As the former head of operational and fraud risk at Westport-based hedge fund giant Bridgewater Associates, Rich Milliman said he saw firsthand how police and fire departments needed help managing the logistics of their extra-duty services, like traffic and crowd control at construction sites or public events. So, in 2015, two years after leaving Bridgewater, […]
As the former head of operational and fraud risk at Westport-based hedge fund giant Bridgewater Associates,
Rich Milliman said he saw firsthand how police and fire departments needed help managing the logistics of their extra-duty services, like traffic and crowd control at construction sites or public events.
So, in 2015, two years after leaving Bridgewater, he co-founded
Extra Duty Solutions, a Shelton-based company that specializes in managing offduty assignments performed by public safety workers.
In its first year, the two-person company —
Adam Bryan, a former Bridgewater security operations manager also co-founded EDS, but he left in 2023 to start Stamford-based Crossing Guard Services — collected $2.31 million in gross revenue helping manage extra-duty services for the Delray Beach Police Department in Florida, and seven other police and fire departments in five states.
The company has grown considerably since then, expecting to earn $250 million in gross revenue this year, said Milliman, a 61-year-old Shelton resident.
EDS grew its client base 42% last year alone, he added.
That growth has spurred outside investor interest. Extra Duty Solutions in late June announced it has taken on a “significant” investment from New York-based private equity firm Bregal Sagemount.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Milliman says it will bolster the company’s nationwide growth.
“We brought Bregal Sagemount in to help us with the financing of that growth as well as to benefit from their long experience in working with high-growth software and technology-enabled business services firms,” he said.
Motivated ‘by inertia’
Milliman has a diverse business background.
He earned an MBA from the University of Chicago and spent time as a management consultant for McKinsey and Co., before leading portfolio marketing and marketing operations for Bank One, a Chicago-based bank that was acquired by JPMorgan Chase in 2004 in a $58 billion deal.
Before working at Bridgewater, he was group president and chief operating officer for New York-based Family Holding Co., where he was responsible for five U.S.-based portfolio companies under a European-based family holding company. His previous experience also includes serving as CEO of JobDirect, a college recruiting firm owned by Korn Ferry.
Extra Duty Solutions represents his first startup company.
The police and fire departments that Extra Duty serves range in size from 100 to more than 2,500 employees. The company is in the process of onboarding its largest client to date, the Boston Police Department, which has 2,144 sworn officers and 569 civil workers.
EDS offers several core services. It coordinates and assigns off-duty shifts, communicates with parties — like utility companies, retailers, event organizers and venues — requesting extra-duty services and does invoicing, billing and fee collection.
Its Jivasoft software, which EDS acquired in 2019, offers a portal/mobile app for officers to view and request offduty details. It also integrates with onduty schedules to avoid overlap, and offers a portal for requesting organizations to schedule, track and manage assignments.
EDS’ value proposition, Milliman said, is that it helps resource-strapped local public safety departments free up staff from the administrative burdens of organizing extra-duty services — at limited or no cost.
The company earns revenue by charging a percentage fee to organizations that request the off-duty support, not the public safety agencies.
It does charge an annual subscription fee to clients, including police and fire departments, that use its Jivasoft software.
Extra Duty Solutions collected $172 million in gross revenue in 2024, paying out the majority of that money ($156.5 million) to police and fire departments that provided off-duty services. The company generated $15.5 million from its management and subscription fees last year, Milliman said.
“(Police and fire departments) are trying to run these programs on a fixed budget, and it’s tough,” he said. “We’re basically a managed service for the municipality.”
Since 2016, Extra Duty Solutions’ client base has grown to 251 police and fire departments across 24 states. It has recruited about 80 clients in the past two years, and is adding about 50 clients annually, Milliman said.
The company is focused on the U.S. market because it offers significant growth potential — there are 17,000 police departments across the country — but it’s also had some talks with potential clients in Canada, Milliman said.
EDS solicits new clients at law enforcement conferences.
As it grows, Extra Duty Solutions is also facing more competition, Milliman said. There are about three or four competitors that each offer similar services.
Eventually, Milliman said he predicts a majority of police departments will use the services of third-party, extra-duty management companies.
“I think eventually that’ll happen,” he said. “Change sometimes comes slow, and sometimes you’re motivated more by inertia, but it’s definitely ramping up. … There’s a lot of growth left in this industry.”
New advisors
As it grows, EDS’ workforce has expanded far beyond its initial two-man operation.
The company employs 30 workers at its Shelton headquarters at 6 Corporate Drive, and another 88 workers at regional offices in Hendersonville, North Carolina, and San Antonio, Texas. It has a handful of employees at offices in Tinton Falls, New Jersey, and Tampa, Florida.
Milliman said the recent equity investment from Bregal Sagemount will help accelerate its growth.
“Sagemount checked all the boxes for us,” he said. “Our primary goal in working with Sagemount is the partnering aspect to help us grow with the right capital structure and advisors.”
Sagemount partners Blair Greenberg and Sean Lenahan and Vice President Harrison Brunelli joined Extra Duty Solutions’ board of directors as part of the investment.
“EDS pioneered the market for providing off-duty administration services and has consistently innovated its offerings to meet the evolving needs of its customers,” Greenberg said. “We are thrilled to partner with Rich and his team to support the company in continuing to be the innovation leader in addressing the operational and human capital pain points facing law enforcement and public safety agencies.”
