ROSH HASHANAH 5786 SECTION B, PAGE 18
There is one man who undoubtedly attends more Jewish community events than anyone else. More than any rabbi and more than any agency leader. He is equally at home in an Orthodox setting as he is at a Renewal event.
If you look closely, you can often see him in the photos of most community events, although he is never posing for a “grip-and-grin.” He is not “working the room” or exchanging business cards with everyone.
Instead, he is working the room to protect everyone else in attendance, canvassing the space for things that most of us would never think of.
His name is Shane Ammerman, owner and CEO of HCCI Professional Protective Services, the security company hired by more than 20 Colorado synagogues and Jewish organizations to stand watch over Shabbat and holiday services and events of all kinds.
Shane Ammerman has been a protector nearly his entire life.
“I started my protection journey at five years old when I stepped between a gun and my mom, who was actually the antagonist. She wasn’t the innocent party; she was the person poking the beast and crying wolf. She abandoned us to our alcoholic, enraged drunken father.
“My dad was trained in military law enforcement and multiple forms of martial arts, and I had to go toe-to-toe with him until I was 11, protecting my siblings,” he says.
Then, from 11 to 14, Ammerman had to live with a 250-pound abusive stepfather. At age 14, Ammerman filed for emancipation, but it was denied, so he had to moved back in with his father, and left home at 16.
Ammerman participated in Naval Junior ROTC during his four years of high school, after which he enlisted in the Marine Corps. He was honorably discharged after an injury in his first year in the Marines, “but I still had a passion to protect,” he says.
Ammerman worked his way through several entrepreneurial career stages. In 2017, his wife Keely, whom he had married in 2012, relapsed with terminal cancer, and they moved from Wyoming, where he owned a trucking company, to Denver. He spent the next four-and-a-half years taking care of Keely, while raising their two children, until she passed away in December, 2021.
In the meantime, his interest in the Israeli defensive martial art krav maga led Ammerman to pursue his new career in protection and security. He became certified as an instructor in krav maga law enforcement, and went to work for a security company.
“When I went to work for the company in late 2018, they placed me with the Jewish organizations because when you can tell a Jewish organization that you know krav maga, it breaks down some barriers,” says Ammerman, who is a devout Christian.
One of those first organizations was Rodef Shalom. When the people at Rodef Shalom learned he was a krav maga instructor, they had a lot of questions for him, and he had a lot of questions for them. The more he asked, the more he learned about the Jewish people.
“I learned that the Jewish people were the most attacked group of people in the entire United States, bar none. Despite what the politics and the news media tell you, the Jewish people are attacked way more often than any other minority in the US.”
Ammerman also learned about Judaism. “I learned what Shabbat is, and when Shabbat begins, how they bring Shabbat in, and what kiddush is. I learned what they eat and didn’t eat. And I learned the difference between Orthodox, between Orthodox, Conservative, Renewal, Reform and Reconstructionist.”
Ammerman became disillusioned with the minimum wages and high turnover at the security company he worked for, and he knew he could do better on his own. With a commitment to paying employees well and providing above par training and certification, Ammerman started HCCI Professional Protective Services.
HCCI is an acronym for Honor, Courage, Commitment, Integrity.
“After I went through the Homeland security courses on bombing and counter-terrorism prevention, I decided that I would specialize with the Jewish community.”
HCCI is not to be confused with SCN, Security Community Network, the national nonprofit that brings together law enforcement officials to advise Jewish and non-Jewish organizations on proper security protocols. HCCI consults with SCN often.
Even though HCCI works with other categories of clients, such as schools, executives, the cannabis industry and homeless organizations, HCCI has grown to be the foremost provider of armed security services to the Denver-Boulder Jewish community.
Clients include Colorado-Israel Chamber of Commerce, Rodef Shalom, Aish of the Rockies, Ohr Avner, Bonai Shalom, B’nai Torah, Chabad of Northwest Denver, Boulder JCC, Jewish in the City, Hillel Academy and Run for Their Lives in Denver, Boulder and Fort Collins.
