When Shawn Wilson saw the looting in West and North Philadelphia days ago, he says, he realized vets could fill a void.
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An Army vet and retired cop, he says it's very important to him to secure his own community.
"And nobody better to do it than our veterans, who have been trained by the federal government?" he said.
So, Wilson has been recruiting veterans and former first responders to be part of a new workforce development program, which will private security for neighborhood businesses.
Wilson said he believes Black communities must find a way to protect themselves when the police cannot protect them.
“If something like this were to ever happen (again), we want to be proactive and not reactive," he said.