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30 In Their Thirties

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DBusiness magazine’s event series are bi-monthly panels & awards shows featuring compelling business content across a wide range of industries and topics. Guests enjoy strolling breakfast, comments from the groups and individuals being featured, and an exceptional opportunity to network with metro Detroit’s top business leaders.

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Grant Burns was a rookie Detroit police officer in 2018 when he safely disarmed a mentally ill man coming at him with a knife.

His action earned him a precinct District Officer of the Year award from the police union, a rare honor for a freshman officer. Burns’ action also caught the attention of former Detroit Police Chief James Craig, who promoted him to his personal bodyguard unit.

Just months into the assignment, Burns drove Craig home after an engagement and was headed home himself when he stopped for a red traffic light. “I was the only one stopped there and I got hit from behind by a semi-tractor trailer,” he remembers. “It crushed the police car. The doors were off the car. I was knocked unconscious.”

A brain injury forced him into eight months of physical and speech therapy. The prospect of a disability retirement loomed. “I didn’t want to quit the department. All I ever wanted to do was be a cop,” he says.

In 2021, Craig announced his candidacy for governor. Sgt. Mark Oliver, in charge of Craig’s police bodyguard unit, owned a private security company in Southfield and invited Burns to join him in providing protection for Craig.

When Craig dropped out of the race, Oliver and Burns founded Shield Security in Detroit, and began serving the commercial sector.

“Mark and I, we spent every dollar we had on vehicles and radios, and we went three to four months with no pay. I remember having $300 in my bank account and my mortgage was due,” Burns says.

“We hire people full time; everyone gets 40 hours. We offer higher pay (than competitors), and we put recruits through training in a police-structured organization,” Burns says. “We have sergeants, and we have supervisors and managers above them.”

Burns says the 120-employee company has a wide range of clients, including the Woodward Dream Cruise, Detroit Lions Sunday tailgate parties, auto manufacturing facilities, and Detroit casinos.

Burns says the first client he landed was the upscale Morgan Waterfront Estates, adjacent to the Detroit River.

“We still man the gate there for the neighborhood,” he says.

— Norm Sinclair