“War correspondents” I mistakenly thought, were hand-picked for their skills set, fitness, mental toughness, awareness, and clean living. But no, what I found instead were individuals with many issues ranging from drug and alcohol problems to PTSD episodes to fundamental fitness concerns… the list goes on.
Training for When Time is Life
The 21-foot rule has long been an established firearm training standard. Simply put, it means an average man can close 21feet in 1.5 seconds, as we look at the below data of attacks on law enforcement officers the previous standard far from reflects the reality of the dynamic encounters in both distance and timing in enhancing your ability to prevail in a violent close quarter firearm encounter.
Keeping Your Edge: The Right Tool For the Job
Spend any length of time conducing protection work in the entertainment industry, and you’ll find that things work in cycles.
There are recording cycles, tour cycles, award show cycles and even sporting event cycles. A big portion of these trend annually, and are grouped with similar events, creating momentum, but being careful to avoid overshadowing or encroaching on another event’s moment.
Safety at Work and Its Meaning to Employees
It’s impossible to ever completely eliminate the presence of workplace accidents but in areas and industries where they are less frequent, entrepreneurs might get overconfident. In this state, they start looking at minimum requirements instead of going above and beyond to make their office as safe as possible.
The Dangerous Reality of Unmanned Drones
Governments have already developed the lethal capabilities of unmanned drones on the battlefield. And until greater regulations and countermeasures are introduced, protectors need to remain mindful and watchful of the threat this technology poses to ourselves and our clients.
Close Protection Rip Off
The price of Close Protection is going down, and it is not helped by unqualified individuals who are prepared to do the job at a reduced rate. If you get yourself involved with a company that cuts corners and has a blatant disregard for the regulations governing this industry, you will end up being tarred with the same brush resulting in reputational damage.
The Changing Face of Surveillance Training Qualifications?
Things are things afoot in the surveillance sector in respect of qualifications, and I am hoping that the ‘powers that be’ do not let things slide down a slippery slope as they did with the Close Protection qualification when it was introduced in the UK, by the Security Industry Authority (SIA).
Medics in Iraq – Experience on the Ground in Iraq
In the early days of ‘private contractor’ work in Iraq, medics were generally unregulated and unregistered. Since then the role of the medic has evolved from working as a ‘team medic’ into a ‘Tier 2’ medic who carries a comprehensive medical kit & medications and is able to function as a lone medic, often in remote locations. This should be a good thing, but it also comes with pitfalls.
Defining Professionalism in the Personal Protection Industry
With global threat levels at an all-time high, there is more work in the security industry now than there ever has been and the security industry is booming, but it’s harder to find work because there are now thousands more so-called ‘qualified’ CPOs chasing after every position.
The eX-military Factor
I am the son of a soldier, I have a very high regard for the British Army, which in my opinion has been the best in the world since the days of Oliver Cromwell, who created the first People’s Army. Even in the days of conscription, the British Army and its personnel acquitted themselves with distinction in Malaya and Korea. In very difficult circumstances (isn’t all conflict difficult?) they continue to do the bidding of this nation’s rulers across the world in a way that is reflective of the society from which they have come.
Staffing an International Team
When it comes to staffing an international team, I have five major considerations I look for in the team’s composition: Operational Capability, Operational Chemistry, Operational Relevance, Operational Flexibility and Operational Capacity.
The wait for Protect Duty continues, but culture change is already happening
While the wait for Protect Duty continues, It is clear that training and communication will be a major component of UK Protect Duty legislation. With the proposed legislation the public is much more aware of the risk and duty of care required of any organisation hosting a public gathering.
Residential Security
Just because someone has a security or private investigators license it does not mean they are competent or not working with the criminals. What a lot of people forget when hiring security personnel is that you get what you pay for.
Cutting Out the Middle Man
Tight defence budgets keep slashing headcounts for active duty personnel, leaving the military no alternative other than to outsource tasks when troops are stretched.
McDonaldization of Close Personal Protection
The process of McDonaldization takes a task and breaks it down into smaller tasks. This is repeated until all tasks have been broken down to the smallest possible level. The resulting tasks are then rationalized to find the single most efficient method for completing each task. All other methods are then deemed inefficient and discarded.
Why You Aren’t Working
Staffing a team is often as much about fit as it is function. It may not be a function of, does an agent have the skills to do a particular assignment, but can their ego stand down as they fill another role on the team, which may not be detail or shift leader?
THE LAST FRONTIER PART 6
Whether you are a protector, an attender, or a protector of an attender, knowing the baseline behavior (typical behavior or protocols for a certain group of people) of the church you are in will help to understand when something is not right.
Tips and hints for finding work in the personal protection industry
One of the most important things you should do is to decide very early in your career which environment and in which speciality you wish to work. You cannot do anything significant unless you make this fundamental decision.
Gap Training, What Most Practitioners Overlook
With 30 years of experience as a sailor, soldier, police officer/EMT, and security provider and trainer I have come up with some pretty clear ideas about what medical first response is for the average security provider. This is not meant to deter anyone from obtaining their EMT or Paramedic certifications or from persons with higher levels of training from providing that service.
Fire Safety in Executive Protection
When discussing executive protection topics with somebody not working in this field of expertise, the threats to the principal are often expected to come from rare incidents such as stalkers, snipers, explosions and so on. As professionals we know that the most significant and likely threats come from car accidents and health issues, then, next in line are serious fire emergencies. Don’t just take my word for it, a quick look at the statistics show just how frequent and deadly fires are in US.