Newsletter Archive

June 2006

 

With wealth, fame and public life come opportunities and threats; minimizing risks while maximizing the professional and personal aspects of your life requires balance and planning.

 

Unfortunately, corporate and political leaders, celebrities and other at-risk individuals and their families often become targets for unscrupulous people seeking publicity and financial gain. Whether it is a delusional stalker driven by a fantasy relationship or a scorned business associate, a threat assessment will highlight potential threats and provide you options regarding precautions to protect yourself and your loved-ones.

 

Conducting an assessment and developing a balanced protection plan requires more than a muscle-bound bodyguard or an expert in martial arts, it requires intelligence, experience, training, an attention-to-detail, planning and coordination.

 

When selecting a protection partner, you must consider several factors, including the company expertise and experience, references, network and operational resources. In addition, the best firms will require their protection agents, no matter what level of experience, to complete its own training program and undergo extensive background investigations. Remember, these agents, and their operating company, will have access to your most valuable assets, are privy to conversations and must be trusted with valuable, often confidential details and information.

 

Only ongoing training and practical field practice can prepare an agent and provide them with the tools and knowledge necessary to prepare and respond in pressure situations. Technology and best practices are continually changing how protection agents conduct operations, from recent developments in digital cameras and voice communications to instant command centers and surveillance and tracking techniques.

 

Protection agents must also be well-versed in specific threats based on the threat assessment process and have the resources and support necessary to create a safe, secure environment for the protectee, their associates and families, without compromising their privacy.

 

Intelligence, planning and preparation are the three most important tools for a professional protection agent. Based on perceived threats and the protectee’s schedule, agents will conduct advance work--the first step in securing each environment. The protection agent must work with the protectees to gather detailed information surrounding their itinerary, including schedule, locations and routes, who they are meeting and circumstances of each meeting. The advance work will help reduce delays, identify general and specific threats and problems, such as traffic conditions and transportation requirements, as well as threats associated with venues and travel schedule, such as drop-off, entry and exit points and any security requirements. If properly conducted, advance work will eliminate 90% of threats associated with entering and exiting.

 

After the advance work and planning is completed, the protective detail is engaged and focused on mitigating and responding to risks in route, especially during arrivals, departures and transfers.

 

Protective agents involved in the security detail and their company should maintain a database of all relevant intelligence gathered during the advance and actual detail including digital images, associates and potential threats to better prepare for future details. In addition to eliminating many immediate threats, a thorough evaluation and post-detail report can minimize the time and resources spent evaluating threats in the future.

 

Retaining such information can also preserve company resources by reducing insurance costs. Travel and kidnap and recovery insurance providers will often substantially reduce premiums for companies that have established executive protection details and a comprehensive travel plan. However, executive protection details can result in a number of other unexpected benefits. For example, a protection team can often accelerate certain processes, including moving through customs. This can maximize the executive’s available work time, bringing increased productivity for the company.

 

Effectively managing a professional executive protection detail can secure some of the company’s most important assets. When executed correctly, with comprehensive advance work, such a program can also preserve the company’s financial resources, making executive protection a necessary element of any security program.

 

For more information, please call 877-858-8772 or visit our website at www.usscinc.com.