You do not know whether your security works until someone tries to beat it. UPK9 red team agents arrive as ordinary guests — a fan with a ticket, a vendor with a delivery, a contractor with a clipboard — and attempt to defeat your screening, your access control, and your staff. Then we hand you a report with the data: what got through, where, when, and who did or did not stop it. Authorized, controlled, and confidential. Call (866) 875-9411 or request a confidential consultation.
Secret shopper, but for security
Your team knows the procedure. They have been briefed, they have the post orders, and on paper the venue is covered. But procedure written down and procedure executed on a sold-out Saturday night with a line out the gate are two different things, and the gap between them is invisible until someone exploits it.
A red team engagement closes that gap by testing it directly. Our agents blend in with the real crowd, on a real event day, under real conditions. Nobody working the gate knows. They are not on alert, they are not performing for an auditor, and they behave exactly as they would on any other shift — which is the entire point.
What comes back is not an opinion about your security. It is evidence.
What we test
- Entry screening — whether prohibited items pass your bag check, magnetometers, wanding, and pat-down procedure, and whether screeners hold the standard as the line backs up
- Contraband introduction — concealed items carried through public entry, in bags, on the body, or passed over or around the perimeter
- Credential and ticket control — counterfeit or duplicated passes, expired credentials, borrowed wristbands, and whether anyone actually checks
- Tailgating and piggybacking — following authorized staff through controlled doors and vehicle gates
- Restricted and back-of-house access — loading docks, production areas, press areas, suites, locker rooms, mechanical and utility spaces
- Social engineering — pretexting as staff, vendors, media, or contractors to talk past a checkpoint
- Perimeter integrity — fence lines, service entrances, unmonitored doors, and gaps between camera coverage
- Staff response and challenge culture — does anyone question an unbadged stranger in a restricted area, and what happens when they do
- K9 and detection team performance — where a detection program is in place, blind testing of whether the teams actually alert
What you get back
The deliverable is a report your security director can act on and your board can read. It is built on captured data, not impressions.
- Vector-by-vector results — every attempt logged: what was tried, at which entry point, at what time, by whom, and whether it succeeded
- Time-stamped evidence — photographs and documentation from inside the areas our agents reached
- Challenge rate — how often staff stopped, questioned, or reported our agents, broken out by post and by shift
- Time to detection — how long an unauthorized person remained in a restricted area before anyone reacted
- Root cause analysis — whether each failure was a procedure gap, a training gap, a staffing gap, or a technology gap, because the fix is different for each
- Prioritized remediation — findings ranked by risk and by effort, so you know what to fix Monday morning and what goes in next year’s budget
- Executive debrief — we walk your leadership through the findings in person
Who commissions this
- Stadiums, arenas, and ballparks validating game-day screening before a league, a regulator, or an insurer asks them to
- Festivals and concert promoters pressure-testing a gate plan before the gates actually open
- Corporate campuses checking badge culture and lobby procedure against a determined visitor
- School districts and universities testing whether a stranger can walk onto a campus during the day
- Government and public facilities meeting internal audit or oversight requirements
- Critical infrastructure operators testing perimeter, gate, and control room access
- Security directors who inherited a program and need to know what they actually have
How an engagement runs
1. Authorization. Nothing happens without written authorization from someone with the standing to grant it, agreed rules of engagement, defined boundaries, and legal review. Our agents carry authorization letters at all times. This is the difference between a red team assessment and a crime, and we do not blur it.
2. Scenario design. We build the attempt profile around your actual threat picture and your actual venue — not a generic checklist. What would a determined person really try here?
3. Covert execution. Agents work the event as guests. Every attempt is documented as it happens. We operate strictly inside the agreed boundaries, we do not create genuine hazards, we do not endanger your guests or staff, and anything we bring in comes back out with us.
4. Reporting. Findings, data, evidence, and prioritized recommendations, delivered only to the recipients you designate.
5. Remediation and retest. Findings without a fix are just bad news. We help close the gaps, then run it again to confirm the fix held under the same conditions.
Who should know it is happening
As few people as possible. Typically the authorizing executive, your legal contact, and one operational safety point of contact who can stop the exercise or vouch for our agents if a situation escalates. If the people working the gate know a test is coming, you are not measuring your security — you are measuring your security on its best behavior, which is not the version that protects you.
Why UPK9
Our red team agents come from military and law enforcement backgrounds and have worked the other side of this: running venue security, screening lines, and detection programs. Knowing where the seams are requires having stood in them.
UPK9 also fields explosive, firearm, and narcotics detection teams, plus armed and unarmed officers. We hold DEA Registration RJ0509414 and California PPO license #121776, and we are a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business founded by U.S. Army detection dog handlers. We maintain joint training with partner organizations at both the local law enforcement and federal level — our people train with the people who set the standard, which is what qualifies us to measure anyone against it.
We will audit programs we did not build, including our competitors’. If you want your current vendor tested, we will test them and give you the findings straight.
Confidentiality
Red team findings are sensitive by definition — a report describing exactly how to get into your venue is a document that needs handling. Every engagement is covered by a mutual NDA before scoping begins, reports go only to named recipients you designate, and we do not use audit clients as references or case studies without written permission.
California service area
Folsom headquarters, statewide deployment across Sacramento, the San Francisco Bay Area, the Central Valley, and Southern California. See our full California service area.
Frequently asked questions
Is this legal?
Properly scoped and authorized, yes. Physical red teaming is standard practice in security, the same way penetration testing is standard in information security. The requirements are written authorization from someone with authority over the site, agreed rules of engagement, and legal review before execution. Our agents carry authorization documentation throughout. We will decline any engagement that cannot be authorized properly.
What happens if your agent gets caught?
That is a good result — it means your people did their job, and it goes in the report as a win. Our agent presents authorization documentation to your designated point of contact, the exercise pauses if needed, and we continue on the agreed terms. Handling the catch cleanly is part of the plan, not an afterthought.
Will this get my staff disciplined?
That is your call, not ours, and we will tell you plainly that punishing individuals is usually the wrong response. Most failures we find are procedure and training problems wearing a person’s name badge. Our reporting is structured to identify the systemic cause rather than to build a case against an employee.
Do you actually bring prohibited items into a venue?
Test items are agreed during scoping and are selected so that they demonstrate the vulnerability without creating any genuine hazard. We never introduce a real weapon, real explosive, or anything that could endanger guests or staff into a live public environment. Everything brought in is documented and removed.
How long does an engagement take?
A single-venue assessment is typically scoped and executed over a few weeks, with the test itself run across one or more real event days. Multi-site programs and recurring seasonal testing take longer. Scoping is where the time goes, and it is time well spent.
How often should we do this?
Annually at minimum for a major venue, and after any significant change — new screening technology, a new contractor, a new gate configuration, or heavy staff turnover. Security posture drifts. A single clean report is a snapshot, not a guarantee.
Request a confidential consultation
Discreet initial conversation. NDA before scoping. No obligation.
Call (866) 875-9411 | Email info@upk-9.com | Book a video meeting
UPK9 Inc. — 50 Iron Point Circle, Suite 140, Folsom, CA 95630. PPO #121776 · DEA #RJ0509414. A Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Business.
Related services: explosive detection K9 · firearm detection K9 · narcotics detection K9 · armed security officers
Based in the capital region? See K9 detection and security services in Sacramento.