1st GradeSecurity Services
Specialized investigative and security support for regulated care organizations, attorneys, executives, and businesses facing sensitive matters.
Find Your Path
Every engagement starts with a specific problem. Below are the four areas where clients most often need us, each handled personally.
Regulated Care Organizations
Incident response, impartial internal investigations, and regulatory liaison for behavioral health agencies, childcare providers, schools, and organizations licensed to care for vulnerable people.
View Services →Attorneys & Litigation Support
Investigation, fact-finding, and evidence review for litigation matters, including investigative research supporting immigration and complex case filings.
View Services →Executives & Private Clients
Executive protection, threat assessment, and personal security consulting for individuals and families who require discretion, delivered with senior-level experience.
View Services →Businesses & Institutions
Risk assessment, due diligence, background investigations, and compliance protocol development for organizations handling sensitive matters.
View Services →How It Works
Inquiry
Reach out by phone or email. Describe the situation in confidence, no obligation.
Review
The matter is reviewed personally, scope and approach discussed directly with you.
Engagement
Terms are confirmed and the work begins, whether a single investigation or an ongoing retainer.
Reporting
Findings are delivered in clear, defensible documentation, with follow-up support as needed.
A Network Built Over 23 Years
Larger matters call for more than one set of hands — when needed, 1st Grade Security Services draws on trusted relationships built over two decades in law enforcement and private-sector investigative work, vetted specialists we've worked alongside, not names from a directory.
Investigators
Licensed private investigators for multi-front or high-volume matters.
Protective Agents
Vetted executive protection professionals for detail-level coverage.
Litigation Counsel
Attorneys across immigration, civil, and criminal practice areas.
Law Enforcement
Active-duty and retired contacts across local, state, and federal agencies.
Trusted across regulated, legal, and federal environments.
Regulated Care & Behavioral Health
Fortune 100-Adjacent Enterprises
Federal & State Law Enforcement
Immigration & Litigation Counsel
Brian J. Ramos
Ramos
NYPD (Ret.)
Brian Ramos is a retired NYPD Detective First Grade, the highest investigative rank achievable within the New York City Police Department. Over 23 years, 17 in the Detective Bureau and 11 at the Brooklyn South Homicide Squad, he was involved in approximately 500 homicide investigations as lead or as part of the investigative team. He also conducted complex financial crime, fraud, and narcotics cases coordinated directly with the U.S. Attorney's Offices for the EDNY and SDNY, the Kings County DA's Office, and the FBI, DEA, and ATF.
He served as one of the lead instructors for both the NYPD Homicide Investigations Course and the NYPD Interrogations Course, training investigators from more than 100 agencies nationwide, and now brings that same discipline to private clients through 1st Grade Security Services — investigations, risk advisory, and executive protection held to the same standard he maintained throughout his career.
A single incident, handled the wrong way, creates exposure that outlasts the incident itself.
When something happens, you don't have an investigations department. You have you.
Care organizations operate under constant regulatory exposure. When something happens, the decisions made in the first hours follow the organization through every licensing review, insurance claim, and legal proceeding that comes after.
Most agencies handle it internally and hope it doesn't resurface. The ones that protect themselves bring in someone who knows how an investigation has to be built, because he built them for 23 years at the highest level there is.
- A staff-child contact incident requiring immediate, defensible investigation
- Mandatory reporting obligations and compliance with state notification requirements
- A parent or guardian complaint that has reached, or may reach, the state
- An employee misconduct allegation that needs an impartial outside investigator
- A licensing board inquiry requiring documentation and a clear factual record
- Coordination with insurance carriers and legal counsel following an incident
A director of investigations, without the director salary.
Incident Response
When something happens, you call us first. We direct evidence preservation, witness interviews, and documentation from hour one.
Impartial Internal Investigations
Staff misconduct, policy violations, contact incidents. Findings documented in reports built to withstand review.
Regulatory & Agency Liaison
We have coordinated directly with DHS and state agencies during active reviews. You won't be navigating it alone.
Policy & Protocol Development
Incident response procedures, documentation standards, and notification requirements, built before you need them.
Here's what that looked like for one client.
Behavioral Health Organization
A multi-site behavioral health organization retained 1st Grade Security Services after a staff-child contact incident. The engagement included:
- Conducted the full internal investigation — witness interviews, evidence review, credibility assessment — delivered in a detailed investigative findings report used by ownership and legal counsel.
- Advised leadership through an active state and federal compliance review, coordinating directly with DHS and outside counsel.