The firm has grown from just Ammerman in the beginning to 20 employees, all of whom are certified.
The need for HCCI’s services has intensified since Oct. 7, 2023, when anti-Semites and anti-Israel actors have felt emboldened, which was borne out on June 1, when the Boulder Run for Their Lives demonstration was firebombed allegedly by Mohamed Sabry Soliman.
Ammerman implies that the attack could have been prevented or mitigated if armed security would have been present.
“They were attacked in the location in which the Boulder County does not allow, under any circumstances, private armed security. I could not have been on the county property.
“They now engage my company, and we have to stop on the outside of the historic courthouse property line and stand there and watch. And then if something happens, we would be breaking Boulder County law the second we step on county property.”
However, if a threat is seen from the sidelines, his team would “absolutely, unequivocally cross the boundary and break Boulder County law to save innocent lives.”
That all HCCI personnel are always armed is non-negotiable. Sometimes, organizations want security coverage, but they are not comfortable with weapons on their premises. Ammerman calls unarmed security guards “actors.”
“The bad guys have learned to tell the difference,” he says.
“The bad guys are preying on the places that have fake security. HCCI will never engage in that.” Ammerman has turned down multi-million contracts from entities which would not agree to armed personnel.
In one case, a potential $2 million client asked him to put his team in “polo shirts and khakis with nothing else — no baton, no handcuffs, no taser, no gun, no pepper ball — nothing.
“I asked them, ‘What do you want my team to do in the event of an emergency?’ They said, ‘Call 911.’”
Ammerman turned down the contract. “I’ve turned them all down because my team matters. My team is my most important asset. If I can’t take care of them, somebody’s money doesn’t mean a thing to me.”
In protecting much of the Jewish community, Ammerman says that understanding nuances differentiating the various branches of Judaism enables him to detect potential bad actors. For example, if a man is spotted in an Orthodox setting, touching women or attempting to shake their hands, that could be a red flag that he is not Orthodox and could be an unwanted infiltrator. Ammerman realizes that could also mean he is a newcomer to Orthodox Judaism and is still learning the customs.
“Or, if in an Orthodox community, somebody comes to shul on a Friday night carrying a tefilin bag, you know something is wrong. Your average person will overlook that, whereas the properly-trained security is going to realize this is one of two situations: either somebody who is less observant and reattaching to Judaism, or it’s a threat.
“If you don’t stop that person before they get through the door, it might be too late.”
Ammerman says that detecting potential bad actors was made more difficult during COVID when people at synagogues were wearing kippahs and masks with only the top of the nose, eyes and forehead showing.
“We were able to pick people out, saying, ‘You weren’t here the last three weeks. Who are you? Where are you from?’”
HCCI’s team members are trained to observe how people are driving or parking when they arrive at community venues, as these things could be indicators of a potential threat.
Ammerman’s seemingly ubiquitous presence at community gatherings has earned him the unofficial designation as an “honorary Jew.” His language is peppered with Hebrew and Yiddish words.
People in the community treat him with tremendous respect and warmth. In fact, he says, the Jewish community Was more supportive of him at the time of his wife’s death than his own community. To that end, he made sure kosher food was available at his wife’s memorial, as many of his Jewish acquaintances attended.
Ammerman says good people are not annoyed by intrusive questions or his team’s visibility. The security officers are often thanked by congregants or attendees at communal events
The executive director of a Denver-area synagogue sums it up:
“We cannot say enough about HCCI Protective Services and the services that they have provided for our congregation. HCCI’s staff have provided superior service in the way that they interact with our staff, members and community.
“They have taken the time to get to know our regulars while also maintaining a welcoming presence to our guests.
“HCCI has given our community a sense of security in a time where there was so much fear.
“In times of confrontation, they have handled themselves with professionalism and diffused volatile situations.”
As a mom recently told Ammerman, “We’re not living in fear anymore.”
© IJN 2025
