Independent Vendor-neutral Northern California
About

Paul Wittner

Paul Wittner is an independent physical security consultant based in Woodland, California, with 46 years in the field. He holds a California C-10 electrical contractor's license and California BSIS alarm licenses held continuously since 1982. He works with hospitals, water utilities, government agencies, correctional facilities, and industrial sites across Northern California.

Wittner Security Consultants is his independent consulting practice. It staffs no guards, sells no hardware, and provides no monitoring. The only thing it sells is judgment.

Portrait
of Paul Wittner

Forty six years of doing the work, not reading about it.

Paul has spent his entire career inside the physical security trade rather than adjacent to it. That work has covered CCTV and video surveillance, access control, mobile surveillance platforms, video monitoring, clinical low voltage systems, and network and communications infrastructure.

That history matters for one specific reason. A consultant who has never installed a system can tell you what good looks like in theory. A consultant who has spent decades installing, testing, and repairing them knows what will actually survive contact with your building, your budget, your electrical constraints, and the people who have to use it every day. Paul writes recommendations that get built, because he has spent a career building them.

Licensed by the State of California.

Most security consultants hold no license at all, because pure advisory work in California does not require one. Paul's licenses come from having operated on the contracting side of this trade for four decades. They are listed here in full, with their numbers, because a credential you cannot verify is not a credential.

C-10 · 538251 Electrical Contractor's License California State License Board
ACO-5168 Alarm Company Operator California BSIS · since 1982
ACQ-1403 Alarm Company Qualified Manager California BSIS · since 1982
ACO-7987 Alarm Company Operator California BSIS · since 2019

Where that experience has been applied.

Over 46 years Paul has worked with organizations where a security failure carries real operational, public safety, or continuity consequences:

  • California Water Service
  • Adventist Health
  • HP
  • Exxon
  • U.S. Army Reserve
  • Correctional facilities

These are environments where the standard is not "did we install cameras." It is whether the whole system holds up when something goes wrong.

Independent, and specific about what that means.

Paul also operates Western Security Systems, a licensed alarm and low voltage company. We tell you that here rather than leave it for you to discover, because independence you have to take on faith is not worth much. Wittner Security Consultants does not bid, install, or profit from any work it recommends. You own the specifications and can competitively bid them to any installer you choose.

Read the full independence policy

What Paul does not do.

Being clear about the boundaries is part of being useful:

  • No guard services. He does not staff, supply, or subcontract officers.
  • No cybersecurity. This is the physical world only.
  • No alarm monitoring or equipment sales through WSC.
  • No private investigation work.
  • No compliance certification. He can assess and advise on the physical security side of a requirement. He does not certify or guarantee legal compliance, and no honest consultant would.

Common questions

Is Paul the person who actually does the work?

Yes. Wittner Security Consultants is a single-principal practice. Paul performs the site walk, writes the findings, and presents the recommendations himself. You are not handed to a junior associate after the proposal is signed.

What licenses does Paul hold?

A California C-10 Electrical Contractor's License (#538251), and California BSIS alarm licenses: Alarm Company Operator ACO-5168 and Qualified Manager ACQ-1403, both held since 1982, plus ACO-7987 issued in 2019. Every number on this page is verifiable with the issuing agency.

Does Wittner Security Consultants sell or install security systems?

No. WSC is advisory only. It does not bid, install, or profit from the work it recommends. Paul also operates Western Security Systems, a licensed alarm and low voltage company, and we say so openly rather than let you find it later. Read exactly how that line is drawn.

What areas does Paul serve?

Northern California. The practice is headquartered in Woodland, about twenty minutes from Sacramento, and works on site across the Sacramento region, the Bay Area, the Central Valley, and the North State.

Does Paul work on cybersecurity?

No. This is physical security: the building, the perimeter, the cameras, the doors, the locks, the lighting, the procedures, and the people. If your problem is network or data security, Paul is not the right consultant and will tell you so.

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Talk to Paul directly.

Every inquiry reaches Paul himself. Tell him what you are protecting and he will tell you honestly whether he is the right person for it.

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