- Built the organization's incident response protocol from the ground up.
- Served as the organization's standing investigations and risk advisor, reporting directly to ownership.
A monthly retainer, your investigations department on call.
A flat monthly fee that includes priority incident response, a set block of advisory hours, and pre-negotiated project rates for full investigations. No scrambling in a crisis, and no hourly meter running while you decide whether to call.
Applies to behavioral health agencies, childcare centers, private schools, and healthcare practices licensed by the state.
Investigative support built for legal scrutiny.
Evidence and testimony that hold up under scrutiny.
Twenty-three years building homicide cases means twenty-three years of learning exactly where an investigation holds up, and where it doesn't.
- Locating a witness who has gone dark or become difficult to reach
- Verifying a claimant's account or a witness' story before trial
- Background verification on an opposing party or witness
- Case analysis and investigative strategy coordination alongside counsel
- Building the factual record behind a complex filing, including immigration-related matters
Witness Location & Interviews
Locating hard-to-find witnesses and conducting recorded statements with an eye toward admissibility.
Fact-Finding & Case Review
Independent case review and investigative accuracy assessment for defense and plaintiff counsel.
Background & Due Diligence
Comprehensive background investigations using multi-source records and open-source intelligence.
Surveillance
Discreet, documented surveillance in support of civil litigation and insurance defense matters.
An example of that work in practice.
Fraud Investigation Supporting a Legal Filing
Retained to investigate a suspected fraud scheme connected to an active legal matter. The engagement included:
- Ran comprehensive database searches identifying the subject's history and confirming a fabricated secondary identity.
- Prepared a full multi-section investigative report — case overview, subject identification, evidentiary findings, documented timeline.
- Organized an evidence exhibit package for legal review and referral to appropriate authorities.
Flat-fee deliverables, priced by scope.
Most engagements are priced as a flat fee per deliverable rather than hourly, so the cost is known upfront. Scope and pricing are confirmed before any work begins.
Protection built on judgment, not just presence.
Common reasons clients call.
- Executive protection coverage for a Fortune 100 or C-suite principal
- A specific threat or harassing contact directed at you or a family member
- A residence that has never had a formal security assessment
- Travel to an unfamiliar or higher-risk location requiring advance work
- A household member, contractor, or new hire who needs to be vetted
- Ongoing personal or family security planning conducted with discretion
Protective services led by direct experience.
Executive Protection
Close protection for individuals, executives, and family principals, coordinated personally.
Threat Assessment
Evaluation of specific, credible threats against a person or family, with a clear mitigation plan.
Residential Security Consulting
Site vulnerability review and access planning informed by real investigative experience.
Advance Work & Travel Security
Route planning and travel security coordination for principals in higher-risk environments.
Here's how that played out for one engagement.
Principal Movement for a Fortune 100 Engagement
Retained through a professional protective services network to provide armed protective transportation for a Fortune 100 principal across a multi-day New York engagement. The work included:
- Coordinated advance security on venue and movement timing for stops across multiple high-profile locations.
- Managed real-time route planning and threat awareness during all principal movements.
- Prepared a formal advance report to professional executive protection field standards.
The same level of experience stays on your case from the first call to the final report.
Every recommendation comes from someone who spent 23 years assessing real threats under pressure.
When an engagement calls for additional coverage, we draw on a network of trusted investigators, protective agents, and legal contacts built over 23 years in law enforcement and private-sector investigative work.
An experienced hand on the matters you can't hand off.
What typically prompts a call.
- An employee suspected of theft or misappropriation of company assets
- A misconduct or harassment complaint requiring an outside, impartial investigator
- Background investigation and screening for a prospective employee
- A vendor, contractor, or business relationship that warrants a closer look
- Pre-acquisition due diligence on a company or its leadership
The same standards regulated industries expect, applied to yours.
Internal Investigations
Employee misconduct, theft, and integrity matters investigated impartially.
Risk & Threat Assessment
Evaluation of physical, operational, and reputational exposure.
Due Diligence & Background Investigations
Multi-source vetting of individuals, vendors, and business partners.
Compliance Protocol Development
Incident response procedures and documentation systems for regulated or high-stakes environments.
Project-based, or ongoing advisory.
Some matters are a single investigation. Others call for an ongoing relationship. Either approach can be scoped for the client's needs.
Larger matters draw on the same relationships built over 23 years in law enforcement and private-sector investigative work — vetted investigators, protective agents, and legal contacts, not names pulled from a directory.