the world now.

“There is a lot of work that people don’t realize in a security company,” he said.

A rodeo cowboy in his younger days — he even taught team roping to Camilleri, who in turn taught him about big city life — Mescher said one of their goals at USA Security is to “do it neater and cleaner than everybody else.”

He has no doubt that because he and Camilleri have such a strong rapport and the careers to back it up, they will make that happen.

“That’s what we’re after, is that camaraderie,” Mescher said.