The Essex Company broke ground on the Great Stone Dam across the Merrimack River on August 1, 1845, and within two years had laid out an entire city on paper before a single mill worker moved in. Lawrence was incorporated in 1847 as the last
and largest of the planned textile cities built by Boston industrialists, and the street grid, canal system, and mill-yard boundaries those investors drew up still shape how the city is policed, patrolled, and protected today.
By Derek Kreymer, Operations Manager
Hub Security and Investigative Group provides security guard services in Lawrence, MA — armed and unarmed guards, mobile patrol, and licensed private investigation services — for an Essex County city of 88,736 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate) built on a bend of the Merrimack River. Lawrence is home to the Great Stone Dam and canal system built by the Essex Company in the 1840s, the site of the 1912 Bread and Roses textile strike, and a New Balance manufacturing plant that remains one of the city’s larger employers.
Security Built Around Lawrence’s Districts
The Essex Company’s original street plan split Lawrence into distinct sections by function — mill yards along the canals, worker housing on the hills above them, and commercial blocks along Essex Street. That division is still visible in how the city is used today, and Hub assigns coverage by district rather than treating Lawrence as one uniform service area.
South Lawrence, across the river from the original mill district, combines residential blocks with retail plazas along South Broadway, where Hub provides retail security for shopping centers and standalone stores. Tower Hill and Prospect Hill, built as streetcar suburbs for mill managers and skilled workers a century ago, are now dense residential neighborhoods where Hub runs residential security patrols for apartment buildings and multi-family properties.
The former mill complexes along the canals — including buildings that once housed Pacific Mills and Arlington Mills — have been converted into office, light-industrial, and mixed-use space, where Hub provides corporate security for tenants. Active redevelopment projects along the riverfront and in the former mill yards give Hub’s construction site security teams regular work protecting equipment and materials after hours.
What Local Crime Data Actually Shows
Lawrence recorded a violent crime rate of 4.41 per 1,000 residents, according to FBI-sourced data compiled by NeighborhoodScout — above the Massachusetts state average of 3.15 per 1,000. The same data lists 7 murders in the most recent reporting year and a property crime rate of 10.02 per 1,000, which is below the state average of 11.12 per 1,000. NeighborhoodScout ranks Lawrence as safer than 27 percent of U.S. cities.
Those numbers are consistent with what a 19th-century mill city built at high density on a compact street grid produces today: violent crime concentrated in specific blocks rather than spread evenly across the city, and property crime running closer to the state norm. Hub uses this pattern to weight patrol frequency and guard placement toward the corridors where incidents actually cluster, rather than applying the same staffing plan citywide.
Coverage by District
| District | Key Local Features | Hub Focus |
|---|---|---|
| South Lawrence | South Broadway retail corridor, residential side streets | Retail security, residential patrol |
| Tower Hill / Prospect Hill | Dense multi-family housing, former streetcar suburb | Residential security guards, foot and vehicle patrol |
| Former Mill District (Canal Street area) | Converted mill buildings — Pacific Mills, Arlington Mills complexes | Corporate security, access control |
| Riverfront / Redevelopment Zones | Active construction and renovation projects along the Merrimack | Construction site security |
What Hub Provides in Lawrence
- Armed and unarmed guards for retail plazas and standalone stores along South Broadway and Essex Street
- Residential security patrols for apartment buildings and multi-family housing in Tower Hill and Prospect Hill
- Corporate security for offices and light-industrial tenants in converted mill buildings
- Construction site security for riverfront redevelopment and mill-conversion projects
- Mobile patrol with GPS-logged checkpoints across South Lawrence and the downtown mill district
- Background check services and corporate investigations for Lawrence employers
Serving Lawrence and the Surrounding Area
Hub Security and Investigative Group covers Lawrence alongside the rest of the Merrimack Valley and nearby Greater Boston communities, using the same officers and dispatch team across the region. Businesses and property managers in Lawrence often sit within the same coverage routes as these nearby towns:
- our coverage in Lowell
- our coverage in Woburn
- our coverage in Burlington
Why Lawrence Businesses and Residents Choose Hub
- Massachusetts-licensed for both security guard services and private investigation services
- Fully trained, with background-checked officers
- GPS patrol tracking and unannounced supervisor inspections on every shift
- Local management that knows Lawrence’s districts and history — not a national call center or app-based guard broker
- 24/7 emergency dispatch at (617) 857-1200
How Hub Saves Lawrence Customers Money
Consolidating under one Hub contract also tends to cost less than piecing together separate vendors for guards, patrol, and investigative work: one onboarding process instead of several, no coverage gaps that force you to pay a second vendor’s overtime rate to fill them, and one predictable monthly invoice instead of surprise call-out fees. That matters in Lawrence, where dense mill-yard properties and neighboring residential blocks sit close together — Hub can bundle mill-building coverage with nearby residential checks under a single route instead of billing each separately.
Lawrence’s own history is unlike almost anywhere else in the country: the Essex Company broke ground on the Great Stone Dam across the Merrimack River on August 1, 1845, and within two years had laid out an entire city on paper before a single mill worker moved in. Lawrence was incorporated in 1847 as the last and largest of the planned textile cities built by Boston industrialists, and the street grid, canal system, and mill-yard boundaries those investors drew up still shape how the city is policed, patrolled, and protected today.
