Ready to serve: Security supervisor prepared to protect at future casino
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BRISTOL – Clay Robinette is no stranger to serving the community. He did so for 26 years with the Bristol Virginia Police Department. Now, he’s ready to continue that work in his new role as the security supervisor at the upcoming Hard Rock Hotel and Casino.
“It’s been slightly different,” Robinette told Bristol Now. “But as far as providing safety and ensuring safety of guests and employees, it’s really very familiar.”
Robinette, 51, has been on the job with Hard Rock for roughly two months. But he’s spent the majority of his career focused on public safety and serving the local community as a lieutenant with the Bristol Virginia Police Department. His connection to the community, he said, was a real draw for casino officials when Robinette interviewed for the security position.
“I’ve been able to fill that role as a link between Hard Rock, first responders and the City of Bristol,” Robinette said. “We want to support (the fire department) in everything that they do. We want to support the police department in everything they do. We are looking forward to working hand-in-hand with them and having very close ties to all of our first responders.”
When it comes to his new role, Robinette said one of his chief focuses that transferred over from his time as a police officer to the casino has served as a real calling for the security supervisor.
“Specifically what drew (the casino security director) to me was all the additional time and effort that I put into the active shooter program I ran for the police department,” Robinette said. “It became quite popular.”
Robinette has spent the last decade offering classes on active shooter response. He started the program in early 2012 and has since spent time on the clock and in his spare time offering the program at churches, private businesses, chambers of commerce and more in both Tennessee and Virginia.
“After I got into it, it just felt like I was called to do it,” Robinette said. “For the Casino and for Hard Rock, it appears I will be continuing that.”
In his new role at the casino, however, the people he aims to protect will be onsite at all hours.
“We expect there to be a lot of people on property around the clock,” Robinette said. “Being able to provide that information to the employees to better safeguard our guests and our fellow employees, that's pretty important. Unfortunately, we don't see anything on the horizon yet that tells us that active attacks are going to stop. It’s best practice to have people prepared and give them the knowledge of what they can do in those situations, which is exactly what we will be doing here.”
Locals throughout the region have offered their share of opinions regarding the transformation of the former Bristol, Virginia Mall into Virginia’s first casino, both in favor and against the project. But for Robinette, those thoughts have always centered around the community’s needs.
“Being a member of the police department for the City of Bristol and knowing what the casino meant to the city, we were really looking forward to the casino and the jobs it will bring to support the community,” Robinette said. “And of course, if you're a police officer and you spent as much time as I did serving this community, it’s just natural that you want this place to succeed. You want it to better benefit the community that you served for so long.”
“To be a part of something that was going to hopefully prosper and something you had worked to protect for so long, I think that was my draw.”
He said he also believes the casino will offer much needed jobs and financial support for Bristol, Virginia.
“I know that there are a lot of people that supported the casino in reference to jobs and the financial shape that the city was in. If it wasn’t for the financial shape the city was in and that it was having to recover from, I don't know how well that would have been received. I think the city was ready for a change. I think the casino is going to bring an awesome change to Bristol.”
The upcoming casino will also be a place where Robinette and fellow local first responders will work together to ensure safety and first response at the site that will welcome guests at the temporary casino on July 8.
“I’ve had a lot of communication so far with the fire department,” Robinette said. “We’ve discussed the property and the fire response and what emergency response would be and should be, especially from their point of view. I think Coming from a first responder role made it even better because they have known me for years. We’re just going to build on that relationship to make everything here the very best that it can be.”
The security supervisor is also ready to offer a combination of safety and hospitality to all who enter the Hard Rock property as a local or a guest to the region.
“Safety for the security team is of course paramount,” Robinette said. “We want people to be able to come onto property and have a good time and enjoy themselves and not have to worry about the possibility of something occurring here.”
Robinette has come a long way since he started as an officer at the Gate City Police Department and later a Scott County Sheriff’s Office deputy before starting his 24-year career in Bristol, Virginia. But that passion for serving the public and protecting others has all but dwindled as Robinette sets off into the second part of his career.
“Taking on that role of passing along information to save people’s lives, that’s me,” Robinette said. “That’s what I’ve done the majority of my law enforcement career and that's what I hope to continue to do. Public service, that's always been something I wanted to do. I was lucky enough spending a career doing it and it looks like I’ll be lucky enough to still promote that and continue forward in my role here at Hard Rock.”
