My first protection detail was 30 August 1974. I was a second-year Marine Option Midshipman at Ohio State who “volunteered” to protect then-President Gerald R. Ford as he gave the commencement address at graduation. While it was an eye-opening and life-changing experience for me, the two-hour orientation provided by the US Secret Service hardly prepared me for a career that I knew I desperately wanted to pursue.
I changed my college major from engineering to criminology and fought my way into the police academy only to find that Central Ohio was not the Mecca for protection details. Neither was there much in the way of professional training in protection work because EPI and ESI hadn’t taken off just yet. So, if one wasn’t in the Secret Service or Army CID, one’s education came from magazines, television, movies, and a variety of other sources which had little reliability and even less practicality.
My next detail after President Ford was a few years later and involved a mentally ill woman whose mother had just died, and her brother wanted a bodyguard during the funeral. Her mental instabilities led friends and family to believe she would become unhinged at the graveside service and possibly act out violently. And so, I stood silently and reverently by the client, my eyes on the eighty-something suspect, my hand in the pocket of my overcoat, which had a secret cut-out so I could rest the palm of my hand reassuringly on the butt of the nickel-plated Smith and Wesson revolver. Feeling somewhat silly through the entire detail, I realized I hadn’t a clue as to what I was doing.
During the late nineteen seventies and early eighties we began to see the proliferation of private protection schools which, in turn, spurred development of dignitary protection programs through police agencies around the world. Departmental training officers would attend some of the finer programs of the day and then return to their agencies to create programs based on what they had learned. The problem was that there seemed to be no “standard.” Neither was there a clear distinction between the different types of protection and the best methodology with which to approach the task.
Many police officers attended protection training so that they could support the US Secret Service whenever a key Protectee was in their jurisdiction. This usually resulted in disappointment as most of their posts were in traffic intersections or an outer perimeter somewhere, well-removed from the Protectee. Most of us stood posts under stages, on catwalks, rooftops or in the rain at the end of a runway, waiting for a former president to touch down and roll his aircraft into a warm, dry hangar for disembarkation, while we caught pneumonia.
Professional whining notwithstanding, it became clear that depending on where one saw their career going, they needed to pursue realistic training that would support their unique path. Careers in the public sector required training through their agency or FLETC, whose programs were focused on Protectees in government or the military. However, those students interested in private sector protection assignments needed to understand more about what their principals/ clients did every day. How they made their money. Where their business took them. Where their recreation took them.
Private sector protection demanded that agents drop the earphones and sunglasses and try to blend in more with the client’s lifestyle. There was less emphasis placed on firearms marksmanship skills, and more placed on threat analysis and travel management. Providing a secure bubble in a corporate office required a different set of skills than those needed running an ambassador through war-ravaged streets in an austere environment.
Every year the demands placed upon the protection professional change. Politics. Pandemics. The politics of pandemics. It’s tough enough to keep a cooperative client safe, consistent, and commensurate with the threat. Add in an unwillingness by them to modify their lifestyle, changing government regulations and of course travel restrictions or the usual amount of commercial chaos, and we can soon see the value of ongoing training and networking.
Globally, there are only a handful of private sector protection schools continuously in operation since the renaissance; the magic year of 1978. Dr. Richard W. Kobetz and the staff of Executive Protection Institute have continued to refine their program consistent with changes in our environment, without neglecting the foundational elements necessary in providing protective services. Neither have they neglected the value of the network; the need to have a solid relationship with an internationally dispersed and diverse group with whom a common goal of professionalism is shared.
Protection specialists must stay abreast of the latest techniques and technology as well as changes in the law and the geo-political environment, in order to provide the highest levels of service possible. Lives depend on what we do. None of us would want our appendix taken out by a doctor who had completed medical school twenty years ago and hadn’t cracked a book since.
Through the years numerous organizations have attempted to create so-called standards in the protection profession. While most have ultimately failed, their efforts have nevertheless continued to highlight the need for ongoing training, networking and cooperation among the group that takes their role seriously. That being said, brothers and sisters, YOU are the standard.
Regardless of whatever some Board, some entity, some diploma mill may say, the evolution and continued professionalization of this industry depends on YOU. While we all have different strengths and weaknesses, as a collective “us,” we can continue to raise the bar for others to pursue, with or without a printed, codified framework which often seems mired more in bureaucracy than in the art. We have a responsibility to each other to continue to train and network with each other. To pull each other up. To discourage unprofessional conduct and reckless or illegal practices. To quietly improve the art without grand-standing to take the spotlight.
This attitude can only be achieved through the individual commitment to professional training. Even if your organization refuses to support your requests for schools and conferences, you should not be discouraged or disheartened. It’s up to you!
Rick Colliver, PPS; Executive Protection Institute Graduate, NLA Member