Hub’s guards protect both Lawrence’s historic mill districts and its residential neighborhoods.
Supporting Northern Essex Community College
Lawrence is home to a campus of Northern Essex Community College, with buildings on Common Street and Franklin Street serving students throughout the city. Hub provides mobile patrol and unarmed security guard protection for campus-adjacent properties and events, helping the college and its surrounding downtown community stay secure without staffing a full-time in-house security department.
Licensing, Insurance, and What Hub Offers in Lawrence, MA
Every guard Hub assigns to a Lawrence MA property carries a Massachusetts Security Guard License (License #LP0203L, licensed since 2004), and Hub carries a $3 million general liability insurance policy backing every contract, so Lawrence
condo boards, business owners, and property managers can verify our credentials before signing anything.
- Mobile security patrols for Lawrence’s dense residential neighborhoods and commercial districts
- Armed security guards for higher-risk retail and industrial sites
- Unarmed security guards for condo lobbies, apartment communities, and offices
- Crowd-certified event management for Lawrence’s public events, with guards holding the Massachusetts Crowd Manager certification through the MA Dept. of Fire Services plus CPR/First Aid and Narcan training
- Private investigation and background check services for property managers and business owners
Why Lawrence’s Condo Communities and Businesses Choose Hub
Loft-style residential communities like Pacific Mill Lofts, in one of Lawrence’s historic mill buildings, benefit from a visible, licensed security presence covering lobbies, parking, and common areas, which matters in a dense city where foot traffic and turnover are both high. Hub’s guards work with on-site property managers to log incidents and monitor visitor access around the clock.
Retail and commercial tenants along Essex Street and near the Merrimack River also rely on Hub for mobile patrols and event-day crowd management, since Lawrence’s dense downtown draws more foot traffic than a single on-site manager can monitor alone.
What to Verify Before Hiring a Security Company in Lawrence, MA
Before hiring any security company in Lawrence, MA, ask to see a current Massachusetts Security Guard License and proof of general liability insurance. Hub Security and Investigative Group provides both without hesitation, because every Lawrence MA guard we place is licensed and every Lawrence MA contract is backed by our $3 million policy. Property owners in Lawrence, MA should also ask how a company handles a dense city with a mix of residential, retail, and industrial properties.
Hub answers that question directly: our Lawrence, MA patrol scheduling adapts to each property type, so Lawrence, MA clients get coverage matched to actual risk rather than a flat schedule.
Condo, Apartment, and Business Complex Security in Lawrence
Apartment communities in Lawrence, including mill-conversion properties like Stone Mill Lofts, reflect the city’s history as a 19th-century textile hub — and today, those same converted buildings mean a large number of residents sharing entryways, parking areas, and mailrooms that are hard for a single building manager to watch around the clock. Hub Security and Investigative Group provides patrol coverage and access monitoring that a property management company or condo association can budget for as one shared cost, rather than leaving residents to arrange individual security. That shared coverage means faster response to unfamiliar visitors near entrances and parking, at a fraction of what private security would cost per unit.
Business and industrial parks in Lawrence, such as Lawrence Industrial Park, bring multiple companies onto one campus, which means shared loading docks, parking lots, and after-hours risk across every tenant. Hub Security and Investigative Group provides patrols, access control, and lock-up services that a park’s ownership or tenant association can split across every business on site instead of each company arranging its own coverage. That shared approach keeps costs down while giving every tenant, from manufacturers to offices, a consistent security presence day and night.
Hub officers are also trained and certified to staff public and private events in Lawrence — from town festivals and community gatherings to a condo association’s holiday party or a business complex’s tenant event — and hold current Massachusetts Crowd Manager certification through the MA Department of Fire Services, in addition to CPR/First Aid and Narcan (naloxone) certification. That combination means an officer staffing a crowded Lawrence event isn’t just a visible presence — they’re certified to manage occupancy limits and respond to a medical emergency until first responders arrive, which is the standard property owners and event organizers should expect from event security.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Lawrence, MA a high-crime city? Lawrence’s violent crime rate of 4.41 per 1,000 residents is above the Massachusetts state average of 3.15, according to NeighborhoodScout, while its property crime rate of 10.02 per 1,000 is slightly below the state average of 11.12. Hub uses this data to focus patrol coverage on the corridors with the highest incident concentration.
Does Hub provide armed guards in Lawrence? Yes. Hub provides both armed and unarmed guards in Lawrence, assigned based on the property type, location, and the client’s risk assessment.
Can Hub patrol converted mill buildings and mixed-use properties? Yes. Hub regularly staffs corporate security and access control for offices and light-industrial tenants in Lawrence’s former mill buildings along the canal district.
Is Hub licensed to operate in Lawrence, MA? Yes. Hub Security and Investigative Group is licensed in Massachusetts for both security guard services and private investigation services, and holds all required state licensing to operate in Lawrence and throughout Essex County.
Call Hub Security & Investigative Group at (617) 857-1200 for a free consultation on security guard services in Lawrence, MA, or request a quote online.
