Protective Service Details

Much like the H.R.T. page we feel no need to spit and polish this page.
We have been blessed these many years to have a large client base and work with many professionals in the community so anything that is on this page won’t make them bat an eye. There’s a lot of them that we haven’t worked with that know exactly what we are trying to get across here and will probably get a smile out it.

Fifteen years ago the catch phrase in the executive protection community was “proactive security measures.” The majority of the older executive protection firms and bodyguard schools would speak of proactive security measures and proclaim that if a security detail came under fire from a threat then some one wasn’t doing something right. They just weren’t exercising proper proactive security measures they would proclaim.

Fifteen years ago our cadre were countering that way of thinking with “if none of your details have been engaged then you haven’t been pulling details in the really evil places of the world and with clients that are really high on the target list.” Of course we say that tongue in cheek but we think you get the idea. We also noticed that the majority of these companies and schools were based in the United States. Typically you didn’t hear that kind of noise from organizations based over seas.

Now Iraq has happened along with a massive market of protective work and many companies have flooded into the theatre of operations. We don’t here those proclamations much any more. Iraq was an eye opener for a lot of agents. That exposure is going to create a much more highly trained and aware PSD community. Plus all of the executive protection schools have changed their curriculum. The question is why didn’t that happen before Iraq came along. They’ll say they were doing it, but all of our cadre remember very well. Our guys were operating using the same tactical scheme and doing the same training THEN as we are now.

Other security agents from other organizations would say to our guys why do you do this that way or this way. We where constantly hearing “you ex-military special operations guys are over amped and do things all screwy.” What they meant was we did things “differently” than they did things.

Like utilized cover agents, overwatch agents and shadow agents. Shadow agent, what’s that? We heard that a lot. We were in their words “nothing but gun slingers” because we wore ballistic armor when wearing our corporate dress attire. You can’t do that it messes up the look of the suit and its hot and uncomfortable. Plus the threat level isn’t high enough they would say. We would reply with “Oh, the threat level isn’t high enough to wear body armor but you are wearing a firearm. What’s the firearm for, jewelry?”

How many protection agents do you know that have been carrying ballistic trauma medical equipment in their suit pockets for the past 15 years. There’s not many out there folks.

We carry long arms in vehicles and strap on ballistic panels for the doors for those “it will never happen here but just in case” situations. Wow, that’s really over the top isn’t it. Does an American executive protection detail have the same risk level as a PSD in Iraq, we would all hope not of course. With that said you can never be over the top when it gets right down to it, because it is as much about “force protection” as much as it is client protection.

The majority of our cadre are farmed out in all of those shitty places of the world that you read about private contractors operating and dying in to protect their precious cargo. They always have been and that’s the reason why we do things the way we do. We think we have made our point here so we won’t beat a dead horse. Why have our people ALWAYS operated differently? Because we are NOT over paid, over dressed security guards that handle every protectee with a five-man diamond formation. Organized crime car bombs in Russia don’t care how tough or polished your protective detail looks. Two man Columbian motorbike hit teams don’t care how detailed your written risk assessment is. AK-47 toting radical Muslims don’t care how many protectee cover and evac drills that your team has run because they are carrying belt feds and RPGs.

Hitters in the PI stand on the corner eating ice cream with their 12 year old kid dressed in their Sunday best with big smiles on their faces just before they draw and fire. They’re not impressed with that little curly-Q wire hanging out of your ear. So how do PSD personnel prepare for these completely different forms of attack? Some of the answers are don’t look at every protection detail with the same tactical game plan and make sure that you utilize agents that have operational knowledge of the area. Usually that means they have been deployed in that theatre prior to the detail.

Fortunately for us our cadre have been deployed in many different parts of the world while pursuing the enemies, criminals and scumbags of our country as well as host countries. That specialized knowledge of local threat doctrine gives our cadre a base to develop our tactical scheme to protect a client. What’s “local threat doctrine” that just means how the bad guys operate. Our most important asset for PSD’s is our unconventional mindset which directs us in unconventional ways of doing ops.

Like our CO always says, that is our most precious commodity that our organization owns. Tactical awareness, realistic training and that exposure that we spoke of earlier are other assets as well. Individuals inquire of us about the realistic training that we are always talking about. We point them in the direction of Gabe Saurez, Craig “Southnarc” Douglas, the Tactical Defense Institute and the Tactical Response crew. Not that there aren’t others out there but these are men that have real world experience with violent conflict and are really on the cutting edge of REALISTIC training.

We don’t get paid a dime to say that either.